Tennessee River part 2

Opposing Forces

            In the land between the Mississippi and Tennessee Rivers the First Army had four divisions in place; the 14^th Infantry Division, 21^st Cavalry Division (dismounted), 61^st Ohio Guard and 73^rd Nebraska Guard. The latter two divisions were those of militia, recently reorganized as the National Guard. Pershing’s First Army HQ sat miles behind the line on the Kentucky-Tennessee Border in a town called Fulton.

            The paper strength of the seventy mile stretch of land between the rivers hovered around one hundred thousand in the four divisions as well as a number of artillery regiments covering the front. In reality, strength at the start of 1914 after six months of war peaked at 74% in the 21^st Cavalry and stood as low as 66% for the Ohio Guard. At the cost of more than thirty thousand dead and sixty thousand wounded, the First Army managed to push twenty-four miles into Tennessee since the outbreak of hostilities.

            The First Army’s total strength of five hundred thousand was spread across twenty divisions and fifteen regiments and covered the entire state. For his upcoming push, Pershing transferred the bulk of reserves, one hundred thousand soldiers, to staging areas between the rivers. When the spearhead of the offensive broke through Confederate line, reserves would be sent ahead to exploit the opening.

            The Army of Tennessee’s total strength numbered at four hundred thousand men in twenty divisions, mostly of Tennessean origin. Covering the land between the rivers, Sylvester deployed the 31^st Mississippi, 12^th Arkansas and 8^th Tennessee Cavalry with the 28^th Tennessee kept as strategic reserve. In total, paper strength of eighty thousand entrenched soldiers countered Pershing’s one hundred thousand. In reality, the Confederate battle-ready numbers were lower than the Union counterparts, with the 8^th Tennessee Cavalry having the highest at 61%.

            Army of Tennessee’s headquarters sat closer to the front line in Nashville, which sat within range of the longest-range artillery pieces in the First Army. Sylvester situated the bulk of his forces around the State capital and had offensive plans of his own. To cover the land between the rivers, he placed Lieutenant General Robert Samson of the 12^th Arkansas in command, headquartered in Milan, Tennessee.

Operational Planning

            Confederate planning in Tennessee revolved around keeping the United States out of Nashville. During the spring of 1914, several divisions were brought forward to the Nashville area in an anticipated counter-offensive, one that at the very least would push the Union out of firing range of Nashville and at the best back into Kentucky. The war in Tennessee was always a nightmare scenario in Richmond. Whereas Virginia had the Potomac River and the western States had wide stretches of land for maneuvering, Tennessee had little in the way of natural barriers.

            Aside from the Cumberland River, only minor branches and tributaries flowed from east to west, and these would only provide a minor delay when they ran high. It was believed by the Confederate Army General Staff that the land between the Mississippi and the Tennessee would be the most vulnerable to attack. It was also believed that the two rivers would provide barriers to Union advances in the State. The Confederate Navy deployed a number of river monitors in defense of the region.

            John Pershing’s plan for attack involved a massive push in the land between the rivers, what he called Mesopotamia in his dispatches and reports. Tennessee’s east-west defenses were formidable, but its north-south axis was not as well guarded. At the beginning of July 1914, the First Army, spearheaded by the 14^th Infantry and 21^st Cavalry would drive deep into Mesopotamia. It would be the opening act in Operation Babylon.

            Pershing’s proposal was to drive south to a depth of at least fifty miles and swing eastward, crossing the Tennessee River with the objective of cutting Nashville off from the south. The ultimate goal of the operation was the capture of Nashville and the collapse of Confederate lines in the State by the end of 1914. It was hoped that when 1915 began, the United States Army would be poised to invade the Deep South.

            Not all of his commanders believed it was a good plan. If it worked, then it would be brilliant, but the odds of success were low in the opinion of his generals. The most vocal opponent was the commander of the 21^st Cavalry, Lieutenant General Samuel Arnold. Like Pershing he too graduated from Fort Arnold, a fort that was named for his family. Samuel Arnold was the descendant of American Revolution hero Benedict Arnold who fell in the Battle of Saratoga. The Arnold family served for generations in the United States Army and their opinions were always heard.

            He, and a few other senior officers, believed the focus of Operation Babylon should be Memphis. With Memphis firmly in Union hands, the United States could drive hard into Mississippi towards New Orleans, and cut the Confederate States in two. Instead of crossing the Tennessee River, the river should be used to protect the First Army’s flank as it storms towards Memphis. Cutting the Confederacy in half would be the first step in divide-and-conquer.

            His proposal did have merits; however Pershing countered that while the United States was at war with Britain and its dominion in the north, the First Army would not receive the reinforcements required to hold Memphis while defending the Tennessee River boundary. On the other hand, if Nashville was outflanked and Tennessee knocked out of the war, then cutting the CSA in half would be far easier. As Pershing was the commanding general and had the confidence of the President and General Staff in Philadelphia, he would decide the path that the First Army would take and that path led to Nashville.

Tennessee River part 1

Prelude

            For the first time in days, Private Wesley Hankinson listened to a world of silence. The silence was not complete for he could hear the engines of hundreds of boats and barges and splashing of thousands of soldiers crossing the Tennessee River. For the past three days, the United States Army opened up on the east bank of the Tennessee with the largest artillery barrage in history. Rumor had it that more than a million shells were flung at Confederate positions on the opposite side of the river.

            There was hope in the replacements that such an awesome display of firepower would have killed the Confederates for a depth of ten miles. The veterans knew better. Hankinson spent the month of July fighting along with other soldiers of the US First Army through the Tennessee countryside. He understood little of the overall objective of the battle, save that the brass hoped to break the State of Tennessee. Hankinson did not know much about breaking the state, but he could testify to the line of broken soldiers behind him.

            On the first day of the battle, July 6, his platoon was reduced by half. July 7 saw it halved again, until all that remained combat ready was a squadron worth of soldiers. On July 6, before he went over the top, his Lieutenant assured him the three days of bombardment would break the enemy positions. In truth, it did not even destroy the barbed wire obstacle and his first commanding officer lay dead, entangled in one of those obstacles.

            His new officer, a recent Fort Arnold graduate that replaced a sergeant who served as a competent acting platoon commander, made the same promises. Replacement privates took him at his word. Hankinson knew better, as did Sergeant Vincent Corelli. Both veterans would live to see another sunrise. Their lieutenant would not be so lucky. Before Hankinson crossed the river, Confederate positions opened up on the defenseless soldiers.

            Machine gun fire cut down entire lines of advancing soldiers, many never setting foot on dry land again. So many were killed in the crossing that the Tennessee River went from a dirty hue to blood red. Hankinson sought cover on his barge and prayed that none of the bullets flying had his name upon it. As it would turn out, Confederate gunners were not his only problem. American artillery opened up on the Confederates waiting on the eastern bank, with many of their rounds falling short and landing in boats full of their own soldiers.

            The chaos that was the Battle of the Tennessee River had its genesis fifty years before the Great War. During the War Between the States, Union forces initially made progress through Tennessee and the state appeared to be on the verge of being brought back into the Union when the great disaster east of the Appalachians drew foreigners into what should have been an American affair. The United Kingdom recognized and supported he Confederate struggle while France offered to mediate peace between the two parties.

            The advances in Tennessee were not in vain, for the sacrifices of tens of thousands of Union soldiers ensured that Kentucky would remain within the Union. Strategic planners in the US Army after the war believed a Confederate Kentucky would have extended the war by a year and perhaps ended it in a stalemate. The Confederate States fought hard in the peace conference to take Kentucky, and more importantly the Ohio River boundary. A compromise was reached where any Kentuckians who wished to leave Kentucky would be free to do so. Virtually all of the large land, and slave owning Kentuckians departed for the Confederacy. Their vacancies were quickly filled by settlers from Northern cities and Europe, creating a staunchly pro-Union population.

            With Kentucky in the Union, the United States would always have a dagger aimed at the heart of the Confederacy. In the east, the CSA had the Potomac River. In the west, they had wide open desert. In the middle they had a wide open and heavily populated border. With the Tennessee River running north through Kentucky and into the Ohio, any planters wishing to ship to New Orleans had to pass through American customs. The difficult access prompted an expansion in railroad throughout Tennessee, which not only allowed goods to reach Confederate ports without travelling through the United States, but also allowed the Confederate Army to ship large numbers of soldiers where and when they were needed.

            Between 1880 and 1900, the Confederate States constructed more than a hundred fortresses along the border and manned them with more than a hundred thousand soldiers. The militarization of the Kentucky-Tennessee border was a two-way street. In Kentucky, the United States Army matched the Confederates fort-for-fort and expanded Fort Knox and Fort Boone, the former home to three cavalry divisions, including the 21^st Cavalry. The heavy build up on both side of the border guaranteed Tennessee would see some of the bloodiest fighting in the Great War.

Leaders

            The Battle of the Tennessee River would see the participation of no less than one hundred officers of the rank of brigadier general or higher. Many of these personalities clashed during the battle and in planning the battle. The fight was not always North vs. South, but often squabbles broke out between division and regiment commanders. The two men placed in charge of North and South fought as much with their own subordinates as they did with their opposite numbers.

            In command of the United States First Army was one of the more experienced American commanders, General John Pershing. Pershing was born in 1860 in Missouri. As a child living in a Border State he was introduced to realities of war at a young age. Though the war never struck Missouri beyond the ranging of cavalry raids, a number of volunteers returned home from the war, defeated and maimed. One of the crippled was an uncle. Without an arm he could no longer make a living and eventually drank himself to death.

            He graduated from high school in 1878 and applied for admission into the military academy at Fort Arnold in 1880. In the two years between, Pershing spent his time as a teacher, educating rural Missourians, including a number of black refugees from Arkansas and Tennessee. He graduated Fort Arnold in 1884, in time to see combat out west in the Third Anglo-American war. He fought in a number of skirmishes against the British in Minnesota and Lakota while serving in the 6^th Cavalry Regiment.

            Following the end of the war in 1885, Captain Pershing was assigned as a White officer in the 10^th Cavalry Regiment, popularly known as the Buffalo Soldiers. The largely Black regiment was assigned the less flattering positions during the closing years of the Indian Wars. His success in commanding in the 10^th, as well as his praising of the Black soldiers earned him the nickname of ‘Black Jack’ Pershing. What his detractors called him was far less flattering.

            In 1897, then Lieutenant Colonel Pershing transferred to Fort Arnold as an instructor. In 1904, he was promoted and assigned as a staff officer to the 21^st Cavalry in Kentucky. In 1908, he obtained the rank of Brigadier General and by 1912; he ranked high in the General Staff of the US First Army. It was not until early 1914, and six months of fighting was he elevated to overall command of the First Army and the Tennessee Front.

            His opposite number lacked the years of experience but not the education. James E. Sylvester III was born to a plantation owning family in northern Georgia in 1865, during the height of the War Between the States. In 1883, family connections earned him an appointment to the Virginia Military Academy. Upon graduation in 1887, he was assigned to the Army of the Pacific and fought in the wars against the Apache. His experience in warfare before the Great War never extended beyond platoon or company level tactics against guerrilla fighters.

            His appointment to the General Staff of the Army of Tennessee was largely a political appointment, a favor owed by one of the Confederacy’s political families to his own. Sylvester had political ambitions since his youth, and if one path to office was certain in the Confederate States it was one that led through military command. By the start of the war, all but one of the Confederate Presidents and more than half of its Senators served in the armed forces. Ultimately his ambition would never be fulfilled for he and the Confederacy eventually ran out of time.

32nd State

1817: As a result of constant troubles with the Seminole Indians raiding into southern Georgia, an American army under the command of Andrew Jackson invaded the Spanish colony in pursuit of the raiders. The First Seminole War results in American control of East Florida. Spain was discovered to be little more than a shadow of its former self. The Napoleonic Wars as well as revolutions in Spanish colonies has left Spain a second- or third-rate power.
Jackson proposes to continue his campaign to Cuba after he defeated the Seminole. With a small navy, the United States was in little position to invade any island colony. President James Monroe and Congress reject his request.

1818: Jackson calls on the people to aid him in his quest for Cuba. 500 volunteers from South Carolina, and addition 800 from Georgia, 300 more from Tennessee and 400 from Alabama and Mississippi rally to Jackson’s banner, swelling his army to nearly five thousand. Ship captains out of New Orleans offer their services to Jackson as do pirates and former privateers operating along the Gulf Coast.
2500 volunteers land in Havana on August 3, taking the city by surprise. Cubanos are divided on how they should respond. Some were still angry over the suspension of the 1814 Constitution and see the invasion as an opportunity. They believe a better deal would be offered by the United States than by Spain. Others opposed the invaders, not trusting the Americans. Havana erupts in civil war as Peninsulars and Creoles begin fighting amongst themselves.
Spain is furious over the invasion of Florida and Cuba and threatens war with the United States. They protest from a poor position. With wars raging across South America, they are hardly in the position of fighting another war. Havana falls into Jackson’s hands and the Spanish Captain-General flees into the interior of the island.

1819: Adams-Onis signed. The United States purchases East Florida and Cuba for ten million dollars, nearly as much as they paid for all of Louisiana. Spain puts the ten million to use in its colonial wars. One of the articles in the treaty guaranteed the property rights of the Cubanos.

1820: West and East Florida merged into Florida Territory. Cuba Territory established. Southerners begin to flock to Cuba. The old Spanish caste system is swept aside and replaced by the Dixie caste system. Peninsulars and Creoles are lumped together and Mestizos are classified as Indians. The fate of the Free Blacks on the island appears grim as many leave the island for Haiti.

1820s: Many of the settlers try to transplant Southern cash crops like sugar and tobacco on the island while the most enterprising enter into the sugar industry. Thanks to the labor-intensive and occasionally dangerous sugar fields Cuba becomes the new feared location for all American slaves. The sudden demand for labor on the rapidly expanding Cuban plantations causes a flow of slaves from Virginia and Kentucky to the island, bringing their former owners substantial profit.

1824: Jacksonville established on Matanzas Bay across from the old Spanish colonial city of Matanzas. It becomes the choice destination for immigrants. Despite property rights guaranteed to all Cubanos, the same equality did not exist elsewhere. Jacksonville was to be a White-only city. Mestizos and free Blacks were barred from living in the city. Naturally, despite the White-only law slaves were allowed within the city. By 1844, they make up fifteen percent of the population.
Jacksonville attempts to take the territorial governorship away from Havana, but after meeting with strong opposition of the White Cubanos, the proposal was abandoned. Early attempts to have English as the official language of the territory met with limited success.

1832: Samuel Wilson builds the largest rum distillery in Cuba at Jacksonville. He soon earns the title of Rum King. Where cotton was king on the mainland, sugar ruled the island. Plantation owners were quick to abandon cotton in favor of sugar. Small land owners dabble in sugar but lack the manpower and stick with tobacco. The grab for land pushes many poorer land-owners, such as the Mestizos, out of the prime real estate for sugar. The disposed settle further inland, taking up tobacco planting and cattle ranching.

1830s: Coffee planting catches on with American settlers. As with sugar, coffee is a labor intensive industry and the largest land and slave owners profit the most from its cultivation. Sugar remains king but coffee quickly takes its place as archduke. Most of the sugar and coffee produced in Cuba are destined for American ports, including those with a growing abolition movement. Anti-slavery factions point at Cuba Territory as a prime example of the institution’s evil. At the same time they benefit from the produce of slave labor.

1837: Indian Removal Act. Territorial politicians and land-hungry plantation owners try to have the act amended to classify Mestizos as Indians under Federal Law and have them removed from the island. The attempt fails.

1840s: European immigrants flock to the island, giving it the highest immigration rate of any Southern State or Territory. Many of the immigrants come from the British Isles and bring with them anti-slavery sentiments. Tens of thousands of Irelanders arrive following the famine in their homeland. Cuba is a popular destination because of its large Spanish, and more importantly Catholic population. Havana swells in size, becoming the largest Catholic city in the South by 1853.

1851: Cuba admitted into the Union as the Thirty-Second State. For the State’s first governor, the people elect Samuel Wilson. Statehood for Cuba was a rushed ordeal as it was a counter to the Free State of California. Southern Senators try to block California’s admission, going as far as to filibuster. Southerners in Cuba meet in Havana to quickly draft a Slave State Constitution. Much was borrowed from the Constitutions of Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina. Cuba admitted on July 14, almost a year after California.
The balance of free to slave in the Senate would continue through the decade with the admission as Slave States of Sonora in 1852, Chihuahua in 1855, Kansas in 1858 as part of the Kansas-Nebraska Compromise and Durango in 1859, all to counter Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and Oregon respectively. When the list of Slave Territories ran low, tensions between Northern and Southern interests began to rise. The rejection of slavery in recently acquired Costa Rica by abolitionist settlers brought fears in the South of being overrun by anti-slavery immigrants.

1865: Following the election of a strongly anti-slavery Republican President, one Abraham Lincoln, several of the Southern States voted to secede from the Union. A vote was held in Havana by a group of self-appointed delegates. Few were elected and most were large land-owners. The vote to join the Confederate States passed by 71%.
Not all Cubans were reconciled with leaving the Union and fighting between pro-secessionist and anti-secessionists ranges in most of the large cities. Only Jacksonville was exempt from the fighting. After the end of the War Between the States, anti-secessionists and remaining free Blacks left the island either for Costa Rica Territory or the British colonies. Despite a treaty between the CSA and United Kingdom, British officials refused to return any escaped slaves that were discovered among the free Blacks.
The departure of Cubans was quickly negated by the arrival of Kentuckians and their slaves to the island, following Kentucky’s decision to remain in the Union. Smaller numbers arrive from Missouri, Maryland and Delaware.

1870s: Cuba continues to be the top destination of immigration to the CSA. In 1873, it saw more immigrants arrive in its ports than did the rest of the CSA combined. Throughout the decade, nearly thirty percent of immigrants chose Cuba. Even with these added numbers, the total immigration to the Confederate States was only one-fourth that to the United States. Between 1867 and 1885, the population of Cuba doubles. Change in demographics gives Cuba a far more liberal view than the rest of the Confederate States.

1882: Start of the Third Anglo-American War, lasts until 1885. The Confederate States remain neutral in the fight, though British ships visit ports in Cuba.

1893: Passage of 1892 Slave Codes in the many States of the CSA. Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina and Arkansas pass legislation allowing for the gradual manumission of slaves. Durango, Chihuahua and Sonora end slavery outright. Manumission was called on by the former States as a form of compensation to the landed interests for eventual loss of property. The latter States never had large numbers of slaves. The Deep South and Cuba restrict slavery to the agricultural sector.

1890s: Then end of a drastic linguistic shift that began in the 1860s. Due to immigration from abroad and migration from within the CSA, Spanish is largely replaced by English throughout the State. Spanish continues to be in use but only in the countryside and in Mestizo communities.

1900s: Cuba becomes the top tourist destination for Confederate middle class. As of 1900, Cuba and the four western States were the only ones that were not under the prohibition of alcohol. Tourists from the Eastern Seaboard flock to Cuban cities for vacations. Havana also becomes a top destination for the wealthy of the United States.
The growing tourist industry causes some to lobby the State Assembly to amend the 1892 Code to allow for the use of slaves in tourism. Owners of hotels and other attractions argue that slaves would lower their costs in the long-run, while opponents declare the use of slaves would tarnish the city’s image to non-Confederates, causing them to seek their enjoyment in the Bahamas or other British possessions.

1913: Start of the Great War. The CSA is at war with the USA and Germany on the side of Britain, France and Russia. CSN bases a squadron of cruisers at Havana and operates submarines out of Guantanamo. Confederate 2nd Fleet relocated from New Orleans to Havana, which is later effectively destroyed at the Battle of Grand Bahama, leaving Cuba defenseless.

1915: American invasion of Cuba. United States Marines land at Guantanamo. The city is taken by surprise. The return of the United States to Cuba is met with mixed responses. The Mestizo population was divided on whether or not to support the CSA or USA. As was the White population, though not nearly as evenly. Those who supported the USA were landless and small-time land owners, while the wealthy and those with the most to lose continued to support the CSA. Nationalism played a much larger role in the White community as the Mestizos were viewed by many plantation owners and politicians as only a step above Blacks in the social hierarchy.

1916: Following the governor of Tennessee, Governor Thomas Ridgefield sues the United States for a separate peace. By 1916, the eastern half of the island is already under US occupation and under blockade; Cuba can expect no further aid from the government in Richmond. Cuban militia stands down and regular army and Marine Corps units continue the fight until the end of the war.

1920s: The Roaring Twenties were the height of Reconstruction. Many laws established while part of the CSA were retained by the occupied States. The most notable exception being that of slavery, which was abolished in the United States by a Constitutional Amendment shortly after the end of the War Between the States. Diehard Confederates cause trouble for occupying forces during the 1920s.
As alcohol is still prohibited in most of the occupied States, Cuban smugglers make fortunes as run runners. Where most of the former Confederate States are hot beds for resentment against the Federal soldiers, Cuba begins to grow prosperous once again thanks to a booming tourist industry and high demand for coffee and sugar.

1921: Five years after the end of the Great War, Cuba is the first of the former Confederate States readmitted to the Union. 

1927: Gambling legalized in Cuba. Casinos of extralegal origins operate within the State for decades.

1930s: Parts of the mob move from Chicago and New York to Havana, start takeover of the gambling industry. In the decade, Havana quickly earns the nickname of Sin City. The only city to rank lower on the morality scale was that of Santiago, just outside of a major naval and Marine Corps base at Guantanamo.

1940s: Throughout the decades of the 1940s and 1950s, a small war was waged against corruption. As the mob families of Havana grew in wealthy and influence, they soon began to purchase State Assemblymen, mayors, governors and even a Senator. In the two decades, Cuban law enforcement and the FBI chipped away at mob power.

1961: Disneyworld opened in Jacksonville. The institution is welcomed by Cubans and lauded as a first step in cleaning up the State’s image as Cuba begins to lose Tourist revenue to Florida and the Bahamas Territory.

1962: Castro Enterprises founded. La Habana resort opened the following year. It was the first non-mafia owned Casino in Havana in decades. La Habana extended beyond gambling to numerous forms of entertainment suited for all ages. It was a model for the family-friendly model Las Vegas would adopt in the 1990s.

1965: Guantanamo Launch Center opened. It becomes the center of American manned space exploration.

1970s: Cuba’s image cleaned up. Corruption is largely eradicated and those mobsters not imprisoned went legitimate. Despite the decrease in crime and corruption, a new vice strikes the city in the form of cocaine. Havana becomes the Cocaine Capital of America.

1980s: Elder Americans begin to migrate out of large northern cities for retirement homes in Cuba, in an attempt to escape winter. The influx of retired persons creates a greater demand in the housing industry and drives prices upwards.

1990s: Biotech boom revolutionizes the Cuban economy. For the first time in its history the island does not depend upon cash crops or tourism for a large source of its revenue. As with the influx of retirees, the influx of high-paid professionals further drives up housing costs. With an aging population in the major cities, Cuba develops one of the highest quality medical systems in the Union, with the medical center of the University of Cuba ranking #1 in the United States.

State of Cuba
Statehood: July 14, 1851
Population: 22,314,555
Area: 110,861 km2
Capital: Havana
Largest City:Havana
Crops: Sugar, coffee, tobacco, tropical fruit
Resources: Timber, oil 
Industry: Tourism, medical, biotechnology

New book online

I finished and published Hostile Waters. Its one in what may eventually be a series of books about the fighting in North America between 1913 and 1916 (it's a different Great War from the one in AHN). I even sold a copy before I posted that I finished it.

Admission into the Union

Something I salvaged from the original AHN. I plan on using it for some other projects, like 32nd State and the Great War battlefield. A couple of notes; Kansas was admitted as a slave State due to the Kansas-Nebraska Compromise. Durango is the only southern State to not originally be a slave State, though it was forced into the CSA. That threw off the whole free-slave balance in the Senate which led to a later Civil War. A couple have N/A in the admission date slot; those were territories first admitted as States in the CSA, and thus joined the Union after the Restoration.

1) Delaware (DE): 12/7/1787

2) Pennsylvania (PE): 12/12/87

3) New Jersey (NJ): 12/18/87

4) Georgia (GE): 1/2/88 (12/15/1932)

5) Connecticut (CT): 1/9/88

6) Massachusettes (MA): 2/6/88

7) Maryland (MD): 4/28/88

8) South Carolina (SC): 5/23/88 (7/13/1937)

9) New Hampshire (NH): 6/12/88

10) Virginia (VI): 6/25/88

11) New York (NY): 7/26/88

12) North Carolina (NC): 12/21/89 (6/13/32)

13) Rhode Island (RI): 5/29/90

14) Vermont (VT): 3/3/91 -F

15) Iroquois (IQ): 11/15/91 -F

16) Kentucky (KY): 6/1/92 -S

17) Tennessee (TN): 6/1/93 (4/5/1933) -S

18) Ohio (OH): 3/1/1800 –F

19) Louisiana (LO): 4/30/12 (10/10/1935) –S

20) Indiana (IN): 12/11/16 –F

21) Mississippi (MS): 12/10/17 (6/14/1938) –S

22) Illinois (IL): 12/3/18 –F

23) Alabama (AL): 12/14/19 (6/14/1938) –S

24) Maine (ME): 3/15/20 –F

25) Missouri (MR): 8/10/21 –S

26) Arkansas (AK): 6/15/36 (2/15/1929) –S

27) Michigan (MI): 1/27/37 –F

28) Florida (FL): 3/3/45 (5/12/1938) –S

29) Texas (TX): 12/29/45 (12/19/1931) –S

30) Wisconsin (WI): 5/29/48 –F

31) California (CA): 9/9/50 -F

32) Cuba (CU): 7/14/51 (7/18/1924) -S

33) Iowa (IO): 12/28/51 –F

34) Sonora (SO): 6/6/52 (8/21/29) –S

35) Chihuahua (CH): 5/5/55 (7/17/20) –S

36) Minnesota (MN): 5/11/55 –F

37) Kansas (KN): 1/29/58 –S

38) Nebraska (NB): 4/12/58 –F

39) Oregon (OR): 2/14/59 –F

40) Durango (DU): 6/7/59 (12/26/19) –F

41) Nevada (NV): 4/12/64 –F

42) Costa Rica (CR): 8/12/69 –F

43) Lakota (LK): 11/2/89

44) Montana (MT): 11/8/89

45) Washington (WA): 11/11/89

46) Idaho (ID): 7/4/90

47) Wyoming (WY): 7/10/90

48) Utah (UT): 1/4/96

49) Arizona (AZ): 1/30/1909

50) Jefferson (JE): N/A (7/22/30)

51) Cascadia (CS): 8/15/33

52) Oklahoma (OK): N/A (12/7/41)

Territories

53) Oahu (OA)

54) Bahamas (BA)

55) Marianas (MX)

Order of admission) State (abr): admission date -slave/free (readmission)

Magic of the Stardust Sequence (basics)

Magic in the Stardust Sequence is divided into six elements: fire, water, wind, earth, sun and life. Users who specialize in any of the elements are identified by the color of robes they wear:

red = fire

blue = water

white = wind

brown= earth

yellow = sun

green = life

Thus a Red Mage would be use fire magic, a Green Mage use life magic, etc.

Society's view of magic varies from world to world. On some worlds magic users are outcasts and often hunted down. Obviously, anyone hunting a mage would have problems if they ever ran into a mage of real power. Try to imagine Dark Age Europe, when witches were burned at the stake. How well would the Inquisition fair against a witch that actually had power.

On other worlds, magic is the domain of religious orders. On Mylo and Apocalypse, mages are the priests. None are born with any power, and spend a great deal of time studying the art and meditating. Casting spells in these instances is not that different from praying.

I can imagine magic on more technologically advanced worlds. Those might have regulatory agencies where mages would have to register. Now that sort of system is just a big box of trouble waiting to be opened.

Gentle Giants

Homo giganticus

            Homo giganticus, commonly known as Ogres, stand at 2.5 meters in height and have a mass of nearly two hundred kilograms. In the most ancient of days, before the Atlantians even left the Homeworld, Ogres were engineered as both guards and soldiers. It was hoped that they could protect continental territories from the wild humans, or perhaps to even help conquer them and bring all of the Homeworld under Atlantian control. They were successfully engineered to be large, and their pudgy faces look fearsome, however, the production of soldiers was not a success. Ogres were made large, but do to a limited understanding (at the time) of the human genome, ogres were also made docile. The Atlantians made the mistake of assuming there was one hundred thousand genes in something as complex as a human, as opposed to only around 25% of that. They also assumed each gene did one thing, instead of combinations of the same genes doing different things. They changed one thing about the ogres, and that had unintended consequences. Though they will defend themselves and their children, ogres are quite non-aggressive. Though they were made as soldiers, they simply wished to live their lives in peace.

         

   Their large size, produced by inserting a gene that causes gigantism, also reduces their natural lifespan to forty years, though increasing standards of living and medical technology can extend this up to sixty years (this must be noted as the exception, not the rule). Though ogres can live beyond forty, they would be considered elders, similar to a sapien of over sixty. Ogres are mostly farmers, but when conditions turn unfavorable they will move into cities in search of work. Despite their fearsome appearances, ogres are rather friendly and sociable. Their looks and dimensions tend to put off other species of humanity from interacting with them. They are also fiercely loyal. If a friend is in trouble, an ogre will drop everything to go to their aid.

       

     Ogre families rarely extend beyond two generation within a household. Those ogres who live past forty are considered honored elders, and tend serve as mayors and councils while the younger ogres work. Though they are still physically able to work, ogre society values the elder’s life experiences, and believes the honored elders could best serve the community by guiding it, and hopefully preventing younger ogres from making the same mistakes as the elders. Despite their friendly nature, ogres disperse and live in individual houses. As soon as the young are old enough to give back to their community, they leave their parents and either move in, or build their own housing. Their size makes having large groups living together rather crowded.

Masked strangers

Homo Aureus

            The Ancient Atlantians were masters of genetic engineering. They created the Giganticus (a relative failure) around AY 1700. Almost two thousand years later, they created the pygmaeus (a success). In both instances, they were creating new species of humans to suit their purpose. The case of Aureus, commonly known as the elf, was of a group of sapiens attempting to improve themselves. Atlantians had always used engineering in future generation. Middle Class Atlantians used the technology to alter their own offspring’s’ DNA before they were born, eliminating diseases and traits society (culturally speaking) deemed undesirable. The elves were different. The wealthy of Atlantis sought a way to make themselves perfect, starting in the 26^th Atlantian Century. Their immune systems can knock aside diseases that would incapacitate a sapien.

       

     The average elf stands the same height as a sapien. However, they are slender in build, a sign of dignity and nobility to the Ancients, and a sort of ideal physique. Their DNA was altered to extend their lifespans to over two hundred fifty years. Elves also age far slower than any other species of humanity. Their faces have high cheek bones, prominent noses, and a generally arrogant look. Their skin is smooth and rarely blemished. For other species of humans, these traits are largely assumed as elves are in the habit of wearing metallic masks when dealing with non-elves. From their view, non-elves were unworthy of looking upon the perfection of the “golden ones”.  The type of mask worn is also a status symbol. Wealthy and prominent elves wear masks of gold or platinum possibly studded with jewels; while the poorest of elves wear ones of shinning bronze or light-weight aluminum give sufficient technology to produce the metal.

         

   Despite their light build, elves are strong. They might not have large muscles, but all they do have are very highly toned. They are also quick, easily the swiftest of all humans. Elves value athletics and appearance. Elves are vein by nature, and quickly judge others by the way that they look. Elf society is also generally aristocratic, where which family one is born into usually determines their future.

         

   Elves have generated around themselves a culture that declares they are superior to other sapiens. This has not endured them to their neighbors. The fact that elves are generally seen to stand for wealth, royalty, fat cats, and every other thing that is viewed as wrong with humanity, drives other species away from them. Elves live in self-segregation. However, since elves dislike manual labor, those that do not have a highly automated industry, must allow guest workers into their borders. This usually leads to the elves being overwhelmed by those they view as beneath them. Elves can be viewed with simply contempt, or severe hostility. The later tends to lead towards genocidal thoughts and the eventual extermination of Aureus from a specific location.

Dwarves and/or gnomes.

Homo pygmaeus

            The pygmaeus species consists of two races; the dwarves and the gnomes. Centuries after ogres were created, the Atlantians engineered workers who could tolerate high gravity and toxic airs (pygmaeus can tolerate higher concentrations of carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide will not kill them nearly as fast as a sapien) that often are associated with worlds very rich in mineral wealth. Pygmaeus typically stand about chest-high to their sapien counterparts, at about 1.3-1.5 meters in height, and have masses similar to sapiens. The pygmaeus is short, and stout, and most of that stoutness in muscle, and were engineered to last; their natural lifespans stretch to two hundred fifty years. Unlike sapiens (off Earth) pygmaeus have facial hair, and the men almost always grow beards.

            Pygmaeus live to work, literally. So perfect was the genetic engineering, that pygmaeus only feel comfortable while working. Because they were made to extract minerals (be miners) pygmaeus make their homes underground, in cliff faces and inside mountains. The pygmaeus life cycle goes something like this:

0-20) Youth; this is the time when the pygmaeus grows to adulthood, and is spent learning academics. Pygmaeus graduate from basic schooling by the age of twenty. Even when young, pygmaeus appear overly serious and uptight to other species of humanity. They treat games the same way as work; if you are not going to do it right, then do not even bother.

20-50) Parenthood; because they are human, albeit a different species, there is a limited period in their life that the females are capable of bearing children. Pygmaeus pass their genes on as soon as they leave schooling. Dwarves will bear between one and four children, whatever is required to maintain a steady, and viable population. Like everything else in life, pygmaeus take raring children seriously, more so than anything else. However, once the child (or children) reaches 20 years of age, their parents move on to the next stage of pygmaeus lives.

50 onward) Professional; after the children are out on their own, producing their own children, pygmaeus commence a lifetime working. While raising their children, pygmaeus have jobs, and continue studying, not perfecting their field of choice until around fifty. Once children are off on their own, pygmaeus focus all their energy on what they were designed to do; work.

            Pygmaeus have no concept of retirement, as their instincts (programed by their designers) will not allow them to not contribute to society. Which is doubly good in the case of city-ships; there is no retirement in space. There is little a pygmaeus likes less than being idle, and have little tolerance for freeloaders. The necessary evil of any society is government and administration. The way pygmaeus choice their leaders is by election. These are quite different from sapien elections. When pygmaeus vote, they tend to nominate one of the group, usually the one paying the least attention, ask for a second, and then vote. Heads of companies and guilds are elected, but not in the same way as politicians. In business, pygmaeus must work their way to the top, and their corporate society is a meritocracy. In either political or business worlds, the pygmaeus elected does not want the job, but by their nature, they will do their best at it.

            The pygmaeus mindset is very logical, very analytical. Both gnomes and dwarves are also extremely stubborn, only changing when they want (of decide it must be) and will not adapt to another way of doing things easily. Because of this, pygmaeus take far longer to assimilate into a culture than either sapien or ogre. Because they live for over two hundred years, an extended pygmaeus family can contain several generations. Pygmaeus families do stay in contact, but their working nature keeps them spread out. Pygmaeus tend to live alone after the age of fifty. However, if two parents are of the same profession, and sufficiently tolerate each other, it has been known for these pairs to stay together for life.

            The main difference between dwarves and gnomes come down to two sayings. Dwarves believe that if it is not broken, then one should not fix it. Dwarves tend to stay with tried and true paths, and though they innovate, they only invent when needed. They tend to refine their proven method over a great deal of time. Gnomes believe that there is always a better way. They tend to constantly improve their ways of doing things. On average, gnomes tend to stick with development and research, while dwarves stick with industries. However, dwarves can be scientist and gnomes can be miners. Once a pygmaeus picks a profession, they stick with it for life. Pygmaeus are passionate about their pursuits and will dive into them with single-minded drive. A dwarven work ethic is a compliment, or a way of saying one works too much; pygmaeus take great pride in their occupations and creations. The biggest insult to any pygmaeus is to call them a cheat. Contracts with pygmaeus are simple enough affairs with the dwarf or gnome wanting little more than a hand shake and a good word. Pygmaeus react extremely violently when this trust is broken.

Little green men

Gobli

Origin: Goblins and Gremlins originated in the Small Magellanic Cloud, same as the dragons. 20 million years ago, gobli were spread out across a handful of systems when they were discovered by the dragons. Seeing the gobli were far more dexterous and capable, the dragons sought to conquer and domesticate the gobli. When the gobli were conquered, the dragons employed them in their industry as ‘beasts of burden’. When dragons set out to colonize a new world, they took gobli with them to build what limited infrastructure the dragons (who never lived in cities and required large tracks of territory with prey to sustain themselves) required to stay in contact with its other worlds. When the Dragon’s homeworld and other core worlds were destroyed by a Gamma Ray Burst, dragons and gobli alike found themselves scattered across two satellite galaxies along with the Main Galaxy. This is why goblins are spread out across so many worlds; they were planted there when dragons arrived.

Size: Goblins stand not much more than one meter in height, usually to stomach level on a typical sapien. They are not much more massive than the average sapien child.

Head: Their heads are triangular in shape with flappy triangular ears (like long dog ears) a large nose, reddish eyes and a mouth full of sharp teeth. These teeth are deceiving as both species of gobli are strictly herbivores. These teeth are used to slice plant matter, perhaps tough leaves from their ancient, and lost, homeworld. Their second types of teeth, in the back of their jaws, are used to grind their food.

Limbs: Gobli hands and feet end with five digits. On each tip is a claw-like nail.

Color: Goblins in general are a light green in color, with a smooth skin.

Internal Structure: Gobli are endothermic, but their thin skin makes it easier for them to lose heat. As they did not evolve on a world in an ice age, nor tend to live in cold climates, this is of little consequence. The only effect this would induce would be the gobli wearing thicker clothing and more of it. They have a pair of lungs flanking a four-chamber heart. Their stomachs are rather large in proportion to their body size, and give them a slightly pudgy look. They require large stomachs as vats to digest the plant matter they eat.

Diet: Gobli are strictly vegetarian. In fact, their digestive system cannot even handle meat. To both species of gobli, chili peppers prove to be a strong stimulant, and potentially toxic.

Lifecycle: Gobli life cycles are quite different from sapiens. Both species live for forty years and give birth (are reproductive by the age of nine) in a far different way than humans, or mammal. Gobli are a genus of mammal-like reptiles that in which the female will contain her baby in an internally held egg sack. The egg is never laid, and the young will only be born when the egg is ready to ‘hatch’. The unborn feed upon a sack of yoke before birth, and can eat solids upon birth. Their reproduction is similar to vipers and some species of shark. This lack of direct connection between mother and child leaves gobli families not nearly as tightly knitted as any mammal. Though they are not instinctually as family-bound as true mammals, gobli still form mating pairs as a means to increase the odds of the offspring’s survival.

General Society: The most common, or at least most widely seen, species of the genus Gobli are goblins. They are diurnal and cautious beings. At first, a goblin will act timid to a new situation, but as any threat of danger passes, the gobli will relax and become more social. Despite their sharp teeth and nails (more like claws), goblins are rather peaceful. They rarely start conflict, but will fight fiercely when need arises. Goblins seeing an opportunity to improve their lives at the expense of others will take it, as long as they are certain they will prevail. The only article of clothing worn by any member of either species is trousers. They will also bundle up much tighter in colder environments than any human, for gobli (no matter which species) are not as efficient at retaining their body heat.

Gobli live in various state of technological advance. Since the dragon’s ‘empire’ collapsed some 13 million years ago, gobli civilization have risen and fallen. Many turned upwards towards space, where dragons would not bother them. Gobli city-ships are in constant movement, and often trade both genetic and cultural information with other worlds. Sometimes, gobli from one world will simply leave it and colonize another. This constant flow of data keeps the gobli language relatively constant, though it tends to drift the further one travels from their starting point. Gobli favor worlds where the dragons have already gone extinct.

One might think after millions of years in space, gobli might have evolved to nearly god-like state, at least technologically speaking. They have not physically evolved, because their ‘humanoid’ configuration suits them for their life style (i.e. there is no reason for their body to change itself). The only evolutionary change came when the gremlins shot off from the gobli branch. Advance technology, that does much of the work for goblins, also prohibits evolution. Technologically speaking, the gobli are not an overly imaginative genus. Since technology fits their life-style, and their life-styles seldom change (unless acted on by an outside force) then technology does not change often. They might improve efficiency, but innovation is rare.

Communication: Gobli language consists of guttural grunt, growls and barks. It is similar enough to human speech in terms of physiology that goblins have little trouble speaking human languages and vice-versa. Though humans never bother to learn the language, and eventually goblin populations are linguistically assimilated.

Gremlins: Gremlins are a dark forest green and have slightly larger eyes than their goblin cousins. Gremlins are this way because they favor living in the darkest of forests, as their eyes are extremely photosensitive. Gremlins are a nocturnal species, a habit given from their ancient past when a population of goblins was isolated from their species over 20 million years ago. At the time, the gobli were a two planet species within their own system. However, a disaster, followed by large-scale warfare on their homeworld left its infrastructure in tatters and isolated many gobli colonists on the outermost of the two planets. It was not for thousands of years until the gobli on the homeworld were able to return to space. By that time, the gobli adapted to life on the outer planet and became the gremlins.