The Eagle's Standard Bearer

[Tigerdovefan34]

Life of Franklin S. Armstrong, 1860 Election, and War Engaged​

The story of the Six Year American Civil War is a tale of a war between brothers, parents and children, cousins, and friends. It was a tale of a war to maintain the unity of the United States of America, It was a tale of a war fought to end slavery. It was a tale of a war fought to cement the promises of the American Revolution and Declaration of Independence. However, most interestingly, it was also a war where individuals of all stripes can rise up through the ranks (given the right connections) and become an absolutely key figure in the war effort of their respective nation. No other man can best identify that than America's 18th President and the man who towered over his political party his whole life, Franklin Seymour Armstrong of New York, better known by his nickname "Iron-skin Frank", affectionately given to him by the soldiers under his command. Born on March 4th, 1834 at 9 AM in Brighton, Essex County, Vermont as the Great-Grandson of a Colonial and Continental Soldier and was the son of a prominent local Anti-Jacksonian Politician and Anti-Slavery Activist, Patrick Wilford Armstrong, who was the maternal grandson of Moses Brown.

Patrick had spent his life being a well known abolitionist promoter and had even gotten in close with several prominent abolitionist figures, including Benjamin Rush, who's daughter, Mary, he would later go on to marry on October 25th,1808 when Patrick was 27 and Mary 24. Mary would give birth to two sons over the course of their 19 year marriage, Franklin's half brothers Patrick Wilford Armstrong Jr. (b.May 19th, 1822) and John Adams Armstrong (b.July 9th, 1826), with Franklin eventually growing a closer bond with the latter than the former as time went on due to political differences in the aftermath of the Civil War. When Mary died of typhoid fever in 1827, Patrick would spend the next five years on raising his two sons and mourning the loss of his wife until he met, and later married, Margaret Bache, the Great-Granddaughter of American Revolutionary legend and Founding Father Benjamin Franklin through his daughter Sarah and son-in-law Richard Bache and his grandson Louis Franklin Bache. The two met in 1830 and on May 19th, 1832, they married with Franklin being the first of 5 children that Margaret would give birth to, as he would soon be followed by his younger siblings Deborah (b. October 15th, 1838), James Smith (b. March 5th, 1840), Anna (b. May 19th, 1842) and Alexander Hamilton (b. January 15th, 1843). Franklin would describe his life as "difficult, for we were never a particularly wealthy nor successful family but did make do with what we had. Life in the northern woods was fascinating and even calming to us, even if the winters proved to be bitter cold." This was somewhat relieved by the fact that the eldest Armstrong child, Patrick Jr., had gotten into politics on his own...as a Democrat, much to his father's chagrin, and had become the sort of apprentice and advisor to President Martin Van Buren of New York (Patrick had met Buren in 1837 in a personal trip to attend D. C. for his inauguration and joined his staff upon becoming 16, entering into the Department of War from 1838-1839 and in fact, Patrick Jr. would tell the then ex-President to run as a third party campaign after failing to secure the nomination, advice Martin wouldn't heed until 1848) and because of that, Martin Van Buren at least knew of the Armstrong family's existence at least peripherally. In 1839, at the suggestion of the President, Patrick Jr. secured a recommendation to West Point and would leave to attend, not returning to his family until his graduation 1843, for which he spend a few months with his family before returning in 1844 to serve in the Mexican War and then later to serve in the Pierce Administration in the War Department once more before entering Maine Politics, becoming Speaker of the State House in 1863 as a newly minted Republican, Governor from 1865-1869, and United States Senate to succeed Hannibal Hamlin.

In 1843, a triple tragedy struck the Armstrong family as Patrick Sr. would die on June 19th, followed by Franklin's mother on July 9th, 1843, too soon after the birth of her final son, and then the last thing was that John Adams Armstrong was recommended and had agreed to attend West Point Military Academy thanks to his boss former President John Quincy Adams, who he worked for when he was in the house 1841-1843 and had become a confidant of the ex-President. Franklin's younger half brother would graduate from West Point in 1847 and join in the Mexican War under General Scott before working in the war department under President Taylor and working for Massachusetts Senators Daniel Webster and Charles Sumner from 1850-1857 before serving as a four term Governor 1857-1861 and then being appointed to the United States Senate in 1861 after Charles Sumner became Ambassador to the Court of St. James. With Patrick Jr. uninterested in caring for his younger siblings, no relatives outside of their half siblings, and the eldest brother away, Franklin had no real choice but to step up to mantle of responsibility and raise his siblings himself, educating them in literature, mathematics, language, the sciences, and finances. During this time, Franklin would work multiple jobs every day to scrounge up as much cash as possible to keep his family well fed even at the risk of his own health. In Franklin's own words "For those years where I was the only one to care for my youngest siblings, I cared not for myself. I was now the man of the family with the two eldest gone and our parents departed for heaven. Many nights, I lay on the floor cold and hungry while reading books on Napoleon Bonaparte, Frederick the Great, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, and other military figures as well as the philosophies of Hobbes, Rousseau, Voltaire, Aristotle, and other individuals like them, in an attempt to lull myself to sleep. I believe that is why I am so well educated in many things despite how turbulent my young life was."

The Armstrong residence where Franklin S. Armstrong Grew-up (AI Generated)​

In 1846, Martin Van Buren agreed to unofficially adopt the Armstrong kids as his own, mostly to raise them and care for them as if they were his own, until each one of them reached the proper age of 16 or their elder half-siblings agreed to take them off their hands. With the matter settled, Franklin and his brothers and sisters settled in with the Burens in New York state at Kinderhook and was allowed private schooling, which he would continue gladly for the next four years, continuing to excel in his studies, especially in history, mathematics, and literature. When he was finally of age in 1850, he stated he would remain in contact with his family but left as he had found work with former Massachusetts State Senator and Son of John Quincy Adams and Grandson of John Adams Charles Francis Adams Sr., who was Martin Van Buren's 1848 running mate as the Free Soil Candidate. When Van Buren's daughter Hannah (b. February 5th, 1818) [1] married Patrick Jr. on September 17th, 1849, it became clear that the Armstrong family would become extremely politically prominent in the 1850s, at least in New York, though the three eldest brothers doubted they'd ever make it outside of state office or barely the House of Representatives. In 1851, as John Adams Armstrong married Ann Eliza Brainerd, daughter of Lawrence Brainerd, and a year after the birth of his nephew from Patrick, Patrick Wilford Armstrong III (b. October 9th, 1850), Charles Francis Adams Sr and Martin Van Buren both recommended Franklin for West Point and he agreed to attend for a four year education, an education where he'd show great talent and a hunger for knowledge, and he would even do wargaming, a thing done little outside of the Kingdom of Prussia at the time, with showing off success in engagements of years past, such as winning at Waterloo, Leipzig, and Aspern-Essling as Napoleon Bonaparte and winning at Austerlitz, Borodino, and Dresden as the Coalition and even outright winning Monmouth as the Patriots. While away in his first year at West point, he learned that his brother, James, had died in a freak accident on July 19th, 1851, causing him to sink further into his studies to avoid his grief.

Despite his many successes at West Point, he was not taken too seriously by many individuals and was written off as a soldier who'd be in the dustbin of history when he graduated in 1855. Following Graduation, he was able to successfully purchase a plot of land in Dunkirk, Chautauqua County, New York before he was deployed at Fort Ontario and would remain at that installation until 1861. In that time, he ingratiated himself into the political elite of New York and New England, meeting with Congressmen and Senators from all those states and becoming a close confidant of Adams once more and an acquaintance of Massachusetts Senator Henry Wilson. As 1860 rolled around, Franklin would successfully gain the hand of Louisa Catherine Adams, daughter of Charles, in marriage on June 3rd 1860 and was able to get Adams to recommend his youngest brother and member of the family, Alexander Hamilton Armstrong, for West Point which he would attend for the next four years before joining the army himself to serve with his older brother. However, those two things paled in comparison to what Franklin and John Adams Armstrong considered the most important thing of the year.

Armstrong as a West Point Cadet (AI Generated)​

In the year of 1860, Slavery stood tall as the primary issue in the upcoming election and while the Democratic Party tore itself apart over it, with the Northern National Party selecting Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas and Former Georgia Governor Herschel Johnson as their ticket while the Southern Democrats selected Former United States Senator Daniel S. Dickinson of New York unanimously after Vice President John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky declined to run and Alabama Senator William Yancey was selected as his running mate [2]. For the newly formed Constitutional Union Party, made up of ex-Democrats, Whigs, and Know-Nothings who didn't like the other two major parties, they decided to attempt to not make mention of the issue of Slavery at all. Texas Governor Sam Houston would be selected as the Presidential Nominee of the Party and Former United States Senator Edward Everett of Massachusetts as the Party's Vice Presidential Nominee. The Party that Franklin, his father-in-law, and elder Brothers were a part of however was the nascent Republican Party. Coming out of the political wilderness in 1856 from nothing, they had won 11 states, 114 Electoral Votes, and 33.1% of the Popular vote with Former Senator from California John C. Fremont. In the time between 1856 and 1860, the party had risen to even greater prominence and while the December 1859-February 1860 Speaker of the House Election had failed to bear fruit with John Alexander McClernand being elected Speaker of the House with 117 votes to William Pennington's 115 [3], the Party had still become the largest party in the House with McClernand being on shaky ground while in the Senate, the Democrats only clung to power thanks to their Southern Seats as the North finally united against the South as one block. Many in the Party believed that 1860 would be the year they would gain the Presidency and in the eyes of the Armstrong brothers and Adams, who better than Henry Wilson, who was a well known figure outside of Congress as well as inside Congress.

After a long and tedious campaign promoting Wilson and writing him letters to get him to run, he stated he would be seeking the Nomination five days before the Republican Convention opened its doors. Due to his announcement, New Jersey State Attorney General William Lewis Dayton, United States Supreme Court Associate Justice John McLean of Ohio, Former Ohio Governor Salmon P. Chase, and several other candidates immediately dropped out and endorsed Wilson, viewing him as a far more viable alternative to Pennsylvania Senator Simon Cameron or Patrick Jr's backed candidate, New York Senator William H. Seward, who Patrick Jr. backed due to his own personal connections to the Seward family and his own personal support for Seward in past Presidential Elections and also as a way to spite his younger brothers who politics he had diverged from massively from during the 1840s and 1850s due to his prior Democratic Party allegiances with many historians agreeing that he only became a Republican because it would benefit his political career. The Armstrong brothers worked tirelessly and was able to get Former United States Congressman from Illinois Abraham Lincoln and United States Congressman from Missouri Edward Bates to drop out and back WIlson before the first ballot was cast, leaving only those three men. On the first Ballot, the numbers came in by state.

California : 4 for Wilson, 3 for Seward, 1 for Cameron
Connecticut : 6 for Wilson, 4 for Seward, 2 for Cameron
Delaware : 3 for Wilson, 2 for Seward, 1 for Cameron
Illinois : 12 for Wilson, 8 for Seward, 2 for Cameron
Indiana : 14 for Wilson, 10 for Seward, 2 for Cameron
Iowa : 5 for Wilson, 2 for Seward, 1 for Cameron
Kansas Territory : 4 for Wilson, 1 for Seward, 1 for Cameron
Kentucky : 16 for Wilson, 4 for Seward, 3 for Cameron
Maine : 10 for Wilson, 4 for Seward, 2 for Cameron
Maryland : 7 for Wilson, 3 for Cameron, 1 for Seward
Massachusetts : 26 for Wilson
Michigan : 5 for Wilson, 5 for Seward, 2 for Cameron
Minnesota : 6 for Wilson, 1 for Cameron, 1 for Seward
Missouri : 10 for Wilson, 6 for Seward, 2 for Cameron
Nebraska Territory : 4 for Wilson, 1 for Seward, 1 for Cameron
New Hampshire : 6 for Seward, 3 for Wilson, 1 for Cameron
New Jersey : 5 for Seward, 5 for Wilson, 4 for Cameron
New York : 35 for Seward, 25 for Wilson, 10 for Cameron
Ohio : 30 for Wilson, 8 for Seward, 8 for Cameron
Oregon : 2 for Wilson, 2 for Seward, 1 for Cameron,
Pennsylvania : 27 for Cameron, 17 for Wilson, 10 for Seward
Rhode Island : 8 for Wilson
Texas : 3 for Seward, 2 for Wilson, 1 for Cameron
Vermont : 10 for Wilson
Virginia : 13 for Wilson, 5 for Cameron, 5 for Seward
Wisconsin : 6 for Wilson, 3 for Seward, 1 for Cameron
Total (466 (234 needed for Nominated)) : 253 for Wilson, 129 for Seward, 80 for Cameron, 159 Not voting

On the first Ballot, Wilson was selected to be the Republican Nominee for President in the Election of 1860, with the win largely coming in from Wilson's New York Delegates, who Franklin Armstrong was able to convince to back Wilson over Seward by offering them a great many things, including potential lucrative offices in the case that Armstrong runs for and wins the Governorship of New York in the near future. Armstrong, who was a Brevet Colonel at this point in time, was himself promised a promotion and maybe other rewards for his help if Wilson became President and the same was said of Charles Adams, Wilson's fellow Senator Charles Sumner who himself backed his colleague fiercely, and John Adams Armstrong, the Incumbent Governor of Massachusetts who wasn't running for a fifth term, would also get a reward, as well as some of those who dropped out in favor of Wilson. Wilson's running mate, four term United States Representative Elihu Benjamin Washburne of Illinois, was voted unanimously as the nominee for Vice President. With the Party tickets settled, the next several months was filled with unbridled campaigning and the Armstrong brothers (including a reluctant Patrick Jr.) worked tirelessly for Henry WIlson to be elected along with Washburne, Lincoln, United States Senator from Maine Hannibal Hamlin, and several other prominent Republicans, such as Seward and Lincoln, with Lincoln having been promised the Attorney Generalship and maybe a Supreme Court seat in the near future should Wilson become President.

The election was bitter, with the very union at risk as Democrats declared that if Wilson was elected, the nation would fall apart and the Republicans declared that if the Democrats won, more of the disastrous policies of Pierce and Buchanan would occur a third term, with both parties making Slavery a key point in the campaign season all while the Constitutional Union remained silent about the real issue looming over the country. On November 6th, 1860, a record 81.2% of all citizens who could vote turned out to elect what many believed would be the last President of a united country. And very quickly, a winner was declared : Henry Wilson of Massachusetts had won 46.91% of the National Popular Vote (2,196,221), 183 Electoral Votes, and 19 States, being every Northern State, and was thusly elected President of the United States of America in domineering fashion. Houston would win 16.91% (791,571) of the National Popular Vote, 90 Electoral Votes, and 10 States (being Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas); Dickinson won 14.30% of the National Popular Vote (669,309), 30 Electoral Votes, and 5 States (Being Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Mississippi, and South Carolina); Finally, Douglas won 21.79% (1,020,276) of the National Popular Vote but not a single State or Electoral Vote. Henry Wilson was thus designated to officially take office on March 4th, 1861 as the Nation's 16th President. With him was his planned cabinet : Elihu Benjamin Washburne, Vice President-elect; William Lewis Dayton, Secretary of State; George S. Boutwell, Secretary of the Treasury; John Charles Fremont, Secretary of War; Abraham Lincoln, Attorney General; Schuyler Colfax, Postmaster General; Gustavus Vasa Fox, Secretary of the Navy; David Wilmot, Secretary of the Interior; Charles Sumner, Ambassador to the Court of St. James; and James Speed to replace Peter Vivian Daniel who died in 1860 and with major Republican gains in both the House, where Thaddeus Stevens would be elected Speaker, and Senate, it was extremely likely that all of the President's cabinet picks and Speed would all be rapidly confirmed and to replace Wilson and Sumner in the Senate, two names popped up on the desk of Massachusetts Governor John Albion Andrew : Charles Francis Adams Sr., outgoing United States Congressman for the Class 2 Seat (Wilson's seat) and John Adams Armstrong, Andrew's predecessor as Governor, for the Class 1 Seat (Sumner's seat). Finally, Wilson officially promoted Franklin Seymour Armstrong from Brevet Colonel to a full Colonel, ensuring that a vast majority of promises was kept and that competent and working cabinet was established.

However, as WIlson's team, which he had finished designing up te day before the election in secret), the nation did not remain still. No, the situation got worse and worse by the day. On December 20th, 1860, South Carolina declared that it's union with that of Washington D.C. and the United States dissolved and that it was seceding from the United States of America, They would be followed by Mississippi on January 9th, 1861, Florida the following day, Alabama the day after, Georgia 8 days later, Louisiana a week after that and Texas on February 1st. On February 4th, delegates from these seven states would meet together in Montgomery, Alabama to declare the Confederate States of America with the provisional President of the Provisional Confederate Congress being Recently Resigned Former United States Secretary of the Treasury Howell Cobb of Georgia. They selected for Provisional President of the new nation Former Senator of the United States of America from the state of Mississippi Jefferson Davis and for Vice President chose Former Congressman of the United States of America from Georgia Alexander H. Stephens. Davis would declare himself uninterested in the Presidency, however, and stated his intention to step aside for a more willing man to become President. With the South sending out feelers to Arkansas, Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia along with feelers to Little Egypt of Illinois and Southern California where they recognized the citizens of those states and territories as citizens of the Confederate States of America, that means that any of those states could have one of their own be elected President. With the new government of the newly established nation finally figured out, the Confederate States focused on the real matter at hand, relations with their northern neighbor.

As Henry Wilson took office on March 4th, where he tried to bring about unity in the nation but declared that the South must be willing to give up the institution of slavery if "...the peace and tranquility of this nation remains undisturbed and no blood of any man or boy be spilled is a wish among all, which I do hope it is, for if it is not, then I fear conflict may be inevitable to bring these tyrannical rebels back into the fold." All while this was going on, numerous United States Military Installations were being seized by the seceded states all across the South and the seizure of the Indian territory showed that even more fiercely. Weeks later, however, tensions reached a boiling point as at the military installation of Fort Sumter, which was running low on supplies and was close to surrendering already, was fired upon by Confederate Artillery. The day after the bombardment, President Wilson called for 150,000 Volunteers [4] at the recommendation of War Secretary Fremont and Regular Army Colonel Franklin Seymour Armstrong, as well as newly inaugurated United States Senator John Adams Armstrong of Massachusetts, who would immediately be placed on the Military Affairs Committee. Franklin Seymour Armstrong would organize a regiment of 800 Soldiers recognized as the New York 1st Infantry due to it being raised the day after the call went out and Armstrong was deployed to Maryland, where he would halt a secession attempt in Baltimore and an attempt on the President's life by Southern sympathizers. He would soon get his first real taste of war in the upcoming months and he wrote of the feeling he had in his journal "It is like a fire in my stomach that refuses to become embers no matter how much water I drink. I pray and hope this first real experience with war is not my last and that I see my dear sisters or Brother Alexander again..."

Meanwhile, the South responded to the call for Volunteers in kind, as Virginia would secede on April 17th, followed by Arkansas on May 6th, North Carolina on May 20th, Tennessee on June 8th, Missouri on June 11th, and Kentucky on June 24th [5] as well as Little Egypt of Illinois and Southern California both attempting to secede only for Wilson to send in the army against both attempts, with the movement in Little Egypt beginning the first real campaign in the Western Theatre of the War, the Paducah Campaign, with Ulysses S. Grant being in command to take the crucial city as soon as he is able to. the 6 mentioned states would join the Confederacy days after leaving the Union. It was only a matter of time before the first major engagements between armies at a little railroad juncture called Manassas. The Civil War had begun and from it, a new nation would finally emerge.

The attack on Fort Sumter was the opening salvo of the American Civil War​

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[1] - Had Van Buren have a daughter in 1818 as a minor independent PoD
[2] - Breckenridge just says he isn't interested in the job, the Southern Democrats default to their original guy, Dickinson. With a Northerner on the ticket, it is decided to pick Yancey instead of the Northern Lane.
[3] - Minor PoD, mainly to see what effect this would have on McClernand's career in both the Army and his future in politics.
[4] - Double the OTL amount as Wilson knows this is a long war and is basically ready to be buckled in fr it, with 75,00 troops to be deployed in the East and 75,000 to be deployed in the West, though the commanders there are unwilling to do much of anything.
[5] - These states get their acts together in a quicker manner and hold secession votes before the Union can mobilize an attempt to stop them

Hope you enjoyed this first post, it was tiring and exhausting the right. I cannot wait for the dissection by David T and RockofChickamauga for this. In the meantime, however, if you guys want to have custom officers for the TL as this TL will be character heavy going forward, DM me and I'll tell you how to organize a way to make an officer. Until then, I hope you enjoyed this.

 

[Tigerdovefan34]

Chapter 2 : Armstrong's First Taste of War and the "Campaigns" of 1861

Brigadier General Irvin McDowell, Commander of the Army of Northeastern Virginia at the Battle of First Bull Run

​

Taken from "First Blood in Virginia : The First Campaign of the Civil War" (1989) by Civil War Historian Historian Everett Miller (1937-2018)

"...When the American Civil War began, one could agree that the Union Army was, by all accounts, small and unfit for war. It was only at 15,000 men, was not as funded as it had been in prior years, and was internally divided as many southern officers from the thirteen states that had seceded from the Union left to fight with their state in the Confederacy, including generals Braxton Bragg, Joseph E. Johnston, Albert Sidney Johnston, Robert E. Lee, John Bell Hood, P. G. T. Beauregard, James Longstreet, Leonidas Polks, and a large variety of other southern officers and this was further compounded when Former Vice President of the United States joined the Confederate cause with his home state of Kentucky and became the Confederate Secretary of War, a post he would hold for the entirety of the war. When Fort Sumter was fired upon, however,President Wilson called for 150,000 Volunteers with Enlistments of 1 full year and the army would soon balloon to 250,000 as more citizens eagerly joined to fight for their nation in a groundswell of patriotism and nationalism that hadn't been seen since the American Revolution, a mood that would later be captured by the George Frederick Root 1862 Song "We'll Rally 'Round The Flag/Battle Cry of Freedom!"

Of course, the South themselves were not slouching and Interim Confederate President Jefferson Davis called for 150,000 Volunteers of his own to serve on 18 month enlistments and they would soon balloon to 200,000 themselves. However, training so many men would take time, effort, and resources, several months of it and thus, in 1861, only a portion of the enlisted would see combat, with the Union having around 96,000 Men (54,000 in the East, 32,000 in the West, 10,000 in the Trans-Mississippi) while the Confederates had around 72,000 men (32,000 in the East, 30,000 in the West, and 10,000 in the Trans-Mississippi). While the Confederate Capital was deep in the South, at Montgomery, Alabama, Richmond was considered an industrial core of the Confederacy and President Wilson believed that the seizure of that city would end the war for the Confederacy, or at least shorten it and with all three fronts being roughly equal at the time, it was decided to build up in the other two fronts and push into Virginia in the hopes of overwhelming the Confederates. For the Union, the Eastern War Effort was split int two, with Brigadier General Irvin McDowell commanding the 36,000 strong Army of Northeastern Virginia while Major General Robert Patterson commanded the 18,000 strong Department of Pennsylvania while for the Confederates, Brigadier General P. G. T. Beauregard was given command of the 20,000 strong Army of the Potomac and Brigadier General Joseph E. Johnston would be given the 12,000 strong Army of the Shenandoah with Beauregard being ordered to protect Richmond and Johnston being ordered to keep Patterson occupied in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia before linking up with Beauregard.

Around this time, Brevet Lieutenant General Winfield Scott, the War of 1812 and Mexican-American War Hero, 1852 Whig Party Presidential Nominee, and Commanding General of the Army, laid out his plan on how to win the war, proposing that an army of 80,000-120,000 sail along the Mississippi River and capture the key cities of St. Louis, Memphis, and Vicksburg before completing it at New Orleans, splitting the Confederacy in two and reopening the Midwest to the Gulf Coast all while the United States Navy blockaded Southern Ports and, if possible, seize them wherever they could. This plan was ridiculed by many in the press as the "Anaconda Plan" with most Journalists stating that the capture of Mobile and then the capture of the Confederate Capital of Montgomery would be more than enough to force the surrender of the rebels rather than a long and protracted blockade. With the old war horse in his mid seventies by this point in time and physically unable to lead any army against the Confederates, McDowell was accepted as the commander of the army, with Colonel Franklin Seymour Armstrong and his 1st New York Infantry Regiment under the command of Brigadier General Daniel Tyler's First Division. Shortly before departing from Maryland into Virginia, President Wilson would arrive to the army and would deliver the following : "You are green, it is true, but they are green also; you are all green alike." and then McDowell would commence his campaign

However, the campaign was doomed before it even began. Throughout 1860, Captain Thomas Jordan had developed a pro-southern spy network in Washington and had employed well off socialite Rose O'Neal Greenhow, who's niece was the wife of 1860 Democratic Presidential Nominee of the North and Illinois Senator Stephen Arnold Douglas, and Greenhow had a wide range of contacts that she used to her advantage. Jordan would provide Greenhow a code for messages and then leave for the Confederate Army, handing control of the network to her but receiving reports from her for him to examine. On July 9th and 16th, Greenhow sent secret messages to General Beauregard that critical information of McDowell's plans for the Campaign and the future First Battle of Bull Run, plans Beauregard would use to his best ability.

On July 16th, McDowell departed from Maryland with the largest field army the North American Continent had seen at that time, with 36,000 men (around 30,000 being able for effective combat), planning to move west in three columns and assaulting the Confederate line at Bull Run with two columns in a diversion as the third swung around the right flank of the rebels and cut the railroad to Richmond and thus Beauregard's rear. It was hoped that this would force the Confederates to abandon Manassas Junction and withdraw to the Rappahannock River to set up a new defensive line, relieving pressure on Washington D.C. Hoping to have his force arrive in Centreville on July 17th but his army, unaccustomed to marching due to how green they were, often started and stopped along the roads to break ranks and pick apples or blackberries or gather water despite what their officers commanded.

Meanwhile, on the Confederate side of affairs, Beauregard and his force of 15,000 effectives would camp at Manassas Junction and set up a defensive line along the South Bank of the Bull Run River with his left being guarded by a Stone Bridge. As Beauregard laid out his position for battle, Robert Patterson's 18,000 men went after General Johnston's 9,000 effectives that had been augmented by 1000 men in the brigade of Major General Theophilus H. Holmes in the Shenandoah Valley to prevent a potential meeting between the two Confederate generals. With all these movements going on, McDowell's Army of Northeastern Virginia had spent two days in the sweltering heat of the Virginia Summer before arriving to Centreville and resting there. McDowell would reduce the size of his army from 36,000 to 32,000 (of which, 27,000 was effective) when he dispatched Brigadier General Theodore Runyon's Fourth Division with 4,000 troops to guard the line of retreat back to Washington from Confederate partisans before moving onward, searching for a way to outflank Beauregard. On July 18th, he would send Brigadier General Daniel Tyler's First Division, of which Colonel Armstrong was in, with orders to pass the Confederate right flank until he was drawn into a skirmish at Blackburn's Ford over Bull Run and stopped his movements with no headway.

As the path to battle unfolded, in the early morning hours of July 18th, General Johnston had received a telegram to reinforce Beauregard if he could. Quickly, Johnston would leave Winchester to Patterson at noon and make a move to return to Beauregard as Cavalry commander J. E. B. Stuart screened the movement from Patterson's department, deceiving the elderly general who was in his late 60s at this time. In a telegraph, Patterson would write "I have succeeded, in accordance with the wishes of the General-in-Chief, in keeping General Johnston's force at Winchester." in a message that would later prove to lull the Union into a false sense of security. Upon hearing rumors of Johnston's movement, McDowell felt he would need to move and act quickly so that his plan could work effectively as, should the rumors be true, the Union Army would face a force of 32,000 instead of 20,000 and fearing that his enlisted men would give up before they saw any real battle caused him to act radically, resolving to attack the Confederate left instead of the Confederate Right, ordering Tyler to strike at the Stone Bridge on the Warrenton Turnpike and Brigadier General David Hunter's 2nd Division and Brigadier General Samuel P. Heintzelman's 3rd Division over Sudley Springs Ford with these Divisions being ordered to outflank the confederates and march into their rear. Colonel Israel B. Richardson's 4th Brigade of the 1st Division would harass the Confederate Army at Blackburn's Ford to keep them from halting the main attack all while Patterson kept Johnston tied down in the Shenandoah. A sound plan if not for the fact that his army had not yet developed the skills required for such complex movements, had no idea that Patterson had already failed in his duties, and his delay had allowed for Johnston to rush towards Beauregard's position by railroad. On July 19th-20th, Johnston's force had arrived and reinforced Beauregard's army excepting Brigadier General Kirby Smith's 4th Brigade, which was still in transit. Beauregard would decisively place these forces at Blackburn's Ford and would plan to move on Centreville as Johnston, the senior officer, approved the plan. Had both the Union and Confederate forces enacted their plans at the same time, it would've wound up in a complete reversal of positions for both sides in a counterclockwise fashion as they attacked the other's left flank. McDowell, receiving contradictory statements from his intelligence, called for the Balloon Enterprise, which was being demonstrated by Prof. Thaddeus S. C. Lowe in Washington, to perform aerial reconnaissance..."

Franklin Seymour Armstrong, commander of the 1st New York Infantry, as a Colonel in 1861 shortly before First Bull Run

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Chapter XIX of "Blood, Freedom, and Politics - The Accounts and Memoirs of Franklin Seymour Armstrong Sr." (1913) by 18th President of the United States of America Franklin Seymour Armstrong (Title : My First Taste of War)

"...It was on the morning of July twenty-first in the year of our lord Eighteen Sixty and One that I would see my first taste of warfare after seven years of waiting patiently. Placed in the Third Brigade Colonel Sherman of General Tyler's First Division. General McDowell would order the combined 12,000 men of Generals Hunter and Heintzelman forward from Centreville to march southwest on the Warrenton Turnpike before turning northwest towards the Sudley Springs to get around the left flank of the opposing army before commanding that General Tyler and his men of 8,000, including my brigade commander, myself, and my men, to march on the stone bridge. I had not been able to get any sleep the day prior, so excited I was to see war and yet so anxious that this battle would be my first and last taste of the conflict, that when the command from the General came, I did not register it and was nearly left behind had it not been for then Lieutenant Hercules Thaddeus Hill, a 35 year old gentleman from Syracuse, who left his company and took me from the fireplace at which I was situated eating my early morning breakfast. Due to the early morning hours of our march, many of the men were sleepy, unable to think or listen coherently no matter what their officers told them and I was the same, thinking "Why not go to sleep and wait till a proper time for battle, for why would the enemy engage us at so early an hour?" Oh, I naive I was.

Because of our logistical problems, the main road would be clogged up the roads that Generals Hunter and Heintzelman would've used and then discovered that the route they would've taken to the Springs was little more than a cart path in some places and thus wouldn't begin fording the river until hours later. The division I was in, however, would move forward with their own orders, reaching the stone bridge at six in the morning. It was during this time that Colonel Richardson ordered the artillery of his fourth Brigade, either being of either Lieutenant John Edwards Jr's First United States Artillery, Company G or Captain Henry J. Hunt's 2nd United States Artillery, Company M, the specific one I do not recall at the present, perhaps due to my advanced age of seventy and nine, to open fire on the enemy general's right flank, striking his headquarters as ol General Beauregard was eating his breakfast at house of some wholesale grocer by the name of Wilmer McLean. All that stood in the path of the divisions of Generals Tyler, Hunter, and Heintzelman was a single southern brigade of perhaps 1200 or more. Commander of the First Division's Second Brigade, General of Brigades Robert Cumming Schenk, ordered weak attacks at the stone bridge to divert the southerners from the other two divisions coming around the main Confederate line however, the rebel commander, Colonel Nathan "Shanks" Evans if I do recall correctly, had already believed the attacks from General Schenk were feints and had been alerted to our flanking maneuver by General Beauregard's signal officer. This would see the Confederate commander divide his brigade in half and place the other half to the slopes of Matthews Hill in a delaying action until the arrival of General Bee and Colonel Bartow, upon which they slowed down the advance of Colonel Burnside's second brigade of General Hunter's second Division, halting any plans to ford across Bull Run river as he cautiously and grindingly moved towards the Northern ends of Henry House Hill.

Believing our comrade needed relief, Colonel Sherman would take it upon himself at around the morning hour of ten. As the birds went silent, the screams of young boys and old men filled the air as we forded across the river and struck the enemy flank at Colonel Bartow's Brigade. It was thanks to the Colonel's surprise attack and the pressure from the commands of General Burnside and Major Sykes that the enemy would begin to fall back to Henry House Hill in a panic. "If the day continues to go this well," one of my men of the New York First, a young corporal, began as he walked up to me as we advanced on the retreating rebs, "then this whole war might well end today and we can go home before any of our families have well and truly missed us." He finished, half-joking and half-serious, eyes burning with joy at the thought.

"I believe you are right, corporal!" I whooped as the sound of musketfire and cannonade drowned out the sounds of normal conversation nearby. "I believe my dear Louisa will be astonished to see me home so soon!" I smiled as I continued to move onward with my men, Colonel Sherman leading us onward. Of course, it was only a few minutes later that the young corporal, named Alexander Elisha Webb which I found out after the battle when writing his family of his death, was killed right in front of me, his blood spraying out from the wounds he gained onto my own uniform. By Noon, it seemed like victory for our side was near and we yanks cheered loudly and proudly as great General McDowell rode between our lines and cried "Victory! Victory! The day is ours!" but soon, this statement would prove to be premature and would lead to the undoing of an average commander who had tried his best with what he had.

As the enemy redeployed along Henry House Hill, they were given cover by their artillery that kept us in place and General McDowell responded in kind with bombardments of his own using the batteries of Captains James B. Ricketts of the First Artillery and Charles Griffin of the Fifth Artillery from their position at Dogan Ridge. From our position, we witnessed the disaster that the Twenty Seventh New York suffered through due to mistakenly believing the blue uniforms of the Seventh Georgia and being flanked by them and soon the Eighth and Fourteenth New York Regiments were ordered forward to assist their sister regiment but were quickly overwhelmed and forced back as General Jackson arrived on the hill with his men of the First Virginia Brigade. At the afternoon hour of Twelve Forty Five, General McDowell ordered a piecemeal advance of our forces, with the assault of General Keyes' First Brigade of General Tyler's First Division being pushed back by General Jackson's Fifth Virginia.

Soon, Ricketts' Battery and the Eleventh New York, First Minnesota, Major Reynolds' Marine Battallion, and Griffin's Battery was ordered to move forward and strike near Henry House, which would be targeted due to Jackson placing sharpshooters in the building. The sound of the battle so far yet so close made me antsy and impatient, eager to join the battle. Lieutenant Hill came up to me came up to me and put a hand on my shoulder, stating "wait a few minutes, son. We'll be ordered forward soon. We just need to catch our breath." and Colonel Sherman would continue this when he saw me a few seconds later, telling me "the men are exhausted from what we've done already and we've already had pretty harsh casualties. we must catch our breath or we'd be destroyed as we advance." I remember nodding, pretending to understand but not truly. All while this battle was going on, civilians from Washington watched the battle, consisting of politicians, dignitaries, and government officials, including their wives and families, to witness what they believed would be an easy federal victory. I would later find out that two of those politicians was my father-in-law Charles Francis Adams Sr. and my Brother John Adams Armstrong, both having recently been appointed to the United States Senate following the departure of Henry Wilson and Charles Sumner for their respective posts in government.

As the chaos of the battle continued, Stuart's cavalry overwhelmed the exhausted and shaken soldiers that were at the Hill and then we continued to watch as the Virginians routed our men at Henry Hill after some more hours. Finally, at the afternoon hour of Four, Sherman's brigade and thus my command was ordered forward to reinforce the rapidly collapsing union efforts at the hill but my commanding officer would order us forward piecemeal and the Thirteenth New York was ripped to shreds thanks to a ruse of Colonel Hampton and his cowardly legion. Next, my regiment, the First New York, was ordered forward to combat the Fifth Virginia but I refused to move forward, telling my superior officer "Either deploy me with the commands of Colonels Corcoran and Cameron or do not try to deploy me at all. You have seen the result of piecemeal assaults in this battle already. We must concentrate together in a united attack or we will be repulsed and force to give up the field!" After several minutes of bickering, Sherman would agree to my demands and order Corcoran and his 69th New York to assault Hampton's Legion on my Left and Cameron and his 79th New York to assault the Seventh Georgia on my Right all at once. As a unified block, we moved at 4:10 and engaged the enemy, our muskets raining hell and fury into the rebel lines. That was when i heard the deception.

"Cease firing, cease firing! For the love of God, you are shooting your own!" I heard in front of me. I looked at my men, surprised the rebels would try the same ruse twice, and many of the soldiers under my command looked back at me, unsure of what to do. One could not blame them, for with all the gunsmoke in the air, the lack of official color uniforms for either side, and the sheer sounds of all the fighting around us, it would be easy to confuse our enemy as friendlies.

"Men, do not fall for it!" I yelled out before unloading my musket, killing a reb in the process, his shout echoing as he screamed out in pain before his rattle was followed by a volley of musketfire, with a round grazing my left shoulder. I gritted my teeth from the pain and continued speaking to my men. "See! They are rebels, the cowards has already done this to the Thirteenth New York and now they are trying to do the same to us! Now continue on man, let us carry the day and retake those cannon!" I commanded, pulling out my revolver and unloading all six rounds, hearing two or three yelps of pain in response, one of which I would later find out was the commander of the Fifth Virginia, Colonel Kenton Harper, who had died from one of my rounds. I would later find out that Hampton and Colonel Gartrell's 7th Georgia would trick my sister regiments and rip them to shreds thanks to the deceit, wounding Colonel Cameron and killing Colonel Corcoran in the process and forcing the two regiments to withdraw as my own continued on fighting.

At 4:25, I saw my men had become exhausted, tired from the day's fighting and concerned at the losses we were taking, I decided we needed to make a desperate move. called up Lieutenant Hill, who had taken up the command of his company following the death of his Company Captain, and Captain Seth Rufus Crawford of Buffalo and told them of a plan I had hatched. "When I give the order, Hill, I want you to take Companies C, E, and F and hit the Rebel left. Crawford, with Companies B and D, you must strike their Right. I will lead Company A as a Diversionary charge into them. If I die in the charge, you are to take command of the regiment, Hill, until the battle is over. Do you understand?" Hill nodded and with that, the two officers under my command returned to their commands and began to rally up their companies together while I told the soldiers of Company A what was being planned to do. The look on their faces told me all that I needed to know, the fear and shock at an order that was likely certain death for many in what had already been too costly a fight. I was fearful they would mutiny against me then and there and fall back to Sherman and the safety of the Union line but instead they steeled their nerves and stayed with me.

"Onwards, men of New York!" I shouted as I charged forward, blasting away with my reloaded revolver, unloading it into the rebels as many times as I could before it emptied. When I reached the Confederate line, I struck first, blasting one young lad, no older than perhaps nineteen, in the chest with my revolver and slicing what was likely a captain with my sword across the face. Quickly, we regained control of the guns that we had lost earlier in that day and instead of leaving it open, I ordered six men to two guns and told them to load up the Cannon and blast the Confederates as long as they could. As what I would later find out to have been the 27th Virginia moved forward to engage us and retake the cannon, I witnessed Hill and Crawford be killed by musketfire by Hampton's Legion and the 7th Georgia, yet I ordered my men to continue to blast away at the Confederate line in the hopes that I alone could force a turnaround in this already mounting disaster. As it was, I had only added to it, as Colonel Sherman himself would soon come riding up to me and say the following words.

"For the love of God, Colonel Armstrong, cease this at once. Your men are exhausted and clearly running low on ammunition and spirit, the enemy is surrounding you on three sides, and you are sustaining too heavy casualties to be safe. You must fa-" and then he was struck in the chest and fell to the ground, going slack. Upon seeing that, my men, brave up to that moment, broke, and despite my best efforts, fell back to the main brigade line as I realized that I had, even if inadvertently, caused the army to lose a Brigade commander at the worst moment to see such a loss. I suppose that is why, when General McDowell came riding forward and asked what happened, I told him of what happened to Colonel Sherman and that he had given me command of the Brigade temporarily until the end of the battle. McDowell nodded in understanding and unofficially appointed me the new commander of the Brigade to the rest of the force before sending a messenger to tell General Tyler of the news. Then, as my new command reorganized and regained their breath, McDowell ordered all other forces in the area to assault Henry House Hill at 4:45 PM. While initially successful, soon, fresh rebels would arrive and bring the advantage firmly in the side of the Confederate Army, finally forcing us into a full retreat after another fifteen minutes of fighting. As we fell back, we jumbled up the main army and caused more and more chaos in our line. I would be able to regain order in my brigade and organize an orderly withdrawal from the Battlefield for Farm Ford and back to Centreville, but most other units from our side failed to due so and soon an all out panic took our line. Colonel Howard's own Brigade would give an honorable final last stand from what I heard but it was fruitless in the end as the army would flee the battlefield.

It would be later that I had heard that the Confederate commander Joseph Johnston had been killed by a stray Union cannonball that got lucky but that was little consolation for the defeat we had just suffered and I would as well hear of the disaster as civilians tried to flee back to Washington. Over three thousand dead, dying, captured, missing, and wounded would result from this battle and I would be recommended for the Medal of Honor by my unit after the actions I had taken in taking the Cannon back and my attempts at holding it. I would soon request transfer from the Eastern Theatre to the Western Theatre of the war as I rebuilt my regiment, which had gone from a strong and healthy 800 to just 251 men. Fortunately, there would be plenty of citizens interested in fighting with me for my regiment and it would be in the west, not the east, where I would find my fame..."

The First Battle of Bull Run was a disaster that forced both sides to realize that the American Civil War would be a long and bloody conflict and that it would be neither short, inexpensive, and uncostly in life. It wouldn't be until six years later that the "Easy Peace" both sides had hoped to win at First Bull Run would be realized by the Union.

​

Taken from "The Great Lull - The Period of July 1861 to March 1862 in the American Civil War" (2003) by College Student Willie Alexander Hopper

"...In the period between July 1861 to March 1862, there were little to no major mass engagements between Confederate and Union forces following the First Bull Run (The first of Three Battles at Bull Run), with the biggest lull being in the Trans-Mississippi, where both sides were roughly even in size and didn't want to try to contest the other, and the Eastern Theatre, where neither side was willing to get into any bloody engagements following Bull Run with Beauregard focused on setting up his Army of Northern Virginia and the newly appointed Major General George Brinton McClellan, a War Democrat, set up his Army of the Potomac for a large scale campaign in 1862. As this was going on, Major General William Starke Rosecrans would begin preparing his Army of the Ohio for the future offensives against Albert Sidney Johnston's own Army of Tennessee, striking Louisville first and then moving deeper into Kentucky all while Colonel (later a Brigadier General) Ulysses S. Grant cleared up Little Egypt of pro-Confederate forces and moved on Paducah, Kentucky in the long and drawn out Paducah Campaign. However, in the Great Lull period, it can be said that one man did make himself known. Colonel Franklin Seymour Armstrong and his 1st New York Infantry Regiment, which had recently recovered it's many losses from First Bull Run and was seen by some in the North as a young rising military star, was transferred Westwards at the request of the Colonel and when he did, the Union situation had become...interesting, to say the least.

The Confederates had seized some sort of foothold across the Ohio River in the Spring and Summer of 1861, taking Evansville, Indiana and Cincinnati, Ohio and their surrounding areas to use as future headquarters for a potential full invasion of the Midwest in 1862. In Indiana, the Confederates won at Mt Vernon, Diamond Island, Paradise, Rolling Acres, Melody Hill, Parker's Settlement, and Snake Run while in Ohio, they won Miami Heights, Hidden Valley, and Monfort Heights. Thus, when Armstrong arrived, he was unexpectedly raised to the rank of Brevet Brigadier General following his performance at First Bull Run and would be given command of a full Brigade of Union Soldiers and ordered by President Wilson and recently elected Governors Henry Smith Lane of Indiana and John Sherman of Ohio, both Republicans and Sherman the younger brother and Armstrong's Brigade commander at First Bull Run. In the Evansville-Henderson Campaign of September-October 1861, Armstrong would lead his Brigade with honor and distinction winning at Fort Branch and McCutchanville before liberating Evansville from Confederate occupation and securing a beachhead for future operations across the Ohio into Kentucky by capturing Henderson, Kentucky, a victory that wouldn't be wasted as War Secretary Fremont ordered an immediate consolidation of local militia in the area to secure it for future use, which it would see in the future Owensboro and Madisonville Campaigns following the success of the Louisville and Paducah Campaigns.

As news reached Washington of Armstrong's success, he was quickly made a full Brigadier General for his efforts though he did not receive the news until the after the Cincinnati Campaign. Arriving in Late November after his success at Evansville-Henderson, he would win the battles of Blue Jay, North Bend, and Cincinnati before again crossing the Ohio River and taking Fort Thomas while a Lieutenant Colonel from his Brigade, James Miles Emmitt, failed to score a decisive victory at Park Hills though the Confederates would withdraw from the position to Williamstown and reform there for 1862. Yet again, Armstrong was considered for promotion but declined it, believing he was already going up the ranks in a manner that was far too quickly and that he was happy where he was at, only requesting he be placed in Rosecrans' Army of the Ohio and he would, being given command of the First Division of the X Corps under Major General John Alexander McClernand, the former Democratic Speaker of the House from Illinois, by Rosecrans himself in preparation for the oncoming Spring assault on Louisville, Kentucky. Meanwhile, for Grant when it came to the Paducah Campaign, his Department of Little Egypt had wn quite a few battles but had failed in taking their key objective, winning Olive Branch, Villa Ridge, New Grand Chain, White Hill, Pleasant Grove, Round Knob, New Liberty, and Metropolis but losing the First Battle of Paducah in a costly assault that was driven back by the Confederate commanders.

These battles in the Midwest and Kentucky were not the large scale engagement that First Bull Run had been, with only a couple hundred to a few thousand at any one battle, but neither side had truly wanted that as they took time to build up their forces for the campaigns of the next year where the war would truly ramp up. And this would be seen as the Union did its three pronged strike, with the West targeting Louisville, the Trans-Mississippi targeting St. Louis, and the East targeting Richmond. It was hoped by President Wilson that these three offensives would cause the Confederates to collapse in on themselves and force a surrender, but all these hopes would prove fraudulent as reality unfolded due to the nature of how long the war would be..."

Major General William Starke Rosecrans, Appointed to be the Commander of the Army of the Ohio for the Louisville Campaign and soon to be Armstrong's closest political ally in the military.​

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Done with Chapter 2. This was much longer than I would've initially liked but I feel that having Armstrong's full recollection of the First Battle of Bull Run to make it more immersive and fun for the reader at home, so I hoped you enjoy that as I very likely will keep doing this until the Civil War is finished. Hopefully it wasn't too violent with the descriptions for these forums. And also, you read it right that Sherman and Joe Johnston are dead but as an equal trade, I've kept alive James Cameron, Bee, and Bartow for the future and the person who can guess why it was the 69th that challenged Hampton's Legion ITTL and not the 79th will be able to 1) create 1-2 officers that will be featured in the Timeline and 2) be able to say which front will be the focus of Chapter Three. Until, next time, I hope you all enjoyed. Ciao!

 

[Tigerdovefan34]

Would anyone be interested in helping me with army formations and also submit custom officers for fun?

 

[Irishtom29]

My first thought was of an aquilifer.

 

[Tigerdovefan34]

My first thought was of an aquilifer.

the reason for the TL name is that it is due to the large amount of eagle iconograhy that came from the civil war otl on the Union side and that Henry Wilson, as the President during the Civil War, is the standard bearer of the eagle itself.

What do you think of the TL so far, especially the account of First Bull Run?