Chapter 17

As soon as the spring rains slowed down, the GSA was back to threatening us. By this time, the railroad had made the necessary repairs, and trains were running southwest from Augusta again. This time, the generals had learned something and had sent what they figured were sufficient troops ahead to guard the route the trains would take.

That was good news to us. This time, all four cavalry squadrons were sent to attack the GSA. Each squadron was assigned an area to hit, plus all four had blasting powder to hit consecutive pairs of water tanks. They let the trains carrying the guards get by before blowing up the water tanks. That left the guards without any means of resupply, so they were not going to be able to stay where they were for an extended time.

We were not going to lay siege to the guards, but were going to hit them with quick raids at unpredictable times. Not much effort was made to go after their food supplies, but we were going to destroy their ammunition dumps as soon as possible. Without ammunition, they could not shoot at us, and they would have to retreat shortly after that happened. The retreat would be on foot, and that would make them completely at our mercy when they were hit by charging cavalry.

This campaign was a complete success, and we put off the GSA attack for another month. Meanwhile, from what we could get from the newspapers, Throckmorton was going nuts and was back in his bed, this time for a week. However, as soon as he was back at his desk, he fired the majority of his generals and started out with a new group.

This was not exactly good news for us for a couple of reasons, and they were interlocked. We knew virtually nothing about the habits of the new generals, so we were going to have trouble trapping them. Furthermore, none of these generals had been in such high posts during the War of 1861, so they may not have developed the bad habits of the stand-up kind of battle that was so easy for us to win.

Okay, we came up with some very broad plans, but we were going to have to wait for the GSA to make the first move. That was uncomfortable for us.

To our surprise, the GSA finally came up with a potential solution to their problem: they were going to move their army by boat down the Chattahoochee River, land at Fort Gaines in Clay county, and march overland from there to attack Albany. Our spy reported that they somehow figured that a capture of Albany would end the “nonsense” of secession from Georgia. That showed how little they understood us and our “Great Cause.”

The plan meant that they were going to march through Clay and Calhoun counties without consulting with the people of either county. As soon as we heard of this plan, we rushed the news to the important people among the non-aristocracy of both counties. They knew what kind of chaos and mayhem a large number of soldiers could and would make along the path of march. What really pissed off the people of those counties was that no effort had been made to tell them about their new “guests.”

We offered to meet the GSA at the landing point and stop them from moving through either county. All we needed was permission to show up with about 500-600 troops, and we promised to pay for any damage that we might do that was not directly related to the fighting. Obviously, we were not going to pay for the damage done by the GSA.

The implication of all of this to the people of Clay County was that we were coming in, and it depended on them as to what kind of trip it was going to be. We also made the point that, if they united with Haven, they would gain a lot more than just allies in this one battle to keep the GSA out of Clay County. All of a sudden, the important people in Clay County started giving the idea of uniting with Haven serious consideration. One of the main inducements was that their people would be provided with S1 rifles for this battle. Later on, if they actually made a permanent connection with us, they would receive S2s.

We made this same offer to Calhoun County, and a lot of enthusiasm developed over becoming a part of Haven. In both counties, there was a lot of antagonism toward their aristocracy, and the fact that they would be taken down a notch was a compelling argument.

With a week to spare on the deadline, the people of Clay County agreed to join us if we came through right away with the S1s and beat the GSA when they tried to land. The big deal for us to have their militia to combine with our Haven Army was that they had six 12-pounder cannon that we could use against the boats carrying the GSA troops.

As usual with the arrogance and stupidity of the GSA general staff, they had assumed that nobody in Clay County would object to them just showing up and docking at the Fort Gaines facilities. Fort Gaines was not a major port, so there was space for only two ships to tie up at one time. Therefore, the rest of the GSA armada would have to wait in the river while the first two ships unloaded their men. Furthermore, they had no expectation that the Haven Army would actually contest the landing, so troops and ammunition were on separate ships.

As soon as word got out that Clay County might become a part of Haven, practically every plantation erupted into rebellion. Sure, some slaves and serfs died in the fighting, but every one of the aristocracy, male and female no matter what the age, died in the same fights. Of course, the females were raped first whenever possible.

The aristocrats of Calhoun County took the hint and ran before they could suffer the same fate, and the structure of those two counties turned into chaos. This was good from the point of view of Haven because the two counties now had no choice but to join us. Temporarily, we took them in and called them states. The fine details would have to be worked out after we solved the immediate problem with the GSA.

Anyway, the men of the Haven Army headed to Fort Gaines while the women not a part of the Haven Army combat forces took up arms to keep Haven from being hit from the rear by an enemy we had not expected. Some of the women were unhappy with this division of labor, but they figured out that this would let them contribute to the war effort and still take care of their homes and children. A few of them even figured out that this was going to give them a lot of new rights as soon as the war was over, including the right to vote. I did not make a big deal of it at the time, but that was one of the promises I made to the women.

The artillery unit of the Clay militia had already set up their cannon to control the Fort Gaines docks. Mostly, they had solid shot, but they had provision to heat it to red heat so that they could set fire to the wooden ships. All of the enemy ships were essentially sail powered with small steam engines for maneuvering in port. That meant that they had to have a favorable wind to do much against us with the few cannon aboard their ships.

The Chattahoochee River was not very deep anywhere along its length, so the ships all had a very shallow draft. That made them difficult to control and required almost constant attention to the sails. As a result, very few of the crew were available to do any fighting. There were some Marines aboard, and they were armed, but there were not enough to give us any trouble. Mostly they were there to fight off river pirates and were good at repelling boarders, but not so good at fighting a pitched battle.

The battle started off a little bit different from what the GSA expected. We had snipers with S1 rifles especially tuned in for the job and telescopic sights for aiming. The snipers were hidden close to the river to cut down the range as much as possible. Their job was to pick off anyone in a Georgia State Navy (GSN) uniform. We wanted to reduce the number of men available to trim the sails all the way up to the captain of the ship. Once control was lost, the ships might wander anywhere, and that was to our advantage.

The fact that the S1 made so little sound was a significant key to our plan. We figured that if the men on a ship did not know that they were being shot at, they would be even easier to pick out as targets. Of course, as soon as men began to fall from rifle shots, the other men would notice, but the reduced noise would still make it more difficult to pick the snipers out for return fire.