Chapter 190: Chapter 167: Battle of Alligator Town

The Clash of Titans: The Anglo-American War and Beyond

You are reading story The Rebellion Burns Bright at novel35.com

By Raymond Smith, published in Timstown, Jefferson

"... Unlike their British counterparts in the west, the French and Spanish forces that were amassed in Florida saw their advance into the United States stall quickly. In the opening phases of the invasion, they were able to seize Okafi, Hammock, and Sovtaj rapidly within a week. Hammock and Sovtaj were subsequently sacked and evacuated, as they held no important strategic value to the overall invasion of the United States (even so, the "Sacking of Florida" caused the death of nearly ten thousand Americans and resulted in valuables worth millions of dollars seized by the Alliance). However, Okafi itself was used as the main logistical hub for the invading forces in the area, a funnel for the supplies needed by thousands of Alliance soldiers. This allowed the French/Spanish troops in western Florida to move into the surrounding counties (which were relatively undefended and in chaos) quickly. After just a mere week, Tallahassee (the biggest settlement in western Florida) had been captured and the Alliance was threatening Georgia. After an additional two weeks, Alligator Town, which served as the railway junction between Tallahassee and St. Augustine, fell as well, despite the best efforts of Major General Nathaniel Bonapart. The American general, who was training two Army regiments in South Carolina, was one of the first officers to respond to the invasion and led a valiant effort to prevent Alligator Town from falling. Unfortunately, the two regiments under his command were lacking artillery and were disorganized when they engaged the enemy, which led to his decision to withdraw and wait for reinforcements. After retreating back to St. Augustine, General Bonapart blew the rails between Alligator Town and St. Augustine, effectively destroying any chance of the Alliance quickly pushing into St. Augustine (a naval invasion of the town was written off after the US reinforcements arrived)...

After the fall of Alligator Town, the Alliance's fortunes in the east faltered. Upon entering Georgia, the French and Spanish soldiers quickly found themselves under fire from the locals in the area. Partisans sprung up everywhere and constantly harassed Alliance supply depots and troop formations. Despite the fact that the Spanish had experience in dealing with guerilla fighters (a term coined by the Federal League after facing resistance fighters in Argentina) in Colombia and its former American colonies, the Floridian jungles and swamps severely hampered efforts to root out guerillas. The most common tactic was the "hit and run" doctrine established by many American civilians turned combatants. After hitting a hostile target, the guerillas would flee into the jungle and set traps to cause even more havoc and casualties among the Alliance troops. Any attempts to create goodwill by the occupying forces flew out the window within the first weeks of the invasion and the Spanish/French came up with draconian measures to suppress partisan activities to some success (including the infamous "concentration camps" to hold thousands of Americans hostage in order to prevent attacks). To their credit, the Alliance did manage to push into southern Georgia despite attacks from the locals...

While many Native Americans in the southeastern United States moved to Hisigi upon the state's formation, others remained behind in their native homeland and remained integrated to the local state government. The Hitchiti tribe, native to southern, was one of the few tribes where most of its members remained in their ancestral lands and it was the first line of defense Georgia had against the invaders. A rural and industrious people, the Hitchiti were well known to be extremely adaptable and utilized the nearby Flint River (which they considered their "source" of settlement) to build several local workshops in Hihnje (for metalworking and weaponry). The Native American town was one of the bigger towns in western Georgia and was in a critical position due to its close proximity to the Alliance's flank in Jackson, Jefferson. As such, on November 25th of 1833, a Spanish force of 3,000 soldiers marched towards the town, feeling confident that victory would be won with little effort as the United States lacked a large military presence in the town. Unfortunately for the Spanish troops, the town had been hastily reinforced by the 24th Army Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division (led by Colonel Keon Burton, an African American, West Point Academy graduate). The two thousand American troops were supported by approximately four hundred Hitchiti militiamen. Many of them were ordinary farmers, tradesmen, or workers before the invasion, but after hearing about the threat to their home, they took up arms against the invaders. Colonel Burton worked closely with the locals to defend the town and fortified it for three days with little rest. By the time the Spanish arrived, the Americans were entrenched and ready to blunt the attack.

In their arrogance, the Spanish forces lacked any artillery to directly assault the town and were forced to engage in a skirmishing battle with the Americans. The defenders were primarily armed with the Lee Rifles, but three platoons under the 24th Regiment carried Clarkes Rifles (the main sharpshooting weapons for the United States throughout the war). With a range of 940 meters, an iron sight, and a firing rate of nearly 10 shots per minute, the Clarkes Rifles devastated any Spanish soldiers that drew too close to the defensive fortifications of the town. The Spanish were unable to respond to the American sharpshooters as they were mostly armed with rifled muskets (and only a few Nottingham Rifles provided by the British Military). Realizing that a direct assault was futile, the Spanish Colonel Lope Tineo (who was the commanding officer of the attacking forces) decided to withdraw in order to avoid unnecessary casualties and to return with artillery. The Battle of Hihnje was hardly a "battle" (with only eighty-two Spanish casualties for four American casualties), but it was an important strategic victory that left a potential flank route open for the United States military to utilize. And while the town did fall after a bigger Alliance assault (with a detachment also attacking from the north), the delay in the fall of Hihnje slowed the Alliance advance in Alabama and bought more time for the United States to rally its forces in Georgia...

The United States SOCOM, specifically, the 2nd Special Forces Gurkhas Battalion, infiltrated Florida on November 26th of 1833 and unified a significant chunk of the partisan groups in the area into an effective "terrorizing" force. Every isolated patrol unit was picked off with brutal efficiency (with the dead invaders having their heads mounted on pikes by the Gurkhas, which demoralized and enraged the Spanish and French soldiers in the area), the supply storages of the invading forces were blown up with explosives, and infrastructure (everything from bridges to roads) was sabotaged relentlessly. This significantly obstructed the Alliance's effort to resupply and hold Alligator Town, especially after the bridge over the Suwanee River (which marked the midway point between Alligator Town and Tallahassee) was destroyed by Gurkhas. As a result, the Alliance discreetly withdrew several thousand soldiers from Alligator Town (to lessen the logistical burden on the defending forces in Alligator Town, and also to deal with the increased number of partisan attacks) and bolstered the defenses in the settlement to the best of their abilities. This withdrawal was witnessed by several SOCOM operators, who relayed the sighting to one Major General Nathaniel Bonapart in St. Augustine. On December 10th of 1833, the general executed a plan to liberate Alligator Town and push the invaders out of Florida, which was to begin on Christmas Day (a holiday that was celebrated religiously by many Spaniards and French Empire citizens, due to the prevalence of Catholicism in both countries) (Christmas was also celebrated in America, though not as widely as in Spain or in the French Empire). Regarding the Christmas assault on the Alliance forces in Alligator Town, the deist General Bonaparte wrote, "Perhaps attacking [the Alliance] on their religious holiday is unsightly, but [the Alliance] ha(s) left me little choice on the matter."

The Battle of Alligator Town combined the new doctrines and technologies invented by the United States in between the Revolutionary War and the Anglo-American War. SOCOM operators, working with local guerillas, intensified their efforts to isolate Alligator Town, cutting off supply and reinforcements to the Alliance occupied settlement. General Bonapart, armed with reinforcements and heavy guns, split his troops into two groups. The main army group (consisting of nearly seven thousand men, due to the constraints of logistics and roads in the swampy region of northern Florida) marched westward from St. Augustine to directly challenge the eastern defensive line in Alligator Town. Meanwhile, a small detachment consisting of one thousand soldiers (led by Colonel Harvey Brown) marched through an atrocious part of the Floridan jungle to hit the defenders from the north (a jungle that was thought to be impassable by the French and Spanish forces in Alligator Town). The group was led by several Gurkhas and partisans, who knew a "safe" path through the wilderness. This attacking force faced four thousand French and Spanish defenders that were well-fortified and "fresh" (the defenders of the town ransacked and stole foodstuffs from the locals to keep themselves fed, which resulted in many locals starving from the ensuing food shortage). Nearly three-quarters of the Alliance forces in Alligator Town were French mercenaries, with the remaining troops being Spanish regulars. The French mercenaries, up to this point, had enjoyed a lucrative period of looting and sacking American towns. While this significantly increased their morale, it also decreased their discipline, as they expected their stay in the United States to be "relatively easy." Meanwhile, the Spanish soldiers were battle-hardened veterans, with many of them returning from the mess in South Africa and Colombia. Despite their inferior weaponry (the few breechloaders Spain owned were given to the front line forces in Georgia), they were more than capable fighters and extremely disciplined. To this day, it is unknown why the French decided to leave mercenaries as garrison forces in Alligator Town. However, it is generally believed that if the French defenders were regulars instead of mercenaries, the Alliance could have made the ensuing battle a much more costly affair for the attacking Americans...

On Christmas Day, General Bonapart ordered his artillery to begin bombarding the town in order to create an opening for the American forces to launch an assault. Alligator Town was surrounded by three lakes, which gave the defenders an enormous advantage as it guaranteed that the attackers were forced to attack through small bottlenecks. However, this also meant that the troops and defenses near the town were bunched together. While the general sought to avoid unnecessary civilian deaths, several shells landed within the town itself, killing hundreds of civilians that were (ironically) celebrating their liberation from the grips of the Alliance. Among the thirty artillery pieces the American officer had at his disposal, ten of them were the new 20-pound Springfield guns that were produced in Cleveland (a testament to America's growing industrial might despite the initial backfoot the industrial sector suffered during the first year of the war). The Springfield guns were the first artillery breechloaders and were much more reliable than their muzzleloading counterparts. Additionally, the Springfield guns boasted a range of 3,000 meters, a high firing rate, and impressive accuracy. These guns, along with twenty 1829 20-pound Joshua Guns, rained death on the defenders and caused a significant amount of damage to the cramped fortifications. However, they did not cause as many casualties as General Bonapart hoped, as the Spanish soldiers and French mercenaries withdrew to the town proper during the majority of the bombardment phase and waited for the artillery guns to fall silent before retaking their positions. Even so, the defenders were in disarray and the American military leader decided to press forth with his attack.

Five thousand American soldiers assaulted the eastern defenses, utilizing their superior range and fire rate to their advantage. Ordinary American infantry soldiers outranged their opponents by several hundred meters, devastating the defenders while suffering only a few casualties. Platoons of sharpshooters picked off enemy officers and NCOs without mercy, aiming to destroy the leadership of the Alliance defenders. Immediately after the French and Spanish forces retook positions in the (largely) destroyed defenses in the east, American artillery opened up their guns and fired explosive shells into enemy lines (though, the Spanish and French returned fire with their own artillery pieces located within the center of the town, causing a number of American casualties). General Bonapart remained behind with the two thousand "reserves" and used a number of messengers to relay his orders. Even with the technological improvements of the United States military, military firearms still produced an exorbitant amount of smoke that covered the battle within minutes (which was why European armies still wore bright, differentiating uniforms so generals had an easier time seeing their units). As such, General Bonapart should have struggled to give out commands to his soldiers from a distance as all the units under his command wore dark olive uniforms that were difficult to make out (especially due to the color scheme of the surrounding area). However, the United States Military (with a few improvisations from the Corsican-American general) had come up with a solution to this problem: military balloons and flags.

Military balloons relayed enemy positions and movements through the usage of brightly colored flags to the field command center, while the men at the command center (along with Nathaniel himself) watched for the flags waved by the balloon operators and the brightly colored flags carried by the flag bearers of each regiment (every regiment had a flag that was a distinct and different color from the flags of other regiments). As such, General Bonapart, with five military balloons under his command, was able to receive information on the movement of enemy troops and the movement of his own troops. He then used this information to quickly send orders to the regimental commanders, who then utilized the information and orders given to them to move their unit accordingly. American officers and NCOs enjoyed another distinct advantage over their Alliance counterparts, in that the United States military emphasized the importance of "flexible command." While General Bonapart issued the orders, it was up to each individual regimental officer to come up with a plan to carry those orders through and adapt to the changing situation on the ground if necessary. As such, the regiments under General Bonapart's command were able to function even without input from the general (though, the general provided crucial information and general orders that pushed the regiments in the right direction). Not only that, but every single American officer and NCO was literate and had some form of schooling, adding to the effectiveness of American leadership and tactical thinking. The end result was that the regiments under General Bonapart's command countered every counterattack attempt made by the defenders and held their ground until their commanding officer ordered a direct assault on the enemy defenses.

Four hours after the Battle of Alligator Town began, a military balloon that was positioned in the very northern sector of the battlezone furiously waved two black flags towards the command center. This prompted General Bonapart to rapidly send out messengers with an order to push into the enemy defensive positions. As the main body of American soldiers moved forward, Colonel Brown's men in the north emerged from the jungle and began a flanking maneuver into the northern parts of Alligator Town. The colonel and his men suffered numerous casualties during their five-days march through the jungle, with dozens of soldiers forced to return to St. Augustine, suffering from malaria and yellow fever (it is important to note that most American settlements in Florida cleared surrounding swamp areas to prevent yellow fever and malaria outbreaks, which was why the Alliance troops initially did not suffer from "jungle diseases"). Even so, they were motivated to breach the Alliance lines in the north and break the defenders. The main reason why the Alliance officers believed that an American attack through the north was infeasible was that the area was filled with swamps, ponds, and creeks that would ruin paper cartridges of invading soldiers. Their assumption would have been correct for any other armies but the American Army. The United States had managed to build its first metallic cartridge breechloaders just as the war began (the Pelissier Repeating Rifles, with centerfire bullets, a 7-round tube magazine, and a fire rate of 21 bullets per minute) and upon General Bonapart's insistence, the 39th Army Regiment of the 5th Infantry Division (the men under Colone Brown's command) was equipped with all the Pelissier Repeating Rifles that were available.

As such, when the regiment emerged from the jungles with their Gurkha and partisan comrades, they suddenly became one of the most powerful units in the entire battlefield. The 39th Regiment, consisting of many black Georgians and Floridians, viciously attacked the three hundred French mercenaries that were manning the northern defenses (in case General Bonapart's main army group swung around to attack from the north). By this time, many of the French mercenaries were demoralized from the bombardment and the firefight with the American troops, and in the face of a flanking attack, their morale collapsed. The surviving French forces turned tail and fled westward (where they were cut down by awaiting Gurkhas and guerillas that hunted them down) or surrendered immediately. Miraculously, the 39th Regiment suffered only two casualties in exchange for one hundred French casualties (with the remaining survivors surrendering to Colonel Brown). Exploiting this opportunity, the regiment smashed into the flank of the defending forces (now cut off from Alligator Town). The Spanish troops fought till the bitter end, inflicting most of America's losses during the battle. However, an hour after Colonel Brown and his forces emerged from the shadows, the battle was over. The Americans suffered seven hundred casualties (with two hundred dead). The Spanish and French defenders suffered a staggering three thousand casualties (with over one thousand four hundred dead) with the rest captured by American forces. Out of Alligator Town's five thousand inhabitants, nearly three thousand were dead due to the occupation and the ensuing battle. And the entire town was devastated as well...

The United States finally scored its first major victory against the invaders and the Battle of Alligator Town was a much-needed victory to showcase America's battle prowess. The Battle of Alligator Town was the first battle in history to be extensively photographed, with a number of American journalists from St. Augustine taking pictures of the battle and its aftermath. Shortly after the battle, major newspapers displayed numerous photos of American soldiers bravely charging into the heat of the battle, American artillery pieces firing on the enemy, and thousands of dead bodies strewn across the battlefield. The headlines lauded the battle as the "beginning" of America's grand victory over the invaders. It also proved to be the turning point in the Florida theater, as it secured eastern Florida from a potential Alliance invasion and opened up a path for the United States to retake Tallahassee. However, the defeat would also increase the number of atrocities carried out by the Spanish and French forces in the state, as partisans became more emboldened to strike the invaders following the American victory...

However, Florida rapidly became a "backwater" due to the constraints of logistics in the region and the spotlight of the war moved to the west. Especially after the siege and destruction of Timstown...

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AN: Hihnje is located in Bainbridge, Georgia of OTL.

Joshua Guns are TTL's equivalent of the Parrot Guns.

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