Opening Moves
The effects of the bombardment on the immediate defenses of Washington were drastic. They were just not what the Confederate high command had hoped for. This was because General Miles had become indecisive before the first shell had even landed on the city. His quandary was not where to deploy his troops. Nelson Miles was too busy trying to figure out where he should personally go. Before he could leave his house a dispatch rider had already reached him and informed him of the damage done to Fort Lincoln. Miles had had enough foresight to begin preparing an alternate command post, just north of Washington, in the Maryland countryside. This post was not even finished yet and still lacked telegraph lines, let alone, having anything as sophisticated as a phone. Miles could not decide which post to go to.
He finally made his mind up around 2AM and called for a detachment of cavalry to escort him to Fort Lincoln. The horse soldiers had some trouble getting to his house and Miles did not actually leave his home till shortly before 5AM. He was on the road, in the middle of the city, heading towards the Potomac bridges when the first shells started falling. He and his party took cover in someone’s house. They would not resume their journey until somewhere around sun up and by then they were dealing with mobs, refugee’s, and looters who were crowding the roads. Miles would not reach his command post till almost noon, and even then he would only find out what he should have already known. There was nothing he could do from this location.
This left Adna Chaffee, in his headquarters near the old battlefield of Bull Run, free to run the battle as he saw fit. This would turn out to be a fortunate event for the US defenders around Washington. Chaffee, like most senior US generals, had been of the opinion that the CS Army would attempt to flank Washington and cut it off from the rear. Two confederate divisions had launched an all out attack towards Winchester, earlier in the night, and this only seemed to reinforce this belief.
Chaffee would later state, before Congress, that it was the damage reports he was getting that changed his mind. Chaffee began to see a pattern to the Confederate artillery strikes and realized they were tactical in nature, not strategic as had once been assumed they would be. Simply put, the Confederates were trying to pulverize the strong points, crossroads, bridges, and anything else that would aid in stopping a direct attack on US fortifications. Chaffee also correctly deduced that an all out attack would come just around sun up. He began furiously issuing orders, redirecting reinforcements, and preparing his command for this attack. The Confederates showed up on time.
One of the most vital commands that Chaffee issued, early on in the night, was to halt the fire of his own artillery. It is not known if Chaffee had realized the exact effect this would have on the battle but, it proved to be of monumental importance. His telegraph lines had been all but wiped out by artillery and sabotage. He relied on runners to issue the orders and they reached the batteries in a very random way. Some of the runners would be killed and not reach their objectives at all.
Over on the other side of the lines, the Confederates were even more awestruck by their bombardment than those on the receiving end. They had never realized their country could muster that kind of firepower and many troops would report later on that it gave them a sense of invulnerability. The gunners who were laying down the barrage were probably the most impressed. That was why it did not surprise them as, one by one, US guns fell silent. As time went on it seemed as if almost all of them had. The Confederate crews were jubilantly reporting this success to Fort Lee as they began adjusting their fire towards secondary targets of lesser importance.
For all the spectacle the bombardment was, it was no where near as effective as it looked on that night. It is true that the Confederates inflicted massive casualties and damage on US forces but, those losses were nowhere near critical enough to effectively incapacitate. Before the war there were many who theorized that such a bombardment would leave the infantry with nothing more to do than occupy ground. The sights and sounds of that night must have certainly made those, who were in that school of thought, feel vindicated. Then the sun came up.
The first serious waves of troops rushed forward just before dawn when there was barely enough light to see where they were stepping. They moved forward in staggered lines, about two arms length apart, just behind a rolling barrage laid down by the field guns. The first nasty surprise they got was that the wire, that everyone had expected to be cleared by the artillery, was not only still there but worse than before the bombardment. The high explosive rounds had not only failed to clear a path but, had managed to hopelessly twist and tangle the wire in such a way as to make it almost impossible to clear by hand.
The leading waves of the attacks, that were now surging forward in two prongs that were each over a mile wide, took heavy casualties as they attempted to cross fields of wire and navigate huge craters left by the artillery. The rolling barrage that was supposed to keep the enemies heads down until CS troops were right on top of them, kept right on rolling, with the result being, a significant gap formed between it and the infantry attack. When CS soldiers finally rushed enemy firing pits, block houses, and trenches, the US soldiers were in position and waiting on them.
For the first time ever, the US Army was going to find out something that Kitchener already had while fighting in the Sudan. That was the little fact that machineguns were worth their weight in gold. The US army had long since began purchasing large quantities of machineguns. Their latest model, by the time of the war, was the colt model 1895. It was fired from a tripod and the action caused an arm to swing forward and would most often dig up the ground in front of the weapon. This did cause any number of maintenance issues after extended field use but the soldiers loved them anyway. Due to the furrows in the ground, that the weapon caused, the troops dubbed it, “the potato digger.”
Most of these weapons were completely untouched by the barrage. They had been in the bomb proofs with the men who would fire them. They would be set and ready as Confederate troops stormed into range. Confederate soldiers were literally marching over their enemies target range. Some CS troops even reported stepping over old practice targets as they moved forward. It was a grim reminder of what they now were, a replacement for paper and stick.
If the machineguns were not enough, in addition to the small arms fire of the Winchester carbines and Colt lever action battle rifles, the Confederate officers leading the charge must have known something was really wrong when the US artillery began shooting back. They had been told those guns were destroyed. Many of these men had watched those guns go silent. It was only after the sun was fully up, and the first damage assessments were made, that the Confederates realized the truth. Most of the enemy field guns had simply stopped firing of their own accord. With the sun now up, none of those guns were holding back, and they had ample targets of the kind that artillery men love, infantry moving over open ground.
Alexander must have been shocked to see the first casualty figures arriving at Fort Lee. All night he had been told what a spectacular success the artillery barrage had scored. It has been noted that even he finally came out and admitted that just maybe they would walk right into Washington after all. The heavy casualty lists, with no doubt, dispelled any such notions, permanently. The CS Army was advancing despite the resistance. Their weight of numbers, their strategic surprise, would all come into play in the days to come. The US was having problems reinforcing the front lines due to the traffic jams in the city and this greatly aided the Confederate advance but, the south was paying a terrible price for every inch of ground that it took.
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Yes, the primary small of the Confederates was a domestically produced, licensed copy, of the Lee Enfield. Of course, due to the chaotic nature of their military, they actually had variety of weapons but, by the end of this war most would be replaced with their version of the Enfield.
As for the lever action rifles. I actually didn't make that up and had the US lost the Civil War, it is not only possible that the US would have adopted this new doctrine but, it is likely. I could actually write an entire separate book on the internal doctrine wars of the late 19th century militaries but, long and short of it is this. Winchester did produce a military grade lever action rifle with a .45/90 cartridge that went with it. The single biggest reason it's supporters lost their battle to procure this weapon was simple apathy. At the time, Congress was not in the military revolution mood. They were in the cost cutting bargain basement shopping mode and the US Army generally caught the brunt of this. It took herculean efforts to eventually get them to spend the money to upgrade the American navy but the Army still got nothing. As a result, small arms were of no priority and, at the time, the US wound up stuck with copying the British doctrine on small arms which was, to say the least, out dated. It stressed the virtues of the bayonet over marksmanship and many junior officers in the US Army didn't buy this, and were supporters of "rapid fire" weapons (you have to also remember that rapid fire was not by our standards but theirs). The single biggest weakness of the Winchester system was that it was a horrible bayonet weapon. The combination doomed it's sale but, it's supporters never went away and, in fact, they eventually won their struggle.
The British dumped the bayonet first approach after the Second Boer War. The Boer's made believers out of the British Army when it came to the virtues of marksmanship. The US never really picked up on this lesson until World War One but, the war ended before the first real US made, rapid fire, small arms entered service. Then they were put on the back burner until the build up just prior to WW2. By that time the US was fully committed to this doctrine and, it has been what has carried over to this very day. In the scenario I have built this story on, most of the conditions that kept the US military out of the rapid fire business, for so long, did not exist. In fact, it was the exact opposite in that the US needed it's own doctrine, a large weapons industry, and had defense needs that suddenly became larger than most other nations on the planet. This would spur on purchases of domestic weapons and force the US to seek new and revolutionary doctrines to solve their problems. With that in mind it just seemed logical that this faction would have won out. They really did exist and that really was a debate of that age. Nothing like loosing a war to spur military innovation and that is exactly the scenario the US is in with this story.
BTW real world battle doctrine (not sure about 'official' doctrine) changed after The First Boer War not the Second. This lead to first the Lee Metford and then the long barreled Lee Enfield.
Your ideas are perfectly reasonable but I would have expected them to adopted a bolt action weapon like other major powers did. Either the French Lebel or German Mauser.
But given they were using Winchester and Colts were they using black or smokeless powder? Have to admit the idea that the Confederacy using the most modern military weapon of the era (and arguable the best bolt action rifle ever) firing smaller caliber smokeless rounds vs. the US firing large caliber black powder would be an interesting juxtaposition.
As to your points. We will have to agree to disagree on the impact that the American Civil War had on military thinking. Because from everything I've read it was near zero within European community historically. From what I understand this was due to 1) The general belief of European military thinkers seeing the ACW as groups of armed rabbles lead by half trained incompetents slaughtering each other (their opinions not mine) and 2) The Franco Prussian War (Actually all the German War's of unification) being in Europe, were by far more impactful on military thinking.
As for bolt vs lever as you said bolt actions were more solider proof and had the added advantage of easier reloading from a prone position. Both of which were considerable advantages of lever actions in military actions. But certainly the US's 'buy American' attitude (which does not appear to slacken in your history) could lead to lever actions being used. And certainly many military organizations used them successfully, Model 76 Winchesters were the Rifle of choice of the NWMP one they got onto prairies for example.
And just because I am such a military gun geek. What caliber is the US using 30.06, 7.92mm, 8mm?
Where did I say the American Civil War effected military thinkers in Europe? I said the changes in this story from the real history are the kinds of things that lead to unexpected in changes in everything from technology to doctrine, not just politics. The point of the story being that it changes need which influences everything else. This actually goes to the next point you raised about US arms purchases. In reality, the US was an arms importer in the late 19th century. There was no "buy American" attitude in congress, it was buy cheap. In the real 1898, the standard issue rifle for the US Army wasn't even an American weapon, it was Norwegian. That's because Congress was more interested in cheap deals than anything else. The reason they were only concerned with money? It was because the US had no perceived threats or, at least, not of the degree that concerned tax payers enough to want to spend large sums of money on the military. If you have a serious military threat, and in my scenario that's exactly what it is in my story, and you have strategic concerns about controlling things that are vital to your defense, such as arms factories, then you spend the money at home so that the money gets reinvested and you can build more arms factories. This is what happens in my scenario. That would have been the only thing that would have ever convinced the US to spend anything on it's military because, what really happened was, the US virtually ignored it's military up till the 1930's and never built a real professional army until the late 1970's.
You are making comparisons based on what really happened and applying that to this story where the circumstances are different. If the US had chosen to take up Winchester with it's contract then this would have led to the weapon being subjected to army testing and modifications which would have led to a different weapon from the one that was really made, and never got it's military contract, hence was only sold on the civilian market with no modifications. So the rifle mentioned in my story is not the exact same weapon that really existed. It's a redesigned production model that never got made because there was never a need. To answer your last question about using the thirty aught six cartridge, no we no longer use it. I was talking about the original Winchester that was made in an attempt to the military market and failed.
Oh, and yes I think I've mentioned in this story, more than once, that the Europeans generally ignored North America, long after they probably should not have. Hell, in the real world, they continued to do that well into the twentieth century. So the doctrinal change that I mentioned in this story were not picked up or even seriously considered by the Europeans or the Confederates. The only European nation that ever actually buys the rapid fire rifles are the Russians and that is only in limited quantities. The Boers take them but that is mostly because they're free and the Boers were broke. Later in the story these weapons, because they are a new technology, experience problems in the field and I go into that later. I just haven't reached that part of the story yet. There are a few other technologies that this happens too as well.
You are correct that I was using the 'musket' versions various lever actions as models for military variants. If you feel that the US army would ask for further modifications so be it.
BTW sorry to getting deep in detail. Your painting in pretty large strokes and I'll try to keep my comments at that level in the future.
Yes it would have had far reaching effects had the Confederacy won but, effects don't all happen at once. The Civil War wouldn't have changed any minds about military doctrine in Europe but it would change vast attitudes in the US. If loosing the war forced the US onto the world stage a lot earlier than it originally did, hell yes it would ultimately change everything which is, the very basic point of the story. You have to look at the context I'm dealing with in this story. The US has spent almost four decades getting ready to fight this war but, it's untested. It has only just demonstrated force projection capabilities at the very start of the conflict. That's what takes it from being a regional to a world power. You just have to remember that the point we are at in this story, now, it hasn't been tested yet but, all of that will change by the end of this war. In the real world the US remained very introverted until Dec 7th 1941. That would have never happened had they lost the American Civil War.
I don't mind you going into detail. Yes I have done some very broad strokes in the story because to do otherwise, would bog the story down and I have to take those things in to consideration, however, you have raised some points that I do later address in the story or the historical notes which isn't until the end of the last book.