Everybody Loves Lincoln

In Burnished Rows of Steel, everybody loves the Union. Everybody. To the extent they are willing to commit treason in order to kill their fellow-countrymen who don't happen to like the Union as much as they do. Historically, this is complete nonsense, as during the crisis Canadians who found themselves the wrong side of the border went out of their way to demonstrate their loyalty to Britain:

Some showed their feelings by public demonstration, as when a group of former Canadians tried to raise a subscription among Britishers living in New York City to prosecute Wilkes for violation of the Queen's neutrality, or when several hundred former Canadians resident in Chicago petitioned the British consul there to call on them if they were needed.

The greatest quandry was reserved for British North Americans who had enlisted in the Northern Army... A substantial group of Canadians decided that they should take some positive stand rather than simply resorting to desertion.... Newton Wolverton, one of three brothers from Walsingham, Canada West, who had enlisted in the Northern Army the previous July... presented his committee's petition to Lincoln in person, quite mistakenly but in good faith declaring that it spoke for fifty thousand Canadians fighting in the Northern armies. "We wish to tell you in the most respectful way," Wolverton said, "that we did not enlist to fight against our Mother Country."

There will undoubtely be more detailed posts to follow about TFSmith's elaborate manufacture of Canadian disloyalty. However, his view is that patriotism is a purely American phenomenon extends also to the British.

In reality, the British serving in the Union army were more than ready to pack up and leave in the event of war being declared. As the New York Tribune of 19 December 1861 noted  'Several Englishmen, now serving in our army, among them Colonel [Major-General Charles Frederick] Havelock and Captain Stuart [Lord Ernest Vane-Tempest] have, it is declared, signified their intention to resign should further complications ensue.'

It should be noted that British officers were perfectly entitled to leave the army without a cooling-off period, in line with regulations:

'1675. Officers of the volunteer service tendering their resignations will forward them through the intermediate commanders to the officer comanding the department or corps d'armee in which they may be serving, who is authorised to grant them honourable discharges.'

Yet we see almost nothing but renegade British and Canadaian officers choosing their new allegiance over the old. In Chapter 3 part 2, Sir Percy Wyndham can't wait to get into the fray:

...1st New Jersey in the lead. The Jersey horsemen were commanded by that most quixotic of figures, Col. Percy Wyndham, a British-born soldier of fortune who had served with the Austrian, French, and Italian armies. Wyndham, like many of his countrymen serving in the U.S. forces in the spring of 1862, had agonized over what to do in the event of war between the United States and Great Britain; only the day before he had actually taken leave of the regiment at Plattsburgh, planning to head south to Washington, either to face the rebels or to serve on the Great Plains. However, with news of the fighting on the border, had [sic] had swung into the saddle and brought his troopers clattering north on horseback, finally to form up, dismounted, with the Excelsiors at Rouse’s Point. As Wyndham lay wounded in the Barracks’ hospital after the battle, he wrote:

I could not leave men I had been commissioned to command, who I had trained, to go into battle – it simply was not in my nature, as an Englishman and an officer. The fact I was leading them into battle against British troops had no bearing on my decision – I joined the fight because of my comrades, not because of the cause. Some Englishmen may curse my name – others, however, must understand that this was my duty… to do anything else would have been dishonourable.

Of course, the fact that Wyndham didn't hold a Union commission until February 1862 makes this particular dilemma much easier: in the context of the deterioriating situation, he would have gone north a long time ago. TFSmith justifies his decision to have Wyndham actively ride back to commit treason by claiming he 'strikes me as a soldier of fortune first and foremost'. Yet Wyndham's service in foreign armies was by no means exceptional- Captain Louis Nolan, for instance, spent time in the Austrian 10th Hussars without feeling compelled to defect to the Russians. Moreover, Wyndham's service with the English Battalion during the Risorgamento is more suggestive of his sense of nationality than TFSmith's surmises.

Another officer totally mishandled is Colonel Arthur Rankin, who in chapter 9 part 4 is gleefully serving the Union as commander of the 1st Canadian Volunteer Cavalry Battalion against his erstwhile countrymen. In reality, as is well documented, Rankin 'resigned his American commission in December in light of the Trent Affair'. Although TFSmith is unable to recognise Canadian or British patriotism when he sees it, Rankin is an excellent illustration of its existence:

Col. ARTHUR RANKIN, of Canada, who lately attempted to raise a regiment of Lancers in the United States service, but resigned when it became probable that we were to be involved in a war with England, has written a letter to the Deputy Adjutant at Quebec, offering his services to fight for England. The Colonel is enthusiastically loyal and congratulates himself upon being again "under the shelter of that glorious flag which no subject of Her Majesty venerates more earnestly than he does."

The fundamental problem with TFSmith's timeline is that he does not understand why or how Rankin, Wyndham or Wolverton could ever venerate the British flag. Stars and Stripes Forever more than filled the market for Trent Affair timelines written by those who have only contempt for Victorian Britain- TFSmith's contempt drips from the work, from every line and paragraph, right down to the accents he gives his protagonists.