Prologue, in which an unusual ship plows the waters of the Atlantic Ocean far from their home shores.
Oh, I would like to be in the land of cotton
The old days are not forgotten here.
("Dixie", unofficial anthem of the Southern Confederation)
For several days, a storm had been raging in the ocean. The lone ship, creaking with the rigging of its two masts and desperately smoking a pipe, went against the wind, cutting through the waves that rolled over it, taking away any loose objects from the deck. The reason for his unusual behavior was a sharp nose curved like the ancient triremes, thanks to which this ship was very similar to the black-sided ship of Odysseus. In the Bay of Biscay it was all the same: he was almost entirely hiding in the stormy ramparts, and they only very reluctantly released him from their captivity. It was especially hard for the stokers. They knew - the deck sailors, of course, told them that this was the "wettest" ship among all the others, and that if it was suddenly covered with more power, then … "it would not come out." This was doubly scary, but it was necessary to throw coal into the furnace. And the ship, the ship, continued in spite of everything to go forward and the waves, as before, beat against its metal sides.
Kotetsu is the first Japanese battleship.
Metal, because it was not just a ship, of which there were many, but the newest battleship, just built by order of the Confederation of the Southern States at the shipyards of the French city of Bordeaux. And now the steel Stonewall, named after General Jackson, "old Jackson" nicknamed "Stone Wall", was barely raking against the wind. But … in spite of everything he continued to go forward. So his captain even calmed down a little. After all, everything in life has to be paid for, he decided. His ship is the most powerful warship in the world, so constant dampness is not such a high price to pay for his invulnerability and powerful cannons. However, looking at the flag waving on its mast, he could hardly have imagined that it would change as much … six times, and as many as six times it will change its name and nationality! Yes, such was the fate of the southern battleship Stonewall, aka Sphinx, Sterkodder, Olinda, Kotetsu and Azuma - a ship of almost the most amazing fate in the world.
The first action, which deals with big politics, naval battles, and also that everything secret becomes clear!
"The glory of God is to clothe a secret business"
(Proverbs 25: 2).
In early 1861, lingering conflicts between the Northern and Southern states led to the formation of a confederation of 11 southern states and a split in the Union. On April 12, the Confederate Southerners fired at the Sumpter Unionist Fort, and soon the cannons began talking along the entire Mason-Dixon line. Initiative, officer cadres and belief in success - all this was on the side of the southerners. On the side of the northerners, there was also faith in success, numerical advantage, factories and money, and most importantly - the fleet! A month after the declaration of war, President Lincoln adopted the Anaconda plan, which was proposed by General Winfield Scott. It envisaged strangling the Confederation with a naval blockade that would deprive it of Europe's aid. But it turned out that the 12 ports belonging to the southerners were not so easy to block. True, the rebellious Confederation did not have a large military fleet, but it successfully used armed raider schooners. On April 17, the President of the Confederation, Jefferson Davis, announced that anyone can get a letter of marque and … plunder on the seas to their health! As a result, the actions of only three ships of the southerners: "Alabama", "Florida" and "Shenandoah" caused damage to the northerners in the amount of 15, 5 million dollars (while in 1867 all of Alaska will be acquired from Russia in just seven!), Well, all the losses of its merchant fleet from the actions of southern privateers, the United States was able to recover only … after forty years! But … the southerners also suffered losses, and there was nothing to recover them. Already in 1862, the blockade ring became much stronger than at the beginning, and the export of cotton to England fell to scanty volumes. The southerners tried to break the blockade in various exotic ways. Pole mines, submarines and steamers, armored with bales of cotton, were used.
Battleship Atlanta after its capture by the northerners. James River, Virginia.
"Gunboat" on Pumanki River. The calibers of the guns are simply impressive!
Finally, on March 8, 1862, the battleship Virginia attacked in the Hampton Roads roadstead and sank two ships of the northerners - the sloop Cumberland and the frigate Congress, although they fiercely fired at it. The rest of the squadron was saved only by another battleship - the famous "Monitor", but it was not a seaworthy ship and soon died in a storm off Cape Hatteras. And it was then that the southerners realized that one seaworthy battleship, built according to all the rules of naval science, could destroy the entire fleet of the northerners, and so there would be nothing to answer to this!
Submarine of the southerners "Hanley".
At that time there were only seven such ships in the whole world! Five in France: Gloire, Normandy, Invincible, Courogne and Magenta, and two in England, Warrior and Defense! And in order to buy modern ships in England or France, the government of the Southerners allocated a huge amount for that time - more than two million dollars in gold! Two battleships were ordered in England, but, as it turned out, the French were more successful: "Normandy", for example, had already twice by that time managed to cross the Atlantic Ocean, that is, its seaworthiness was obvious. Therefore, in March 1863, the Bordeaux shipyard received an order for two battleships 172 feet long, 33 feet high, and a displacement of 1,390 tons. Their speed had to be at least 13 knots, the side armor was 4.5 inches, the decks were 3.5 inches thick, and to them four more corvettes of 500 tons each, with 400 horsepower engines and 12-14 rifled guns. Two more of the same corvettes were ordered by the J. Voruz shipyard in Nantes. Moreover, it was emphasized that the battleships should have a shallow draft so that they could also act on the Mississippi.
La Gloire - Roux, François Geoffroy, 1859
Since it was a secret business - to build ships for the rebels, bypassing the norms of international law, this is where it goes, officially both English and French ships were supposedly built for the Egyptian fleet, so they were given the "Egyptian" names - "Sphinx" and "Cheops", but only everyone understood that it was a cover. It is interesting that it was planned to arm these "Egyptian" ships with all three cannons! One 229-mm gun and two 178-mm guns. Two fired seventy-pound cannonballs and one fired three-hundred-pound shells. Moreover, what this meant for the people of that time is best shown by the following example: the frigate of that time could have 50 guns, the ill-fated Virginia had the number of guns up to 12, and on the Sphinx with the Cheops they had to put everything … three! But the whole point was that the main weapon of these ships should have been not cannons, but a nose-ram in the manner of ancient triremes. That is, it was originally supposed to use them near the coast or on rivers, in shallow waters, where ships were forced to move slowly and could easily become victims of a ramming strike. After all, it was "Virginia" that sank two ships of the northerners at the Hampton Roads roadstead. But although France, the first to build the Magenta floating battery in 1859, which had a ram stem, already had such ships, in Europe this method of naval warfare was not seriously considered. As a result, they paid for their short-sightedness: just four years after the battle at Hampton Roads in the naval battle of Liss in 1866, the Austrian flagship Ferdinand Max, which did not even have onboard guns (it arrived on the "battlefield" directly from the shipyard in neutral Prussia), cut the Italian Re d'Italia in two with its steel hull, and the wooden battleship Kaiser rammed the battleship Re di Portogallo, which turned out to be invulnerable for its guns, but did not sink it. It is curious that the "Re d'Italia", built in New York in 1863, had a "trademark" ram nose, but Admiral Persano did not think of using it. The feat of the "Kaiser" and "Ferdinand" made such a strong impression on the naval strategists that, despite the obvious absurdity of rams on ships with guns that fired for miles, they began to put a nose pointed in the underwater part on all battleships, cruisers and even dreadnoughts up to World War II, and in the English navy, the instructions on the combat use of the ram were removed from the charter only in 1943!
Battle of Lisse ("Kaiser" rams "Re di Portogalo") Painting by E. Nesbeda.
But … all the secret becomes clear and the US Consul General John M. Byglaw learned about the secret contacts of the French administration and the southern "rebels". As a result, US Foreign Secretary William Dayton immediately sent a note of protest to the French Foreign Ministry. In response, Napoleon III, whom the press called the "Sphinx of the Tuileries," and who did not like being "put in a puddle" so stupidly like that, immediately arrested the "namesake". It became clear that the sky would sooner fall to the ground than the southerners would receive the ship they had ordered!
Act two, which deals with big politics, and that everything that is obvious has its own secret background.
“But they didn't understand any of this; these words were secret to them, and they did not understand what was said"
(Luke 18:34).
Throughout the 19th century, it was England that ruled the seas. And she lived … very well! As soon as any European power tried to become a hegemon, Great Britain immediately responded to this threat by trying to defeat the enemy's fleet and then strangle it with a naval blockade. Control over the seas gave England the ability to freely demolish India and China, Australia and New Zealand. When Russia tried to seize the Bosphorus and Dardanelles, the Crimean War immediately broke out. But in 1861 the USA and France became its new enemies. The French overtook Great Britain in the rate of increase in their navy and, thus, outstripped it in the colonial race, and the "Monroe Doctrine" - "America for the Americans!" blocked their way to the New World. The example with Mexico was also frightening. After all, there was an equally defenseless Canada nearby. When the Civil War broke out, Britain declared its neutrality and at the same time gave the southern separatists the status of a belligerent, which did not please Washington in any way. But the naval blockade, which violated the freedom of sea trade, hit not only the southern States, but also the factories of Manchester. In a dispatch to Lincoln, the US Ambassador to Russia Cassius Clay, who was a southerner by birth and an abolitionist northerner by conviction (after all, what amazing transformations of human nature took place at that time!), Wrote from St. Petersburg: “The position of England is visible at first glance … They are waiting for our defeat, they are jealous of our strength. They don't care about North and South, they hate both. " And the Canadians openly showed sympathy for the Confederates, and the northerners did not like it at all. They refused to sell weapons to the northern states and … allowed southerners to make sorties against the United States from Canadian territory. That's even how, that's what it came to! But the desire to mess with the United States was not backed up by force. Canada had neither a navy nor an army! But the worst thing was the very possibility of a victory for the northerners. What if they win and, with a huge army, send it to conquer Canada?
Lissa - Ludwig Rubelli von Sturmfes.
And the British were not afraid of this in vain! The fact is that three years before the war, in 1858, emigrants from Ireland created the “Irish Republican Brotherhood” in the USA, the purpose of which was to proclaim the separation of Ireland from Great Britain. The civil war in the United States gave the Irish a unique chance to create their own armed forces (since the Irish regiments fought for both northerners and southerners), which Irish extremists could well have sent to Canada (which, by the way, happened in 1868, when Irish veterans invaded Canada and defeated the Canadian militia at the Battle of Ridgway.
Thus, according to British politicians and the military, only a strike against the United States could protect British interests. To this end, the squadron of Admiral Alexander Milne in Bermuda was reinforced with 60 steam ships with 1273 cannons on board. A fleet of such strength could easily burn both New York and Boston, and the British had already burned Washington during the war of 1812. But who was supposed to help England in her actions against the United States? Well, of course, France, since this war also infringed its interests in some way. In April 1862, Lord Palmerston wrote: "On the other side of the canal lives a people who must hate us as a nation with all their hearts and will go to any sacrifice just to see England humiliated." But here it was necessary to know also the new French emperor Napoleon III.
There are people who, alas, do not know their place. This applies to both the lower and upper classes, and this is their tragedy. So Napoleon III sincerely believed that he was … great and could allow himself anything to say anything and do whatever he wanted to do. In Europe, for some reason, he got involved in the Italian wars, quarreled with both Austria and the British, who did not like the annexation of Nice and Savoy at all. For some reason he wanted to restore Poland within its former borders, which was not at all pleasant to the same Austria and, of course, Russia. And in the United States, he saw a dangerous force and believed that "… the United States will soon grow into such a power, which can only be balanced by Russia." I thought correctly, by the way. But what did he do?
Talking to Queen Victoria, Lord Russell said about the actions of Napoleon III: "It seems that the Emperor of France is following a system of undermining all governments in a difficult situation." And it was then that Mexican President Benito Juarez very opportunely refused to pay the debts that his predecessor, General Miramon, had incurred. He owed 40 million francs to the Spaniards, another 85 million to the British and, finally, 135 million (most of all!) To the French. The deceived bankers asked the governments of Great Britain, Spain and France to protect their interests, to which they replied that in November 1862 they landed in Mexico their expeditionary corps, inversely proportional to the amount of debts: 6,000 Spaniards, 2,500 French and 700 English soldiers. Having received guarantees of payment, all the interventionists returned to their homeland, but the French … remained. Napoleon needed Mexico itself: by June 1863, French forces on its territory had reached forty thousand soldiers, who completely occupied this country. The republic in Mexico was abolished, and the younger brother of the Austrian Catholic emperor Maximilian of Habsburg was placed on the throne of the newly-made Mexican monarchy. Now Napoleon III did not hide his sympathies for the southerners. Moreover, in September 1862, Napoleon even declared to the British ambassador that he was ready to recognize the independence of the South, if only Lord Palmerston did the same, although such recognition meant a war with the United States. Foreign Minister Edouard Touvenel in Brussels told US Minister Henry Sanford: “Our cotton stocks are practically exhausted, and we need cotton. France will not stop to get its own cotton.”Immediately, articles began to appear in the newspapers, "which northerners are bad", and the war itself, started by the southerners, was called nothing else but "Northern Aggression" ("aggression from the North"). The situation is very similar to some moments of what is happening today, isn't it? Moreover, neither Napoleon nor British politicians, for example, Treasury Secretary Gladstone, did not skimp on beautiful words: “Jefferson Davis and other leaders of the South created an army. Now they are building a navy, but they have created something more important: they have created a nation. " Well nonsense, isn't it? But … the nonsense said by the politician is no longer nonsense, but … "the point of view of the ruling cabinet" and it must be reckoned with!
Battle of Chancellorsville. Library of Congress
In December 1862, the northerners were defeated by the southerners at Friedrichsberg, at the beginning of 1863 they suffered a humiliating defeat at Chancellorsville, General Lee marched on Washington. That is, it seems that a favorable moment has come to fulfill the "eleventh commandment of God": "Push the falling one!" But … in old Europe, far from all was well. Austria was at war with Italy, Prussia was about to come to grips with Denmark, the Poles revolted in the Russian empire and revolted not just like that, but in order to make Russia pliable.
The fact is that since the spring of 1862, both French and British diplomats literally besieged Alexander II, inviting him to join their anti-American alliance, but the Russian emperor considered the Anglo-American rivalry the best defense against the hegemonic aspirations of the British and did not succumb to persuasion. … In 1862, Russian Foreign Minister Alexander Gorchakov sent a letter to US Ambassador Bayard Taylor, which said: “Only Russia has stood by your side from the very beginning and will continue to do so. Above all, we desire the preservation of the American Union as an undivided nation. Proposals were made to Russia to join the intervention plans. Russia will reject any proposals of this kind. You can count on us. The weakening of the United States was simply unprofitable for the Russians, so the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prince A. M. Gorchakov hastened to reassure the new US ambassador to Russia, Cassius Clay, that "secession of the South will be viewed by Russia as the greatest of all possible misfortunes." And here's what is surprising: the cooperation of both the "largest republic in the world" and, at the same time, "the greatest despotism in the world" turned out to be not only possible, but even very strong, since they were both then threatened by … democratic England and … monarchist France. It was a very turbulent time: Alexander Herzen was hiding in London, calling Russia to the ax, in the Caucasus they killed the freedom-loving Avar horsemen Shamil with bayonets, and Polish insurgents were hiding in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, who fought "for our and your freedom" - he is still a salad, isn't it? ! And under these conditions, in April 1863, the ambassadors of England, France and Austria turned to Gorchakov with a statement that their governments were counting on an early solution to the "Polish question", and then they already demanded the convocation of a European conference to jointly discuss the structure of the future Kingdom of Poland. Refusal could have led to war, but here, in September 1863, warships of the Russian Imperial Navy under the command of Rear Admirals S. S. Lisovsky and A. A. Popov.
Admiral S. S. Lisovsky.
And these were by no means sailboats, but steam ships with rifled guns, which, in the event of war, could instantly destroy the maritime trade of both England and France. Unsurprisingly, the Russian sailors received the most cordial welcome imaginable and literally carried them in their arms. And here is what Ambassador Clay wrote on his return from Russia to the States: “I have done more than anyone else to eliminate slavery. I saved Russia for us and, thus, prevented its alliance against us with France, England and Spain, thus I saved the country. This is the role that Russia played then.
Captains of Russian ships that arrived in America. From left to right: P. A. Zelena (clipper "Almaz"), I. I. Butakov (frigate "Oslyabya"), M. Ya. Fedorovsky (frigate "Alexander Nevsky"), Admiral S. S. Lisovsky (squadron commander), N. V. Kopytov (frigate "Peresvet"), O. K. Kremer, (corvette "Vityaz"), R. A. Lund (corvette "Varyag").
And three months before the approach of the Russian squadron, the northerners won an important military victory at Gettysburg, suppressed the uprising in New York and then decisively taught the Japanese nationalists a lesson in Simononesseki, subjecting the city to a crushing bombardment. And everyone saw that the hands of the Yankees did not become shorter at all, and with the help of Russia, they became generally invulnerable. The balance of power immediately changed dramatically. It became unprofitable to fight in Canada and Mexico at once, since it was impossible to transfer many troops there at once. Moreover, the Russian squadrons stayed in the United States for more than a year, until the last centers of resistance were defeated in Poland and the Caucasus, and the northerners defeated the southerners at Wigsburg.
"Battle of Gettysburg" - Tour de Tullstrup.
But it was all big politics. And what happened at that time with the ships that were built for the southerners in France? And what happened was that in the same September 1863, the intelligence of the northerners got irrefutable evidence of the secret military orders of the southerners in France. It was a typical casus belli, which in the new conditions of France I really wanted to avoid. In October, the head of the shipbuilding company suggested that the southerners pick up the unfinished ship, but it was too late. The battleship came to the attention of the northerners along with the Cheops and all six corvettes, and although there was no direct evidence that all this was being prepared for the Confederate fleet, the French preferred to get rid of the Sphinx, namely, to sell it to "clean hands.", that is, a country that has not tainted itself with any alliances hostile to the United States!
Location of the first shot at Gettysburg Field.
