Read Stars & Stripes Forever Online
Authors: Harry Harrison
"Send someone down there," the Duke ordered and reached for his brandy glass. His staff officers talked uneasily among themselves as they waited. The Duke was still seated when the messenger returned, followed by a gray-garbed officer. He was turned out smartly in a gray uniform, gleaming boots, gold sash with a bold feather in his hat. He stopped before the Duke and saluted.
"General Robert E. Lee," he said. "Of the United States Army."
"What do you want?" the Duke snapped.
Lee looked him up and down coldly as he sprawled in his chair. There was more than a little contempt in his voice when he spoke.
"I want to speak to the commanding officer here. Who are you?"
"Watch your tone or I'll have you run through!"
"This is the Duke of Cambridge," Brigadier Somerville said quietly. "He is Commander-in-Chief of the army."
"Well now, I think that will surely do for being in charge. I have a message from General Sherman, Commander-in-Chief of our forces. He would like to meet with you to discuss terms of surrender."
"I'll see him in hell first!" the Duke shouted, draining his glass and hurling it into the fireplace. Lee was unmoved, his soft Southern voice unperturbed.
"If you refuse this meeting all of the ships, military and civilian, in this harbor will be destroyed. This city will be burnt. Our army, less than a day's march away, will make prisoners of any survivors and we will send them in chains to the United States. I must advise you that you have no choice in this matter."
Brigadier Somerville broke the impasse once again.
"The Duke will see General Sherman here..."
"No." All warmth was gone from Lee's voice now. "The meeting will take place at the waterfront in exactly one-half hour's time. The Duke is instructed to have no more than three officers with him."
Lee did not salute again but turned on his heel and stamped from the room. The fire crackled as an ember burst: this was the only sound.
On the bridge of
Avenger
Commander Goldsborough glanced up at the ship's clock, then raised his telescope again. "Ann, there at last. A portly officer wearing furs, three others."
"Time to go," Sherman said grimly.
The two boats moved swiftly to the shore. There was some delay as Commodore Goldsborough was half-lifted ashore. Then more than a dozen officers stepped onto the dock before General Sherman appeared. They opened ranks, then strode behind him as he walked across the cold stone towards the waiting men. A thin scud of snow swirled around them.
"I am General William Tecumseh Sherman, Commander-in-Chief of the United States Combined Forces. I understand that you are the Duke of Cambridge, Commander-in-Chief of the British Army."
The chill air had damped some of the Duke's bellicosity. He nodded abruptly.
"Good. The only course open to you is unconditional surrender. You will be relieved of all your guns, weapons and arms. If you do that you have my word that all of your men and officers will be allowed to board the transports and will be allowed to return to England. You and your staff will not go. You will accompany me to Washington for discussions with the American government about war reparations. There will be payments in gold as partial recompense for the destruction you caused to American cities, as well as the unwarranted deaths of her citizens."
"I'll see you in hell first!"
"No you will not." Sherman barely controlled his fury, his transparent eyes cold as death. "You brought this war to our shores and will pay the price for that audacious act. Your forces in the field are destroyed or captured, your naval bases taken. The war is over."
The Duke was now blazing with fury. "The war will never be over as far as I am concerned. Hear me you contemptible Yankee upstart—you are not taking on some pipsqueak little country. You have offended the greatest country in the world and the greatest Empire. You do that at your peril."
"Our peril? Has it not been drawn to your attention that you have lost this war? As you have lost here on this continent before. If you are any student of history you will know that America was once a British colony. You were forcefully ejected from our shores. You forgot that lesson in 1812. And now you have forgotten it yet again. We fought the Revolutionary War under many different flags and banners. Now we have but one for we are united as we never have been before. But I must remind you of one of our revolutionary battle flags. It depicted a snake with the legend 'Don't Tread on Me'. Remember that for the future. You have tread and you have been defeated. To save America we have taken up arms against invasion and hurled you back.
"To save America we will do the same again, whenever we are threatened."
General Sherman stepped aside until he was facing the other three officers.
"You have an hour to decide. One hour. Then the bombardment begins. There will be no more discussion of this matter. Your surrender is unconditional."
He started to turn away, then swung back. There was no warmth in his smile or his words.
"I personally prefer the second way. For the sake of my country I would happily blow you all away, every ship, every soldier, every officer, then blow away your Politicians and your Queen.
"The choice, gentlemen, is yours."
The snow grew heavier, the day darker, the wind more chill as the American officers returned to their ship and the British officers were left in silence.
DAY'S END
The Duke of Cambridge had stayed in his cabin ever since the Cunard steamer had departed from WashingtonCity. Stayed below in the stuffy fug, looking unseeingly at the shadows thrown by the paraffin light rocking in its gimbals. Only when the swaying of the lamp became more regular, the movement of the ship rolling steadily from side to side, did he grow conscious of his surroundings. This was the motion of the great Atlantic rollers; they must be out of the river now and standing out to sea. He rose, tightened his collar and put on his jacket, went up on deck.
The air was warm and salty, a June day to relish. Brigadier Somerville was standing at the rail; he turned and saluted when the Duke came up to him. They leaned on the wooden rail and looked in silence at the American coastline vanishing behind them. The Duke turned away and grimaced, preferring instead to look at the sails and the laboring sailors rather than the shores of the United States.
"Let the political johnnies take over," he said. "I have done my bit. It has been jaw-jaw for far too long now."
"You have indeed done your bit, Your Grace. You extracted terms far better than those originally proposed."
"Like extracting teeth at times—and just as painful. But don't diminuate your contribution, Somerville. I faced them across the conference table. But it was your words and your arguments that carried the day."
"Happy to be of service, sir," he said, bowing slightly and changing the subject. The ruling classes of Britain looked down upon the brainy ones and thought little of a man who flaunted his intelligence. "The armies are safely home, prisoners soon to be released, a messy affair there at an end. As you said, the politicians can cross the T's and dot the I's. The entire matter is well ended."
"Is it?" The Duke hawked deeply and spat into the ocean. "Speaking from a military point of view it was a disaster. Our invading armies thrown back. Disaster at sea. Canada all but lost to us—"
"The English in Canada are loyal. They will not join the French in this new republic."
"They will be hard-pressed not to. And if they go—what do we have left then on this continent? The frozen colony of Newfoundland, that is what. Not what one would call an overwhelming presence in the New World."
"But we have peace—is that not enough?"
"Peace? We have been at war ever since my cousin first mounted the throne. Queen Victoria's little wars, I have heard them called. Wars of necessity as the British Empire expanded around the world. We have won them all. Lost a battle here and there—but never a war. And now this. It leaves a bad taste in one's mouth."
"We should treasure the peace—"
"Should we?" The Duke of Cambridge rounded on Somerville, his jaw tight with anger. "If you believe that, well then, sir, you are in a damned minority, sir. The American newspapers crow about their great victory and the people strut about like cocks on a dungheap. While at home there is a continuous growl of resentment that will not cease. Yes, this armistice and this sordid peace were forced upon us. But this does not mean that we have lost the greater battle of Great Britain's place in this world. Our country is intact, our empire fertile and flourishing. We have been insulted, all of us—insulted!"
"But there is nothing that can be done now. The war is over, the soldiers returned, the reparations to be paid..."
"It is never over—not while the stigma of defeat is upon us. Keels of ironclad warships are being laid even as we speak. In Woolwich the forges glare as guns and other weapons are produced. And our people are not happy, not happy indeed."
Brigadier Somerville spoke quietly, tonelessly, attempting not to state his own position in this matter. "Then what do you suggest, sir? We will rearm, that is being done now as you say. Armies can be raised, armed and made ready. But then what? There is no cause to start another war."
"No cause? You have witnessed our humiliation. Something must be done. What—I don't know. But we shall confer upon this, yes we shall. That pipsqueak general, what was his name? Sherman. Had the bloody nerve to threaten a peer of the realm. Bloody snake and don't tread on me and all of that. Well I have tread on many a snake and feel no fear in doing so again."
The Duke turned and looked back at America now vanished in the hazy horizon. He felt the blood rise to suffuse his face as he remembered the defeats and the humiliations. It was more than one could possibly bear. His anger bubbled over and he shook his fist in the direction of that vile country.
"Something can be done—something
will
be done. This matter is not over yet. That I promise with all my soul and body. This is not the end."
AFTERWORD
Stars & Stripes Forever
could be a true story.
The events depicted here actually happened. President Lincoln did have a very secret, secret service that was headed by the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Gustavus Vasa Fox.
A Captain Schultz, purporting to be from the Russian Navy, did turn over plans of the British breech-loading Armstrong cannon to the gunsmith, Robert Parker Parrott.
The British government, newspapers and public were incensed by the
Trent
Affair. That government did send troops and guns to Canada and seriously considered the invasion of the United States.
The speeches reported here, as well as the newspaper articles, are all a matter of record. The threatening headlines and bombastic newspaper articles published during the crisis appeared exactly as they are quoted.
Captain Meagher, the Fenian rebel, was indeed condemned to be hung, drawn and quartered by the British government. The sentence was later changed to transportation for life to Australia. He was imprisoned in Tasmania, but escaped and went to America where he served in the Union Army.
During the War of 1812 the British did issue the order, in the very words recorded here, to land and destroy property and take the lives of American civilians.
The United States Sharpshooting Corps were excellent shots. Enemy cannon were destroyed by them in the manner indicated here.
Jefferson Davis's letter to the Governor of Louisiana is a matter of record.
There were over 22,000 soldiers killed at the Battle of Shiloh.
The battle between the
Monitor
and the
Virginia
was the first encounter by two iron ships in the history of warfare.
Lincoln's words on slavery are true and taken from the records. John Stuart Mill's views on liberty, on American democracy and the state of decay in Europe are quoted at length from his works.
The American War Between the States was the first modern war. Rapid-firing, breech-loading guns and rifles were introduced early in the hostilities.
One week after the battle between the
Virginia
and the
Monitor
the North began construction of twelve more
Monitor
-class ironclads. They were to be armed with incendiary shells that were "filled with an inflammable substance which, when the shell is exploded, burns for thirty minutes without the possibility of being quenched."
Observation balloons used electric telegraphs to report troop movements, while the railroads played a vital role in moving armies and supplies.
When the Civil War ended the combined armies of the North and the South contained hundreds of thousands of trained soldiers. Not only could this combined force have destroyed a British invasion, but they could undoubtedly have won in battle against the combined armies of Europe—not defeating them one by one but could very well have defeated them even if they had united all of their forces.
Modern warfare began in the Civil War, although it took many years for the rest of the world to realize this.
Events, as depicted in this book, would have happened just as they are written here.
Harry Harrison
WINTER—1862
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Abraham Lincoln
President of the United States
Hannibal Hamlin
Vice-President
William H. Seward
Secretary of State
Edwin M. Stanton
Secretary of War
Gideon of the Welles
Secretary of the Navy
Salmon P. Chase
Secretary of the Treasury
Gustavus Fox
Assistant Secretary of the Navy
Edward Bates
Attorney General