CSA: Aftermath

CSA Victorious: Aftermath

Premise
Following the Confederate offensive beginning the Battle of Chancellorsville, Lt. General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson leads a personal reconnoiter of the Federal lines. While approaching the rebel pickets along Orange Plank Road, his horse turns an ankle on a rock, crippling it. The ensuing commotion alerts the Confederate troops who do not mistakenly fire on their own commander, but instead offer the General a new mount to continue his journey.

Emboldened by his acquired intelligence, before dawn the morning of May 3, 1863, Lt. Gen. Jackson abandoned his plan and struck north. A.P. Hill's forces remained behind, and at dawn began a fierce front-line screening action to cover Jackson's movements, and hopefully divert Federal forces. At the same time Hill was engaging the Federals outside the town, Jackson's forces emerged from the Wilderness and attacked the sleepy flank of Reynolds on the Federal right flank. Meade's forces, on Reynolds left, attempted a counter-attack, but it was too late. Reynolds's forces had routed into the Rapidan River, allowing the bulk of the Second Corp to move around behind the Federal lines, with the advantage of holding the high grounds and cutting off their escape over the United States Ford.

With confusion and doubt running through the Federal right flank, Meade is killed in the fighting. The V Corps dissolves as every man flees the fight. Word spreads of the disaster and more Federal troops disperse, some being shot down by their officers as the chain of command breaks down. Informed of Jackson's successes, Lee's forces under Anderson and McLaws launch a massive assault on the Federals still inside Chancellorsville. Hooker orders his troops to cross the river by whatever means possible, while Howard's XI Corps were to fight a rearguard action. Howard's forces, however, having taken the brunt of the Confederate surprise attack the previous day, were too badly mauled to form a cohesive defense and too badly dispirited to do so even if they could. The retreat very quickly turned into a rout, as the Rappahannock River choked on Federal corpses.

The outcome of the Battle of Chancellorsville ended in a decisive Confederate victory. Of General Lee's 50,000 engaged infantry, only some 6,000 were lost, and most of those in General Jackson's corps as the whole of the Union army fell back. Hooker's position was much worse; of the 90,000 troops under his command, approximately 40,000 fled the field without firing a shot, this without including the 4,000 taken prisoner at the outset of hostilities on May 2. Some 15,000 Federals fell in the battle, while another 20,000 were taken prisoner, constituting over 35% of the Union forces present.

Taking time to resupply and recuperate, the Confederates drew up plans to end the war quickly. A Confederate Victory on Union soil would do well enough to court a favorable treaty, and backing by the British Empire and France. In less than two months time from the Battle of Chancellorsville, the Confederates would again meet the Federals in battle, at a small Pennsylvania town called Gettysburg.

Timeline
Following the Battle of Chancellorsville 1863
 * July - Battle of Gettysburg - Confederate Victory
 * August - Harrisburg, PA falls
 * September - Philadelphia, PA falls
 * November - The Confederate Army winters in Baltimore, MA

1864
 * February - An Anglo-French fleet anchors off the coast of Norfolk, VA
 * March - Union Forces seize strongholds on the Mississippi, splitting the Confederacy
 * April - Lincoln secretly barters with Mexico to enter the war against the Confederates in exchange for the return of Southwest territory
 * May - Siege of Washington, D.C. begins
 * June - Maryland secedes from the Union, followed rapidly by Pennsylvania and Delaware
 * July - Battle of Newark
 * August - Rioters in New York rout Federal troops, Irishmen take up arms in Boston
 * September - California secedes, followed by Deseret (Utah)
 * November - Fighting into the winter, Confederate forces enter Capital Square; McClellan, running on a "peace platform" is elected by a landslide in the USA

1865
 * January - French and British ambassadors convene a closed meeting with exiting President Lincoln
 * February - Democratic President McClellan is inaugurated; his first act is to sign an armistice, recognizing the Confederate States of America

''Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware are not formally recognized as separate from the United States; though effectively dividing the northeast from the northwest, and all lands west of the Mississippi, President McClellan assures his European counterparts that these states were merely Confederates distractions which would soon fall back into place. He did not mention the western territories.''

Continental Legacy
The Treaty of Richmond was a victory for states' rights both in the North and the South... and the West. Among other things, it ceded to the CSA: West Virginia, Kentucky, the Indian (OTL Oklahoma), New Mexico, and Arizona Territories, the borders of the latter two undefined. Because many in West Virginia and Kentucky protested this move, the Confederates included a "Trial Reparation" clause, requiring both states to participate in Confederate affairs for a minimum of 10 years at the end of which they could return to the USA should a popular vote deem expedient. It seemed anathema to keep a state against it's will in defiance of the Confederate Cause.

California reasserted itself on the Pacific rim as an independent nation, too far removed from the pandering of Washington and the other Yanks. The Bear Flag flew once more over the new national capital of Sacramento. A popular outcry of many with ties to the United States caused internal dissent. Much dissent was stamped out with land-grants to newly acquired territory in an agreement with Deseret, all Utah Territory lands west of the eastern border of Oregon ceded to California, as a sign of goodwill. California would also annex the tip of (OTL Nevada) from the New Mexico Territory.

Deseret, formerly the Utah Territory, also reasserted itself once Federal control was loosened in the East. Much of the once-proposed State of Deseret was annexed, though a great deal was inhospitable. Claims to Oregon, California, and other outlying areas were withdrawn, but the land area of Deseret nearly doubled that of Utah Territory including northern sections of New Mexico Territory. Border agreements with California assured posterity between the two fledgling nations.

The Nebraska Territory, the Dakota Territory, and much of the midwest and Northwest territories, still heavily populated by Native Americans, was in disarray. Among the resurgent tribes were the Lakota (and other Sioux), the Cheyenne, and the Arapaho, all Great Plains Tribes. With the breakdown of Federal order, the US Territories could do little to combat these indigenous peoples from raids, retaliation in many cases for offenses by whites. The Lakota Nation, the Great Sioux Nation, and the other Native Americans have begun internal changes to better deal with the insatiable white man. Though these peoples proclaim they are true to their heritage and customs, these changes have the look of political "reforms."

The Dominion of Canada, long a relatively stable, and quiet locale of the ever-vigilant Victorian Era finds itself a neighbor to a nation rife with war, disease, and chaos. Should the United States be unable to retain its self-identity, Canada may be another victim of Balkanization.

Other
Without a potential buyer in the United States, Tsarist Russia retains Alaska, a sleepy hamlet even more worthless than Sibera.

What of Hawai'i? Britain, Japan, Mexico, California? Too early to tell.