Use the Thaws

One of the major features of the lake and river terrain of North America is, of course, that much of it freezes in winter.

TFSmith is aware of this much; however, he does not appear to be aware of when this took place.

1) Lake Champlain.

During the Battle at Rouses Point, it is a key feature of the battle that the Americans can rush reinforcements to the threatened area by ship over Lake Champlain - very significant reinforcements, as it happens - as well as move firepower by gunboat,
Unfortunately, the battle is fought in the last few days of March.

Historically, navigation opened at Burlington on 29th April, and in a normal year Plattsburgh followed three days later - so the Union gunboats would be icebound.


2) The St Lawrence freezes.

In the OTL, some of the transport ships which raced for Canada managed to put off some troops at the St Lawrence before it froze in mid- December.


3) The St Lawrence thaws.

We are repeatedly told that the St Lawrence is icebound, and indeed it was for much of the early months of the year. However, this icebound state continues to be used as an excuse for why Canada cannot be reinforced at least into May, when historically the opening took place as follows:

Navigation at Quebec opens 11th April
First steamers at Quebec 16th April

Navigation at Montreal opens 23rd April
First steamers at Montreal 28th April

Rideau Canal opens at Kingston 1st May
St Lawrence opens at Kingston 5th May

So by early May there would definitely be RN gunboats on Lake Ontario, through one route or another. Instead, in late May (the 24th), Montreal is still so cut off from the outside world that it has no riverine gunboats or corvettes (or ironclads) present, and the garrison is less than 10,000 troops:

Fewer than 10,000 British and Canadian troops, including a mix of volunteer and sedentary militia, constituted Russell’s garrison in Montreal; although the city had some fixed defenses - Fort de l'Île Sainte-Hélène was formidable, and the destruction of the two-year-old Great Victoria Bridge certainly made a siege much more difficult – Montreal was not a citadel in the sense that Quebec was; which Heintzelman, reinforced by the leading units of Grant’s army, quickly made clear.

As Heintzelman’s 30,000 troops began to dig in around Montreal, Bishop Ignace Bourget’s pastoral letter was read in Montreal on 24 May, echoing Bishop Lartigue’s in 1837, and urging the Quebecois “not to be seduced by those who want to entice you into rebellion against the established government, especially to the benefit of these foreign puppets and American Protestants.”

It is at no point stated in the timeline how Heintzelman gets across the rivers. By this point the British would have sent forty gunboats and six new-build ironclads upriver to reach Lake Erie and Lake Ontario; though the Union in this TL have secured control of Lake Erie, this just means there are an extra twenty gunboats and three ironclads to add to the defences of Montreal.


In fact, since the whole offensive into Upper Canada begins on the first of May, it should be clear (first steamers at Quebec) that there should have been at least two weeks' worth of time for reinforcements to be sent to Upper Canada by train before the offensive begins. (Given the train travel oddities elsewhere in the TL for the Union, if the British had the same capacity there'd be time to move 20,000 men each to the Niagara frontier and to face Detroit - though this might be excessive in a world where the militia had actually been mobilized.)


TFSmith is distinctly confused about the whole issue of the thaw. He has in the past repeatedly stated that the thaw "comes from the south", whereas as we've seen - at least on the St Lawrence - it comes in from the sea.