Britannia's Fist: From Civil War to World War: An Alternate History by Peter G. Tsouras

politics encouraged, but this time it had hit a bull’s-eye.
    Everyone knew that Gideon Welles was the Secretary of the Navy. Everyone also knew that Fox
was
the Navy. Secretary Welles stuck to policy and left the conduct of actual operations to Fox, who had the complete confidence of the officer corps. He was, after all, one of their own. Aformer naval officer, he resigned during the service doldrums of the 1850s, but the war had drawn him back like a magnet.
    In late 1860, as the issue of war or peace had hung in the balance and the new President and his cabinet struggled with whether to relieve Fort Sumter, Fox had figured out the how and threw the plan into Lincoln’s lap. It was hardly his fault that the relief expedition he accompanied had arrived in Charleston Harbor just as the Confederates began the bombardment of the fort. Fox had the dubious honor of escorting the surrendered garrison home. That experience only fueled his aggressive and energetic nature. He had suggested and organized the first important naval success of the war by seizing Port Royal in South Carolina and turning it into the Navy’s forward operating base without which the blockade could not have been maintained so far south.
    Lincoln had been overjoyed that the Navy had pulled such a beautiful rabbit out the hat when most news had reeked of bitter frustration and failure. If Dahlgren was close to Lincoln, now so was Fox. He had piled high his credit with the President with his enthusiastic support of John Ericcson’s famous
Monitor
and especially of the follow-on class, the
Passaics
. Those ships formed the fighting core of Dahlgren’s force off Charleston. Another larger class of shallow-draft monitors, the
Casco
class, was now abuilding along the Atlantic coast and along the Ohio.
    Fox was not one to hoard his credit. He wagered it freely on new games as they came up. He was ruthless and arrogant, but admirals had more to fear from those features than lieutenants did. He was also an instinctive fighter, seized new ideas and opportunities, and could size up good men in a snap.
    One such man was on the bridge of the
Nansemond
gliding up to the dock. Fox liked such men and gave them bigger and bolder commands. There were plenty of commands to go around in a navy that had mushroomed so quickly in size—and not nearly enough bold and lucky men to take them. The evidence of that lucky boldness was the prize trailing behind Lamson’s
Nansemond
. She was the British blockade-runner, the
Margaret and Jesse
. Lamson had caught her off Wilmington, where his luck had blossomed. He had come across her low in the water with a heavy cargo of lead—those deadly accurate Whitworth breach-loading rifled guns and enough ammunition to keep them firing for years. The weight of her cargo had been her undoing. Built as a British mail packet, the iron-hulled, side-wheeler
Margaret and Jesse
was the only ship afloat able to do sixteen knots, but slowed by the greed of her cargo,
Nansemond
had fallen on her like a hawk.
    Lieutenant Lamson knew Fox by sight. Any aggressive officer among the blockading and river fighting squadrons along the Atlantic coast was sure to have met Fox. As the ship came alongside the dock, Fox took the time to examine the sleek ship coming up to dock outboard of
Nansemond
. Then his eyes moved to the bridge and locked on Lamson’s.
    “Captain, come ashore immediately. I must speak with you,” Fox’s voice boomed. Lamson bounded down the gangplank as soon as it hit the dock. He took Fox’s extended hand and found the older man was trying to crush it as he grinned at him. Lamson smiled back and met grip with grip until Fox let go. “Good to see you again, young man. A fine prize.” He looked thoughtful for a moment and said, “You may not have seen the last of her.” He motioned to the carriage nearby. “We must hurry. You are wanted at the White House.
BALTIMORE AND OHIO RAILROAD STATION, WASHINGTON, D.C., 10:30 AM , AUGUST 6,