The Chesapeake Incident leads to War

Faeelin

Banned
A thought, inspired by some readings on the War of 1812.

By 1811, the British position was becoming desperate. Unemployment was rising, the cost of bread was soaring, and anti-machine riots broke out across the Midlands. The US went to war with Britain in 1812, leading to, after 3 years of warfare, no changes whatsoever.

Just as things were looking up for Bonaparte, of course, he went ahead with his invasion of Russia, and the rest, as we know, is history.

But there was another incident with Britain which led to war. In June of 1807, the USS Chesapeake was attacked by by the British Warship the Lepeord off the coast of Virginia. The Leopard demanded that the American warship be inspected for British deserters; when the commander of the Chesapeake refused, it was attacked, leaving three americans dead, 18 wounded, and four men taken by the British.

Now, it seems unlikely that Jefferson would have sparked a war with Britain over this.

A President Burr, however...

What are the effects?

Hmm. Upon reflection, a president Burr would have rather more effects than I discussed here.
 
Myabe Jefferson dies a few days before the incident leaving a newly promoted Burr as president...cheap way of getting around all the knock-on effects of having Burr president for long, but workable.
 
Faeelin said:
But there was another incident with Britain which led to war. In June of 1807, the USS Chesapeake was attacked by by the British Warship the Lepeord off the coast of Virginia. The Leopard demanded that the American warship be inspected for British deserters; when the commander of the Chesapeake refused, it was attacked, leaving three americans dead, 18 wounded, and four men taken by the British.

Now, it seems unlikely that Jefferson would have sparked a war with Britain over this.

A President Burr, however...

What are the effects?

First of all and just to be pedantic, the men carried off the Chesapeake were British, not American and given the propensity of the USN to employ British deserters as sailors during this period the chances are a significant number of the killed and wounded were also British.

Anyway here's a few thoughts:

1. Unlike in OTL Americans are able to rally around a war to avenge the insult of the Chesapeake and which is fought very specifically to secure an advantageous interpretation of the US' neutral rights. In OTL the 1812 was met with a mixture of ambiguity and dis-approval by a large number of Americans, particularly in New England. Most Americans did not clearly understand why the nation was at war with Britain or what the exact aims of the war were.
A war over the Chesapeake in 1807 harnesses popular outrage at the attack and rising Anglophobia to generate support for the war. There is far less domestic descent than in OTL and we do not see the farcical / cowardly spectacle of American militia troops refusing to cross into Canada to fight.

2. The war in general would probably be fought on a smaller scale and be even more dull than it was OTL. In OTL both the British and the US had begun to build up there military forces after the Chesapeake incident as war in 1807 would mean:
US - Fewer mobilised militia units, smaller navy - (not sure of the figures but I think a number of the USNs heavy frigates were not completed in 1807 and the navy was still relying on gunboats to defend the coasts) Also US is less able to raise funds quickly as it has only just emerged from the massive depression caused by Jefferson's embargo.
Britain - In OTL Prevost conducted a review of Canadian forces following the Chesapeake incident. A Canada caught on the hop by war in 1807 would be even weaker than in OTL. Most of the boarder forts are run down and under manned, the militia is under-equipped and it's political reliability is deemed to be suspect (due to immigration from the US) also there are far fewer regulars stationed in Canada. Britain re-directs Auchmuty's force which in OTL was to head for the Rio del Plata to the US and Jefferson wakes up one morning to find 7000 red coats on his lawn...
 
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