The following is a history of the Second American Civil War, from the declaration to the United Socialist States of America in 1917 to the Battle of Georgetown in 1923.
White America[]
1918: In Washington, President Henry Ford was facing an almost hopeless situation. Most of the country was under rebel control, the American Expeditionary Force in Europe was mutinying and Mexico was invading from the southwest. Furthermore, a Neo-Confederate revolt had begun in the southeast, funded by the Confederados of Brazil. Worst of all, Ford could not ignore the gathering "People's Army" in the mid-west. A collection of rogue army units and rebel militia, this ragtag army under the command of Debs in Chicago was poised to march on Washington.
Desperate to build a united front against Debs, President Ford formed an alliance between leaders of the Democratic Party and more conservative union leaders. After picking Samuel Gompers as his Vice President (Ford had not picked a Vice President to succeed him since the death of Roosevelt), Ford resigned from the presidency. The new President Gompers announced that the Treason and Sedition Act would be repealed and new elections would be held once the USSA was defeated, along with various other reforms. Gompers presidency was quickly recognized by various nations giving the new president some legitimacy.
Deciding that the USSA was the greater threat, Gompers ordered General Pershing, arrived from Europe to lead the loyal American forces (being called Whites since the USSA had quickly gained the label red) on offensive toward Chicago. In the Spring, General Pershing (who was given the tile General of the Armies of the United States) went on the offensive capturing various Red strongholds in the mid-west before capturing Chicago defeating the People's Army at the Battle of Chicago. While Whites across the country cheered, General Pershing in a letter to Gompers warned that much of his army had been mauled in vicious house-to-house fighting while securing Chicago and would not be ready for another offensive. Upon reading the letter Gompers contact the ambassadors of the Entente nations and requested troops to help finally defeat the Reds.
Meanwhile, Debs and the Revolutionary Congress relocated to St. Louis. Things looked grim for the USSA and when news came that Entente forces would be entering the country to help the Whites, it seemed that the USSA would not survive the year. Already Canadian troops were entering the country to support White forces, while President Gompers sign a ceasefire with Mexico, promising them territory in exchange for their support in defeating the USSA. Foreign intervention, however, had the opposite effect on the American public. No foreign troops had ever set foot on American soil since the War of 1812, and now they were being invited in by the President. Recruits pored into the People's Army and what they lacked in training and experience, they made up for in numbers and tenacity.
By the summer of 1918, the White gains had been reversed. Pershing's army was forced to abandon Chicago, but unable to make it back to Washington he retreated to Detroit (where he would remain until 1920 when he and most of the army would retreat into Canada). With Pershing's army surrounded at Detroit the People's Army marched almost unopposed to Washington. Debs arrived in the capitol on July 1, 1918, along with members of the Revolutionary Congress and a large contingent of the People’s Army. After the symbolic “storming” of the Capitol building, the new constitution for the United Socialist States of America was drawn up at the Second Revolutionary Congress, with Debs once again being elected president. Under the new constitution, Debs was made President-for-life and Congress was reorganized into one house. Gompers, meanwhile, remained under house arrest at the White House. On July 4, however, he was taken before the newly restaffed Supreme Court where he was quickly tried as an "Enemy of the People" and sentenced to death by firing squad, which was carried out shortly thereafter. The quick execution of Gompers horrified many Revolutionary leaders and drove a larger wedge between the more radical Debs supporters and the rest of the revolutionaries.
Treaty of Phoenix[]
1918: Despite the fall of Washington, the Whites were not fully defeated. Pershing's army still remained at Detroit and White forces remained active in parts of New England, Utah and Alaska. There was also the Neo-Confederate revolt in the southeast. Nevertheless, Debs decided that Mexico had to pay for their treachery when they sided with Gompers. President Debs ordered the People’s Army to invade Mexico, but the offensive ended in a failure. The People’s Army, over-confident from their victory at Washington, were not ready for the better armed and better trained Mexican forces. The Entente nations could be blamed for that since they were supplying the Mexicans with weapons and advisors to keep them in the fight against the USSA for as long as possible. Unable to drive the Mexicans back across the Rio Grande, Debs finally relented and agreed to a peace treaty. The Treaty of Phoenix was signed on December 23, 1918, which gave Mexico Texas south of Corpus Christi, southern New Mexico and Arizona, and San Diego from California.
The Treaty of Phoenix was the final straw among the anti-Debs revolutionaries. Upton Sinclair declared that California was now independent. Meanwhile, members of the Revolutionary Congress walked out and returned to their home territories which were now rebelling against the United Socialist States of America. Some leaders even attempted to make alliances with the remaining White forces.
The Civil War[]
With USSA control of the East Coast, the White Government fled to Seattle. The Red army marched west under the command of George Patton, who had seen the horrors of the Western Front. The first major battle was the battle of the Mississippi. The Whites attacked in Western Kentucky against a USSA force of 100,000. The battle was brutal as 30,000 on both sides were killed by machine guns and aircraft. The entire Czechoslovak and Québécois legions were wiped out. In White Alaska revolts broke out against President Ford. This caused Japan to send troops to fight the Reds.
Throughout Winter 1919 Japan sent its army's across the West Coast and helped the Whites put down the Second California Republic. The USSA advanced to St. Louis laying siege to the city. In the north the Reds were on the run with the road to Chicago wide open. Debs sent a journalists who had been only a medic in WWI. Ernest Hemingway ordered any deserters or soldiers who didn't advance, to get shot by their own men. This ruthless efficiency chased the Whites away.
The Reds broke through St. Louis and encircled the White army's in the Upper Mississippi. Patton's campaign of terror extended as the Entente armies were destroyed in the Battle of the Praires in 1920. For the next two years the Reds conquered all White territory. The Entente had to pull out of the war reading a communist invasion of Canada. In 1922 the Whites surrendered and Red forces occupied Alaska. In 1924 Debs dies and Patton takes over as a dictator. Hemingway is forced into exile in Cuba.