CC
Looking interesting. Going to be some battles ahead and hopefully Wolsely is being too negative about Napier's deployment but it does sound rather worrying.
Steve
I have to ask the obvious question. Detroit to London is 130 miles. How is the US force under Palmer being supported? About 30-40 miles inland any wagon train is basically only hauling it's own subsistence, leaving nothing for the troops.
Since you specify 17th May, the Royal Navy will have passed their Lake Erie Squadron down the Welland already. The Canal opened six weeks earlier, but direct communication from Lake Ontario to the sea only opened 1st May. The RN have over two weeks to move vessels down from the St. Lawrence.
Navigation at Kingston opened 14th April, and the Welland fully opened 15th (wrecking tugs having been going through for 11 days). The RN's and Provincial Gunboat Service auxiliary gunboats would have been on Lake Erie for a month. The St. Lawrence from the sea opens to Quebec on 16th April, to Montreal on 29th and the St. Lawrence to Lake Ontario 1st May.
Hence by 17th May we should have a dozen or two dozen RN gunboats, plus other steamers armed at Kingston.
Without getting too much into the minutia: Two columns moving from Sarnia and Detroit. The column moving from Detroit (under Palmer) is moving using both baggage trains, and limited rail stock along the Great Western Railway, further supplies are facilitated from confiscated barges along the Thames which move along the line of march.
The second column (the second brigade under Fitch) is moving on the shorter route from Sarnia, and is also using the Great Western as a supply hub.
Needless to say both forces are also making use of supplies "requisitioned" from the locals.
The whole force will have their supply problem considerably eased if they can take London since they would then be able to be supplied by the Port Stanley London railroad. That might have been a target for the opening invasion if the USN were not busy with another matter...
Well a dozen is unlikely I think. Like OTL Somerset is pushing as much of the cost and responsibility for the Lakes onto the Canadians as he possibly can. The Union also starts off with the only true purpose build warship, the USS Michigan, on Lake Erie which serves as the flagship of the Union's "Lake Erie Squadron" which will feature in the next chapter.
On Lake Ontario, well you'll have to bear with me on this one. The full OOB is not yet 100% complete, but in broad strokes the Canadians are putting together an extemporized squadron for service, and the RN is sending what help it can. However, the St. Lawrence is their main concern inside Canada at the moment, and the assignment of gunboats to the blockade has put Lake Ontario at the very bottom of the allocation list, and Lake Erie isn't even a blip on the radar.
The Union, is putting together a squadron on Lake Ontario, which is going to consist of a mix of extemporized gunboats and a few purpose built warships as well. The deciding factor might very well come down to skill in this contest.
I'm not convinced that would be terribly successful. If there is rolling stock (of 5 ft 6 gauge) on the GWR that would help, but surely it would be withdrawn to the interior or destroyed. The US railroads at Detroit are 4 ft 8.5 gauge, so that isn't helpful. The US would likely have to build new engines and rolling stock east of the Detroit river.
Also Sarnia is still 60 miles from London, which is pretty far in military terms. In summer with good roads the wagon train can support an army 40-50 miles from depot. In mid-May, with the roads flooded etc. one suspects the US army would struggle to move much beyond the beachhead until things dried a bit.
You'd be surprised how many gunboats the RN has. At home in reserve are 36 ready to go and another 70 requiring some work. Given four months the RN would actually be receiving new build gunboats from March onwards. The recommended complement for Lake Erie was 20 gunboats and 3 newly built ironclad batteries. There are 53 gunboats recommended for the St. Lawrence, Richelieu, Lake Ontario and Lake Erie and they're drawing on a reserve stock of 106 vessels plus those in Commission (with 23 slated for the blockade, and some to take up UK harbour defences). It doesn't seem unlikely the RN would have fielded a significant number on the Lake some 16 days after navigation from Montreal to Lake Ontario opened.
Michigan, with her 1863 armament of 1x 30 pdr Parrott on a pivot, 5x 20 pdr Parrotts (1 aft pivot and 2 each side) and 6x 24 pdr howitzers (3 each side) (the boats had a 12 pdr each) presents a 7 gun broadside and is fairly powerful, sure. However, RN gunboats of the time were smaller and only carried two guns. However they were a 110 pdr and a 40 pdr Armstrong. I'm not sure I'd fancy my chances, as the 110 pdr shell would be devastating to the thin iron hull of Michigan.
Depends on if the militia and regulars can seize them all, or even remember to destroy them. Then it's not impossible to have rail stock on hand for the Union, especially from the Grand Trunk.
The worst flooding is gone in south Ontario by mid May most years, probably at the start of June at the worst. Also, I think you're underestimating draft amimals. They don't need to carry fodder with them in rich country like this, and they are in a rich country full of forage and grass.
I'm not immensely surprised by the numbers, there's more than a few. However, new builds would be necessary more than anything. There's enough gunboats probably to pad out the armed steamers on the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario, while also being able to pad out the blockading squadrons on station and perhaps relieve the gunboats reassigned from harbor defence duties and the Med. There's not enough in service for the proposed 53 from that plan, that would completely drain the available supply of gunboats!
These boats are also beginning to show their age. For instance, in the most numerous class. the Albacore class, 31 are broken up or out of service between 1862-64 which is a third of those constructed. I'm assuming those broken up in 62-64 were most likely done so because they were no longer suitable for service. But there's a similar story from all the Crimean gunboats.
Possibly, but it's unlikely she would ever end up going toe to toe with the British gunboats in the first place, and her heavier broadside would make a bit of a difference.
Well, assuming the US acquired 5 ft 6 locomotives and stock at Portland, and moved them on a ship to NY or elsewhere, is there a 5 ft 6 gauge track that gets the locomotive(s) onto the Lakes? I really don't think there is, and a quick check seems to confirm this.
The depot for the line was at Hamilton, which is where engines and stock were stored. Arguably the US will have seized whatever was in Windsor station if they achieved surprise.
I'm not underestimating draught animals at all. Assume we're dealing with a force of 10,000 men. The two methods of wagon supply are:
The Lake sqaudrons would consume half the gunboats in reserve, or less than a third overall. Why would one need a large reserve? Also, it takes two months to build a gunboat, and from receiving Lincoln's rejection to "now" dozens of newly built vessels could have entered service.
Being built so rapidly some used green wood, and were condemned. Some soldiered on into the 20th century as merchants.[
Unless the Welland is seized before early May it is a certainty RN gunboats would ascend Neptune's Stairs to Thorold and hence via one of three available routes onto the Niagara or Lake Erie. The only question is how many?
Depends on if the militia and regulars can seize them all, or even remember to destroy them. Then it's not impossible to have rail stock on hand for the Union, especially from the Grand Trunk.
I'm not immensely surprised by the numbers, there's more than a few. However, new builds would be necessary more than anything. There's enough gunboats probably to pad out the armed steamers on the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario, while also being able to pad out the blockading squadrons on station and perhaps relieve the gunboats reassigned from harbor defence duties and the Med. There's not enough in service for the proposed 53 from that plan, that would completely drain the available supply of gunboats!
These boats are also beginning to show their age. For instance, in the most numerous class. the Albacore class, 31 are broken up or out of service between 1862-64 which is a third of those constructed. I'm assuming those broken up in 62-64 were most likely done so because they were no longer suitable for service. But there's a similar story from all the Crimean gunboats.
Possibly, but it's unlikely she would ever end up going toe to toe with the British gunboats in the first place, and her heavier broadside would make a bit of a difference.
Given the amount of warning of hostilities and also the degree and general efficency of preparation by the defence I would be surprised if more than a small fraction of the Canadian rolling stock was captured. Apart from anything else it would be too valuable to Canada for its defence, hence giving it a high profile.
Also what were the defence of US ports on the lower lakes like? Would it be practical to, having got gunboats on them, attack such ports and hence prevent/delay the build-up of US forces on them? After all the shipyards are likely to be on-near the water so should be relatively easy to disrupt them if there are no defences.
Steve
Ah see you replied to Tigers covering some of those points while I was writing.
67th Tigers,
If I wanted to get std gauge locomotives and rolling stock onto the Canadian railway system I would put them on flatbeds running on the different gauge railways and take them there as cargo.
Also the Union could get hold of std gauge rolling stock by taking the bogies off of alternative gauge rail stock and rebuilding them with different sized axels and bed. It is much faster than building new rolling stock from scratch. It won't work for Locos of course.
Other way round. The Canadian RWs, including the Grand Trunk to Portland run on 5 ft 6 gauge, as does the Vermont Central. Most other US RR in the area run on 4 ft 8.5 gauge.
The problem is moving locomotives sized for 5 ft 6 on a 4 ft 8.5 line. You'd have to start checking for tunnels through the Appalachians, because as far as I'm aware there is no railroad route from New York to Detroit that doesn't pass through a narrow tunnel as this point....
Given the amount of warning of hostilities and also the degree and general efficency of preparation by the defence I would be surprised if more than a small fraction of the Canadian rolling stock was captured. Apart from anything else it would be too valuable to Canada for its defence, hence giving it a high profile.
I wonder if the initial problem might be that the government is unwilling to deploy from reserve every such gunboat for reasons of expense, especially with people such as Gladstone so prominant in it? Once they realise that the US is intent on war to the bitter end and major attacks on Canada then the purse strings are likely to be seriously loosened but there may be some underestimation of the threat to Canada from the US in the early weeks/months of actual combat.
OTL they were pulling them out of storage in December to cross the sea (in convoy) when the weather calmed down. Way before the decisions were made. Of course you are right that the Duke of Somerset before the Trent was trying to argue that in any war the US would have occupied the line of the St. Lawrence before the RN could send gunships from the UK. However in War Cabinet in early December he stated he would immediately activate the gunboats and have them on the St. Lawrence before navigation opened ready to steam upriver with the thaw (Cabinet Memo. from Somerset to Palmerston, 6th December 1861*). He also indicated he was detailing "an intelligent officer" to take command of the Provincial Gunboats to be built.
That is certainly what the RN were preparing for in December '61/January '62. Gunboats were inspected, repaired, rearmed and made ready to be convoyed to Cape Breton probably setting off in packets from mid or late February. What Somerset was keen to avoid was the worst of the winter weather from these light vessels. That perhaps there was a suspicion that the US would have effectively cut the Welland we can but speculate.
Ouch that's not good. With the Americans having clear superiority on Erie, which is pretty much secured now the canal is taken. Plus with both flanks retreating from Detroit and from Niagara it could be difficult defending any position on the lake. True their logistics will worsen as the distance of their advance increases but control of the Lake means shipping can be used to provide supply for forces by the shoreline and also there is the threat of amphibious landings.
Sounds like there is some naval resistance, from the mention of "the daring do of Captain Bythesea" or is that on Lake Ontario?
Have not seen this quote in my readings (either from Bourne or Stacey) which does change my impression, do you have that memo of Somerset's? Sound's like an interesting about face for a fellow who was rather obstinate about not incurring costs up to the last minute.
Mind you, I do believe that the presence of American steamers on Lake Ontario at the same time as the British would prevent the movement of British vessels up the Welland, for obvious reasons I would think.