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Description
Powder and Steel
an Alternate History of America

Chapter 1: 1775-1783
The American War of Independence

September 6th, 1774, The Continental Congress, with representatives from the colonies of South and North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachussets and New Hampshire unanimously voted to refuse to recognize the "Intolerable Acts" against the Province of the Bay of Massachussets, and declared the installation of British troops in this same province as an illegal and unjustifiable occupation.
Before the condemnation on the part of the British of such a refusal, the province of Massachussets declared independence, and had a declaration of it drawn up, while the other colonies participating to the Continental Congress were getting their militias ready for the fight.
Quickly after, Pennsylvania declared independence, followed by Delaware, New Hampshire, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Virginia, South Carolina and North Carolina, all of them in just a very few months, and the British responded as quickly as the colonies rebelled, by sacking and pillaging the entire state of Massachussets, as well as bordering towns in New Hampshire, Connecticut, New Scotland and Rhode Island. Those sacks caused two things, first of all, the Massachussets Minutemen were able to centralize around the General Benedict Arnold, and the plundering of villages on zones claimed and controlled by New Scotland sew the seeds of a pro-Revolutionary sentiment in the Province’s population.
Seeing that a centralized militia was way more able to fight the British troops than some sparsely regrouped minutemen, other provinces centralized their militias, Virginia around Georges Washington, New York around Horatio Gates, Rhode Island around Nathanael Greene, the Maine Land Patents around Henry Knox, New Hampshire around John Sullivan, North Carolina, Georgia and South Carolina behind Georges Clark,…

The British armies responded by more violence and looting in New England, leading to a second continental congress in April 1775, naming George Washington Head of the Patriot’s Armies.
The freshly named Head of the Armies started to march in direction of Boston, where the American militias had managed to siege the main of the British troops. In the meantime, the towns of Norfolk, Falmouth, Belfast, York and Georgetown were severely attacked and damaged by British and pro-British troops, giving the British a brute image, and very soon, Spain and France would start to send fundings and ressources to the rebels, as it would weaken their main enemy.
As Washington arrived to Boston and took the lead of the siege, Benedict Arnold, thirsty of personal glory, left the city to try to take Fort Ticonderoga, but he only found the Green Mountain Boys, led by Ethan Allen, having taken the fort a few months prior, those news gave to General Henry Knox the idea of transporting all the ammunitions and guns stocked in Ticonderoga to Boston, in order to break the British resistance, and as he started to do so, Arnold, still thirsty for glory, headed to Montreal, hoping to take the city quickly and then reach Quebec. Arnold, although reckless and ambitious, proved to be a questionable strategist and tactician of quality, when he intended to besiege the city at dawn, although Montreal was in full swing, preparing to attack New York and New England a few days later. He did so, and was quickly spotted, leading to a massacre of his troops and a call for reinforcements from Quebec to Montreal, which drove him back to Ticonderoga, where Allen found himself besieged. While the Montreal troops besieged Allen, the Quebec troops looted New Hampshire and Maine, Nova Scotia managed to be discreet and avoid British attacks.

The British, after having completely conquered New Hampshire and Maine, arrived near Boston, with the objective of freeing the siege which weighed on the English stationed there. An epic battle ensued, which was eventually narrowly won by American troops, who managed to secure Massachussets to the Merimack and retake Boston, following the flight of disorganized remains of the besieged regiments. Meanwhile, Allen, who still held Ticonderoga, was saved by the New York militias, guided by Horatio Gates and joined the survivors of the New Hampshire and Maine militias, who unfortunately lost the lives of Henry Knox and John Sullivan during the Quebec invasion of these provinces, respectively killed in action and executed as an example for other militias leaders.
In retaliation, Montreal's prisoners were virtually all executed, and Nova Scotia reminded the British crown of its existence by seizing the Gaspé, while much further south Clark's militias fought in East Florida, sides of the Republic of North Florida, a small state having formed on the border of Georgia. The British had great difficulties in the South, because of he Seminoles, Chickasaw and Choctaws Indians, who had declared themselves for the Americans, and had wrecked havoc in the whole of West Florida.

On the New England side, the Gaspé had let itself be taken without much resistance, and soldiers from New York, Nova Scotia and Massachusetts harassed the occupiers of Maine and New Hampshire. Following Gates' liberation of Ticonderoga, a man by the name of Thomas Paine published a book entitled "Common Sense", pleading for independence, which spread like fire in a powder house through the fourteen revolting colonies. With the colonial masses now on the side of the separatists more than of the reconcilers, the Continental Congress seriously considered the creation of an American state, and had Thomas Jefferson write a declaration of independence, based on that of the Republic of Corsica, and which took effect November 4, 1775. The Confederation of American Republics was born.

In response to this outrage, George III sent a titanic armada of vessels off New York, landing their soldiers on Staten Island, while the Americans encamped in the Brooklyn Heights. A tough fight was on his way.
Farther north, Gates, who was finishing liberating New Hampshire from the Quebecois yoke, was called in disaster in New York, leaving Greene to take care of fighting the enemy troops. Greene, although a brilliant tactician and general, only managed to gain small portions of land, and while Benedict Arnold, dispatched to Nova Scotia did not succeed in crossing the Penobscot, the Quebecers settled in Maine and quickly Greene and Arnold found themselves stranded on the edge of the province. In the Floridas, meanwhile, Clark and his Native American allies finished expelling the Britons, proclaiming the Fifteenth Confederate Republic in East Florida, while the Seminoles, Choctaws and Chickasaws occupied West Florida, expelling and killing the Creeks, allies of Brittany. Clark then moved up to Virginia, where the Cherokees and Shawnees, also allies of the English, were ravaging the border lands. He nevertheless managed to quickly defeat the Natives, aided by Chickasaw, Choctaw and Virginian reservists militias. Shortly after, the British occupying Staten Island attacked the American forces, inflicting heavy defeats on them, and pushing them back, little by little, to New Jersey, then Philadelphia. The Britons busy chasing Washington could not defend themselves against the armies of Gates who took them from behind and liberated New York City, blocking the British on the west bank of the Hudson River. Washington's status was severely questioned in favor of Gates, but the game was not over, Gates' Armies had ended up in southern New Jersey, while Washington, north of it, was capable to finish off the British troops quickly by pushing them back into the Hudson. As he prepared to attack, Gates crashed, attacking the British from the south, allowing them to escape from the north, later permitting them to assemble, before rushing on Washington and Gates, repelling them again to Philadelphia.
Washington then decided to attack the Hessian militiamen first, crossing the Delaware, while Gates would attack the British posted near the coast from the South, detachments from Greene's armies making it possible to block the escape from the North to the British. The Hessians were quickly defeated, and Greene and Gates took the British between their two armies, pushing them back to the Hudson once more, but a poorly guarded New York fell a second time into English hands, forcing Greene's armies to cross the Hudson to block their passage to Connecticut.

Arnold, meanwhile, tried in vain to retake Maine, decided to cross the Penobscot at night. His operation failed miserably and the soldiers were quickly spotted and massacred, while the survivors were for the most part spat back into the Massachussets bay where they ended up drowning. However, Arnold's operations allowed the citizens of Maine to organize themselves into guerrilla groups, and two zones of control were established. Between Piscataqua and Kennebec was the self-proclaimed "New Somersetshire", led by Samuel Lygon, and between Kennebec and Penobscot was "New Lincolnshire", equally self-proclaimed and commanded by Frederic Muscon. These two rebellious groups faced the Quebec loyalists and reservists, led by Alvin Jones. The weak strength of the loyalists and reservists allowed Greene to finally cross the Piscataqua, and drove the British out of Maine, aided by Lygon and Muscon, who were appointed chiefs of the militias of New Somersetshire and New Lincolnshire respectively. Following this, Arnold sought to shine for good, and following the capture of the Gaspé, tried to continue by taking the shores of the Bay of Saint Laurent to Quebec, which he failed just as miserably, causing the loss of the northern half of the Gaspé Peninsula.
In Philadelphia, the Continental Congress decided to send Benjamin Franklin to France, as ambassador, to try to rally France officially to the American cause, and thus take advantage of the immense French military power. Unhappy with an eternizing war, the British parliament decided to send Burgoyne to join Howe along the Hudson, which would cut the Americans in half. And As Burgoyne swooped down on Ticonderoga, pushing Allen and the Green Mountain Boys out of the Adirondack and the Green Mountains, Howe decided to leave New York with a third of his men to take Philadelphia from behind when arriving in Chesapeake Bay. And while Burgoyne found himself confronting the combined troops of Gates and Arnold, Washington easily swept Howe's weak positions, sending him back to New York, not without pushing the weakened British out of New Jersey. Burgoyne was eventually obliterated by the armies of Gates, who pushed him back to Montreal during the Battle of Saratoga.
Howe and Burgoyne were fired for their failure and Clinton was appointed to command the British armies stationed in New York. But seeing Gates' victory at Saratoga, Louis XVI decided to join the American cause by sending his troops to America. Soon after, Friedrich Steuben, a Prussian, gave the American armies a winter training allowing them to compete seriously with the British. Thanks to their new training, the Americans were able to fight Clinton in New York, who had heavily strengthened his positions following the entry into war of France. Hoping for a greater commitment from France, John Adams and John Jay were sent to Versailles to help Benjamin Franklin. And not only did they manage to get it, but the United Provinces and Spain also joined the American side. The British later attempted to retake East Florida from the Americans, sending Cornwallis and Tarleton, who, supported by the local population, easily took the Republic. They then left for Georgia, the Republic with the most loyalists, where they again received significant aid, managing at the end of 1778 to take over the whole of Georgia and venture to Charleston. The Continental Congress decided to send Gates to stop Cornwallis and Tarleton, much to the chagrin of Washington who wanted to send Greene. Tarleton and Gates clashed in the hinterland of South Carolina, and, supported by Shawnee refugees, Tarleton destroyed the troops of Gates, who fled to Virginia. Congress then agreed to send Greene, assisted by Clark, while Cornwallis took over North Carolina. Greene, Clark, Tarleton and Cornwallis found themselves face to face in southern Virginia, where, separating his army, Greene commanded a guerrilla tactic pushing Tarleton back to Georgia and isolating Cornwallis on the shores of North Carolina. Clark then pushed Cornwallis back to East Florida while Morgan deported Tarleton to West Florida, where the latter had to face deadly ambushes from Chickasaws and Choctaws. Greene's Armies then set out in pursuit of the deserters from Tarleton's, while Morgan and Clark swooped down on Cornwallis, with the aim of making him entrench in the Bahamas.

But war fatigue was felt on both sides, and while the UK was losing more and more money every day, the Confederation of American Republics suffered from numerous mutinies. Fortunately for the Americans, massive French reinforcements were arriving. Cornwallis, meanwhile, managed to repel Clark and Morgan and recaptured the coasts of the Carolinas, but decided to abandon them for Yorktown, determined to invade Virginia to prevent the Americans from using it as a storehouse for arms, militia and food. The armies of Washington, Rochambeau and Lafayette took it upon themselves to stop him, making Clinton believe they were going to attack him in his fortifications in New York, but instead bypassed him and went down to Cornwallis.

Cornwallis was forced to surrender after a month, and this defeat was one too many defeat for the British Parliament, and in 1783 the Treaty of Paris was signed, which forced the British to leave New York, Charleston and Savannah , as well as to cede the territories of Indian reserves and half of the province of Quebec below the Great Lakes and the 49th parallel north. The treaty also returned the Floridas to Spain, and ceded the islands of Dominica and Saint Lucia to France.
Finally, the treaty, on the demand and pressure of Clark, Morgan, Greene and the support of Washington, thanked the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians by creating a Republic where they would be authorized to plant cotton, sugar, coffee, posses slaves and be protected from discrimination.

Description
Powder and Steel
an Alternate History of America

Chapter 1: 1775-1783
The American War of Independence

September 6th, 1774, The Continental Congress, with representatives from the colonies of South and North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachussets and New Hampshire unanimously voted to refuse to recognize the "Intolerable Acts" against the Province of the Bay of Massachussets, and declared the installation of British troops in this same province as an illegal and unjustifiable occupation.
Before the condemnation on the part of the British of such a refusal, the province of Massachussets declared independence, and had a declaration of it drawn up, while the other colonies participating to the Continental Congress were getting their militias ready for the fight.
Quickly after, Pennsylvania declared independence, followed by Delaware, New Hampshire, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Virginia, South Carolina and North Carolina, all of them in just a very few months, and the British responded as quickly as the colonies rebelled, by sacking and pillaging the entire state of Massachussets, as well as bordering towns in New Hampshire, Connecticut, New Scotland and Rhode Island. Those sacks caused two things, first of all, the Massachussets Minutemen were able to centralize around the General Benedict Arnold, and the plundering of villages on zones claimed and controlled by New Scotland sew the seeds of a pro-Revolutionary sentiment in the Province’s population.
Seeing that a centralized militia was way more able to fight the British troops than some sparsely regrouped minutemen, other provinces centralized their militias, Virginia around Georges Washington, New York around Horatio Gates, Rhode Island around Nathanael Greene, the Maine Land Patents around Henry Knox, New Hampshire around John Sullivan, North Carolina, Georgia and South Carolina behind Georges Clark,…

The British armies responded by more violence and looting in New England, leading to a second continental congress in April 1775, naming George Washington Head of the Patriot’s Armies.
The freshly named Head of the Armies started to march in direction of Boston, where the American militias had managed to siege the main of the British troops. In the meantime, the towns of Norfolk, Falmouth, Belfast, York and Georgetown were severely attacked and damaged by British and pro-British troops, giving the British a brute image, and very soon, Spain and France would start to send fundings and ressources to the rebels, as it would weaken their main enemy.
As Washington arrived to Boston and took the lead of the siege, Benedict Arnold, thirsty of personal glory, left the city to try to take Fort Ticonderoga, but he only found the Green Mountain Boys, led by Ethan Allen, having taken the fort a few months prior, those news gave to General Henry Knox the idea of transporting all the ammunitions and guns stocked in Ticonderoga to Boston, in order to break the British resistance, and as he started to do so, Arnold, still thirsty for glory, headed to Montreal, hoping to take the city quickly and then reach Quebec. Arnold, although reckless and ambitious, proved to be a questionable strategist and tactician of quality, when he intended to besiege the city at dawn, although Montreal was in full swing, preparing to attack New York and New England a few days later. He did so, and was quickly spotted, leading to a massacre of his troops and a call for reinforcements from Quebec to Montreal, which drove him back to Ticonderoga, where Allen found himself besieged. While the Montreal troops besieged Allen, the Quebec troops looted New Hampshire and Maine, Nova Scotia managed to be discreet and avoid British attacks.

The British, after having completely conquered New Hampshire and Maine, arrived near Boston, with the objective of freeing the siege which weighed on the English stationed there. An epic battle ensued, which was eventually narrowly won by American troops, who managed to secure Massachussets to the Merimack and retake Boston, following the flight of disorganized remains of the besieged regiments. Meanwhile, Allen, who still held Ticonderoga, was saved by the New York militias, guided by Horatio Gates and joined the survivors of the New Hampshire and Maine militias, who unfortunately lost the lives of Henry Knox and John Sullivan during the Quebec invasion of these provinces, respectively killed in action and executed as an example for other militias leaders.
In retaliation, Montreal's prisoners were virtually all executed, and Nova Scotia reminded the British crown of its existence by seizing the Gaspé, while much further south Clark's militias fought in East Florida, sides of the Republic of North Florida, a small state having formed on the border of Georgia. The British had great difficulties in the South, because of he Seminoles, Chickasaw and Choctaws Indians, who had declared themselves for the Americans, and had wrecked havoc in the whole of West Florida.

On the New England side, the Gaspé had let itself be taken without much resistance, and soldiers from New York, Nova Scotia and Massachusetts harassed the occupiers of Maine and New Hampshire. Following Gates' liberation of Ticonderoga, a man by the name of Thomas Paine published a book entitled "Common Sense", pleading for independence, which spread like fire in a powder house through the fourteen revolting colonies. With the colonial masses now on the side of the separatists more than of the reconcilers, the Continental Congress seriously considered the creation of an American state, and had Thomas Jefferson write a declaration of independence, based on that of the Republic of Corsica, and which took effect November 4, 1775. The Confederation of American Republics was born.

In response to this outrage, George III sent a titanic armada of vessels off New York, landing their soldiers on Staten Island, while the Americans encamped in the Brooklyn Heights. A tough fight was on his way.
Farther north, Gates, who was finishing liberating New Hampshire from the Quebecois yoke, was called in disaster in New York, leaving Greene to take care of fighting the enemy troops. Greene, although a brilliant tactician and general, only managed to gain small portions of land, and while Benedict Arnold, dispatched to Nova Scotia did not succeed in crossing the Penobscot, the Quebecers settled in Maine and quickly Greene and Arnold found themselves stranded on the edge of the province. In the Floridas, meanwhile, Clark and his Native American allies finished expelling the Britons, proclaiming the Fifteenth Confederate Republic in East Florida, while the Seminoles, Choctaws and Chickasaws occupied West Florida, expelling and killing the Creeks, allies of Brittany. Clark then moved up to Virginia, where the Cherokees and Shawnees, also allies of the English, were ravaging the border lands. He nevertheless managed to quickly defeat the Natives, aided by Chickasaw, Choctaw and Virginian reservists militias. Shortly after, the British occupying Staten Island attacked the American forces, inflicting heavy defeats on them, and pushing them back, little by little, to New Jersey, then Philadelphia. The Britons busy chasing Washington could not defend themselves against the armies of Gates who took them from behind and liberated New York City, blocking the British on the west bank of the Hudson River. Washington's status was severely questioned in favor of Gates, but the game was not over, Gates' Armies had ended up in southern New Jersey, while Washington, north of it, was capable to finish off the British troops quickly by pushing them back into the Hudson. As he prepared to attack, Gates crashed, attacking the British from the south, allowing them to escape from the north, later permitting them to assemble, before rushing on Washington and Gates, repelling them again to Philadelphia.
Washington then decided to attack the Hessian militiamen first, crossing the Delaware, while Gates would attack the British posted near the coast from the South, detachments from Greene's armies making it possible to block the escape from the North to the British. The Hessians were quickly defeated, and Greene and Gates took the British between their two armies, pushing them back to the Hudson once more, but a poorly guarded New York fell a second time into English hands, forcing Greene's armies to cross the Hudson to block their passage to Connecticut.

Arnold, meanwhile, tried in vain to retake Maine, decided to cross the Penobscot at night. His operation failed miserably and the soldiers were quickly spotted and massacred, while the survivors were for the most part spat back into the Massachussets bay where they ended up drowning. However, Arnold's operations allowed the citizens of Maine to organize themselves into guerrilla groups, and two zones of control were established. Between Piscataqua and Kennebec was the self-proclaimed "New Somersetshire", led by Samuel Lygon, and between Kennebec and Penobscot was "New Lincolnshire", equally self-proclaimed and commanded by Frederic Muscon. These two rebellious groups faced the Quebec loyalists and reservists, led by Alvin Jones. The weak strength of the loyalists and reservists allowed Greene to finally cross the Piscataqua, and drove the British out of Maine, aided by Lygon and Muscon, who were appointed chiefs of the militias of New Somersetshire and New Lincolnshire respectively. Following this, Arnold sought to shine for good, and following the capture of the Gaspé, tried to continue by taking the shores of the Bay of Saint Laurent to Quebec, which he failed just as miserably, causing the loss of the northern half of the Gaspé Peninsula.
In Philadelphia, the Continental Congress decided to send Benjamin Franklin to France, as ambassador, to try to rally France officially to the American cause, and thus take advantage of the immense French military power. Unhappy with an eternizing war, the British parliament decided to send Burgoyne to join Howe along the Hudson, which would cut the Americans in half. And As Burgoyne swooped down on Ticonderoga, pushing Allen and the Green Mountain Boys out of the Adirondack and the Green Mountains, Howe decided to leave New York with a third of his men to take Philadelphia from behind when arriving in Chesapeake Bay. And while Burgoyne found himself confronting the combined troops of Gates and Arnold, Washington easily swept Howe's weak positions, sending him back to New York, not without pushing the weakened British out of New Jersey. Burgoyne was eventually obliterated by the armies of Gates, who pushed him back to Montreal during the Battle of Saratoga.
Howe and Burgoyne were fired for their failure and Clinton was appointed to command the British armies stationed in New York. But seeing Gates' victory at Saratoga, Louis XVI decided to join the American cause by sending his troops to America. Soon after, Friedrich Steuben, a Prussian, gave the American armies a winter training allowing them to compete seriously with the British. Thanks to their new training, the Americans were able to fight Clinton in New York, who had heavily strengthened his positions following the entry into war of France. Hoping for a greater commitment from France, John Adams and John Jay were sent to Versailles to help Benjamin Franklin. And not only did they manage to get it, but the United Provinces and Spain also joined the American side. The British later attempted to retake East Florida from the Americans, sending Cornwallis and Tarleton, who, supported by the local population, easily took the Republic. They then left for Georgia, the Republic with the most loyalists, where they again received significant aid, managing at the end of 1778 to take over the whole of Georgia and venture to Charleston. The Continental Congress decided to send Gates to stop Cornwallis and Tarleton, much to the chagrin of Washington who wanted to send Greene. Tarleton and Gates clashed in the hinterland of South Carolina, and, supported by Shawnee refugees, Tarleton destroyed the troops of Gates, who fled to Virginia. Congress then agreed to send Greene, assisted by Clark, while Cornwallis took over North Carolina. Greene, Clark, Tarleton and Cornwallis found themselves face to face in southern Virginia, where, separating his army, Greene commanded a guerrilla tactic pushing Tarleton back to Georgia and isolating Cornwallis on the shores of North Carolina. Clark then pushed Cornwallis back to East Florida while Morgan deported Tarleton to West Florida, where the latter had to face deadly ambushes from Chickasaws and Choctaws. Greene's Armies then set out in pursuit of the deserters from Tarleton's, while Morgan and Clark swooped down on Cornwallis, with the aim of making him entrench in the Bahamas.

But war fatigue was felt on both sides, and while the UK was losing more and more money every day, the Confederation of American Republics suffered from numerous mutinies. Fortunately for the Americans, massive French reinforcements were arriving. Cornwallis, meanwhile, managed to repel Clark and Morgan and recaptured the coasts of the Carolinas, but decided to abandon them for Yorktown, determined to invade Virginia to prevent the Americans from using it as a storehouse for arms, militia and food. The armies of Washington, Rochambeau and Lafayette took it upon themselves to stop him, making Clinton believe they were going to attack him in his fortifications in New York, but instead bypassed him and went down to Cornwallis.

Cornwallis was forced to surrender after a month, and this defeat was one too many defeat for the British Parliament, and in 1783 the Treaty of Paris was signed, which forced the British to leave New York, Charleston and Savannah , as well as to cede the territories of Indian reserves and half of the province of Quebec below the Great Lakes and the 49th parallel north. The treaty also returned the Floridas to Spain, and ceded the islands of Dominica and Saint Lucia to France.
Finally, the treaty, on the demand and pressure of Clark, Morgan, Greene and the support of Washington, thanked the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians by creating a Republic where they would be authorized to plant cotton, sugar, coffee, posses slaves and be protected from discrimination.