IMAGI-NATIONS : PART 6.

THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE.  A VICTORY AND A NEW ENEMY.

In late summer 1860 Mexico informed the UNION that continuing efforts to source heavy weapons supplies on behalf of the UNION had secured a large quantity of British artillery with substantial amounts of ammunition. These new supplies enabled the UNION to form another two armies of a similar size to the first two. Training of  yet more recruits in use of the new weapons started immediately. At the same time samples of all the foreign guns were sent to the Rock Island Arsenal for UNION engineers to examine and deconstruct to determine the best features to inform development of a new UNION made weapon. Meanwhile the UNION arms manufacturers of Remington, Colt and Winchester had combined design teams and had produced a new rifle, prototypes of which were supplied to the army for testing. All three companies had also created huge new ammunition manufacturing capabilities. The wagon makers of Studebaker, Murphy and Abbot Downing had also vastly increased production and were now supplying large numbers of wagons to the UNION forces.

At this time conventional military wisdom considered that troops could only be supported by wagons up to 50 miles from a railhead. UNION commanders thought this could be greatly increased by use of sufficient vehicles and strict road management. With this in mind efforts were made by the UNION field army to push substantial bodies of troops far beyond the slowly advancing railhead in Ukraine. These efforts were successful and by having large numbers of wagon convoys moving in parallel across the flat country of northern Ukraine the UNION army moved some 125 miles ahead of railhead. Very early in 1861 the UNION army had advanced to within 50 miles of the Russian railhead quite unbeknown to the Russians.

Although the Russians had deployed a substantial number of troops to their railhead they did not expect a major battle with the UNION at that time as they believed some distance still separated the two sides. The UNION army now had both first and second armies in the field and moved them into positions from which they could  outflank the Russian railhead and launch  assaults on the Russian encampments from two directions simultaneously.

On 1st March 1861 UNION forces launched massive coordinated artillery bombardments on the Russian railhead and surrounding camps while UNION troops seized the Russian railway to the east and using explosives, blasted large sections of track. They then dug in facing eastward. The artillery bombardment of the Russian railhead was followed by infantry assaults from west and south. In heavy fighting with numerous but surprised Russian forces heavy casualties were inflicted on the Russians and much damage caused to railway structures. By the end of the day the Russians had been defeated with heavy losses and the railhead seized. During the next  day all the remaining Russian troops were either captured or killed.

During the battle increasingly frantic messages were sent from railhead to Russian command. As the day wore on it became clear to the Russians that they had suffered yet another defeat. Over the  following days strong patrols were despatched west to determine the exact position of UNION forces. The first reports were depressing. They stated that strong UNION forces were advancing rapidly east using the Russian tracks. The Russians realised that within a matter of weeks if not days UNION troops would be arriving on the Volga and that they did not have time to assemble the strong army they would need to attempt to defeat the UNION on the Ukrainian side of the river. Russian strategy immediately turned to seeking a solution that would prevent a strong UNION military presence on the Volga.

A proposal was sent to the UNION for a truce and peace talks. This was agreed and the UNION advance to the Volga stopped. Negotiations commenced and a deal was made. Basically it was agreed that Ukraine would be demilitarised and both sides would guarantee it's neutrality. The UNION was asked to submit proposals  on a formal border between it and Ukraine. Neither side asked the Ukrainian opinion as neither side was interested in the small rural farming communities in the south. The UNION was keen not to have to permanently maintain thousands of miles of railway with a large military force on the Volga and the Russians were equally keen not to have that UNION presence on the Volga. Neither side had any interest in the thousands of miles of trackless steppe between them either. On 4th July 1861 a treaty was signed, Russian prisoners were repatriated  and both sides started to dismantle the railway tracks from the point of the furthest UNION advance as they retired back to the newly agreed borders. It was agreed each side would have the right to send small military patrols into Ukraine to monitor that the other side was not rebuilding the tracks.

The Russians realised that they had seriously underestimated the new nation in the west and determined never to do so again while they waited an opportunity to secure revenge !!!!! To the UNION the peace agreement came at just the right time as reports were starting to come in of a German/French military movement into the far north of the UNION.