Part III, Chapter VI: The Winter of 1830

Upon General Zebulon Pike and the 1st North Star Infantry Regiment's return to Fort Pike and the Saint Anthony Falls region in September 1830 following their withdrawal from the Wisconsin frontier, the success of the lopsided Wisconsin Campaign and the results of Pike's efforts to delay General Alexander Macomb from reaching the eastern shore of the Upper Mississippi River became clearly evident in retrospect to both Stephen Carver and the Council of the Northwoods, who had for all intents and purposes been under an unintentional blanket of secrecy, as Pike had not once passed correspondence or a report to Saint Anthony Falls in his entire 60 day duration in the Wisconsin Frontier, as sending a courier had proved tactically impractical, even despite the guarantee of correspondence between himself and the Council had been a major argumentative point for Pike when proclaiming to the Council that he was better favored by waiting to conduct his campaign in northern Wisconsin rather than in southern Wisconsin. As a result, the Council (and the Northwoods people) had undergone a feeling of unbearable anticipation, as Pike had not only not passed correspondence due to the tactical impracticability of doing so, but also in order to protect the operational security of the Republic's military efforts in Wisconsin from both the American and Upper Midwestern press, whose organizations had feverishly clamored (and still continued to clamor) for news of Pike's success (or failure.) Regardless, by all accounts, Pike's overnight absence from Fort Pike that had gone initially unnoticed in July due to the Regiment's unannounced deployment had not gone without eventual publicity, as the instant absence of nearly 200 men from the large installation was quickly observed by many residents who once frequented the area in order to trade goods with the training Northwoods soldiers stationed there, and to exchange rumors and gossip with the garrisoned personnel. Likewise, the overnight reappearance of Pike and his Regiment to the Fort of his namesake following the end of 2 weeks of paid leave for the men under his command had also been excitedly noticed by the assembled Northwoods dissenters in Saint Anthony Falls (which laid only 8 miles upriver,) mostly in eager anticipation of official news regarding the results of the Republic's military campaign in Wisconsin, as they had only previously received unofficial word from sometimes unreliable reports and secretive correspondence from residents and family members in the occupied towns of Green Bay and Prarie du Chien, who likewise had only received word of Pike's exploits from the similarly unreliable American soldiers that had been designated to perform curfew enforcement in the aforementioned settlements. The unofficial title that many American soldiers had bestowed upon Pike in respect to his effectiveness, "the Wolf of the Mississippi," had also spread to the Upper Midwest during the duration of his campaign, and thus only added to the Northwoods voracity for information and the shroud of mysticism surrounding the affair, and gave many Northwoods settlers only a small but notable clue to the state of the Republic's efforts, and did little to appease their anxiousness. In an effort to answer the Northwoods clamor, Pike secretly and suddenly rejoined the Council in Saint Anthony Falls to divulge in detail the results of his overwhelmingly successful military campaign to the Council. Modestly, (as Pike had often always been humble when speaking of himself and his past or even current exploits,) Pike revealed that in as little as 60 days, the two rifle companies of the 1st North Star Infantry under his direction had killed or wounded close to 300 Americans (nearly 5% of Macomb's total original 6,000 man force) with an unpublished and unparalleled loss of only 5 to their own numbers. The Council, upon learning of the developments, agreed in earnest to not reveal the complete details of the Regiment's campaign to the Northwoods press until the conclusion of the war, mainly in an effort to shadow the true state of the Republic's military from Macomb and the American public, and ultimately agreed to publish only enough information to quell the widespread request for details. Stephen Carver, the de facto Council leader and the owner of the "Minnesota Voyager," the Republic's largest and most popular media outlet, quickly began to publish the first official account in keeping with the Council's guidance in order to ensure proper dissemination of information across the Republic. In confirmation of the Council's decision, Carver also wisely mentioned during the course of the meeting with Pike that many of the Voyager's "subscribers" also resided in the currently unoccupied northwestern portion of the Wisconsin territory, which was regarded as territory that would (unfortunately) inevitably be occupied by the advancing Americans, as Pike and the Council had mutually introduced no plans to conduct any further military action east of the Mississippi following his planned return in accordance with the overall strategy of delay, at least not until after a (hopefully) successful defense of Fort Pike. The Council also understood that keeping the operational security surrounding Pike's exploits in tact would better benefit the Republic's defense of Fort Pike and the Mississippi River crossing following a likely and expected American military counter-campaign in the spring of 1831, as disallowing Macomb from obtaining information regarding the total size and displacement of Pike's current forces was regarded as highly beneficial and even practical, as Macomb had awkwardly refused to push forward any scouts to reconnoiter the "finish line" of his advance, as this practice was deemed impractical by Macomb due to Pike's guerrilla campaign and the Fort's dominant overwatch position. Thus, in October of 1830, Carver planned to publish a brief synopsis of the Wisconsin Campaign in his "Minnesota Voyager," a synopsis of which detailed only the casualties that the 1st North Star Infantry Regiment had inflicted upon the advancing Americans, but did nothing to mention the casualties Pike's own men had incurred, and likewise refused to mention their complete savagery or their methods of (necessary) food, water and equipment scavenging, and proudly exclaimed that the Regiment had been a remarkable success, but once again did not mention what the overall goal of the Regiment had been. Upon Carver producing the final draft of the article to the Council, the members unanimously approved its publication, and Carver quickly ensured widespread dissemination of the news of the Republic's military campaign through his still prominent Minnesota Voyager.



Likewise in October, Macomb's forces, still reeling from the effects of Pike's Wisconsin Campaign, slowly began movement once again after another long two week respite following the "Treeline Engagement," a respite of which had been enacted by Macomb in an effort to reverse the plummeting morale of his two badly wounded regiments, whose numbers suffered both from enemy action, attrition, declining temperature, and from forced reallocation of a portion of their rifle companies in order to maintain an appropriate garrison in the towns of Green Bay and Prarie du Chien in order to enforce curfews, chiefly in a direct effort to mitigate the ability for Northwoods settlers who had remained in the occupied towns to assemble in Saint Anthony Falls. To complicate matters further, Macomb's guidance of allowing movement in only battalion sized formations remained in place despite moving in the heavily forested northern Wisconsin frontier, a frontier which obviously required smaller echelons in order to better maneuver through and to cover more ground, as maintaining the continuity of a 600+ man formation through the terrain provided an inherently obvious difficulty. This was due in great part to the reports from his battalion and regimental commanders and sergeants major, who, even after the two week respite, all annotated the still dismal morale of their men in their reports, and the majority recommended to Macomb to dictate no change to his previous guidance concerning the minimum echelon troops were allowed to move under in the theater due to the still present threat of desertion, as the enlisted soldiers of the individual battalions which made up the main body of the two American infantry regiments in the theater required heavy supervision from both senior commissioned officers and senior non-commissioned officers alike during both movement and intermission in order to mitigate unnecessary losses in manpower. The absence of attacks and the apparent displacement of Pike and his element from the theater in September did little to positively effect the morale of Macomb's men, and thus with the orders still required to be in effect, it became clear to both Macomb and his staff that reaching the Mississippi River before first snowfall and as a result being in a position to capture Fort Pike and consequently Saint Anthony Falls (thus effectively ending the war) proved utterly impossible. These obstacles were further highlighted by the dreadfully anticipated (or conversely for the Republic, the eagerly anticipated) winter of 1830, which was now fast approaching as evidenced by declining temperature and increasing precipitation, and compounded this dread due to the fact that Macomb's 2nd Infantry Regiment had arrived in theater in May without adequate winter clothing due to their hasty redeployment from the South, where it had been previously engaged in quelling southern agrarian unrest due to the region's discontent with the then enacted (now repealed) "Tariff of Abominations." Unable to see any benefit from pressing his advance that could not conversely be gained in the spring of 1831, and with little territorial gains presented since the end of Pike's successful opposing guerrilla campaign, Macomb ordered his forces to finally discontinue their advance in early November of 1830, and the first snowfall of the region - and thus the arrival of winter - cemented this decision on November 12th, 1830. The Americans quickly began to erect winter quarters in preparation for the harsh Upper Midwest climate, which was speculated by officers in the 5th Infantry Regiment and other advisers on Macomb's staff who had previously been stationed at Fort Pike or in other Upper Midwestern military installations to only become worse, and fundamentally realized that the early construction of quarters in order to better protect their ill equipped men from the elements was paramount in order to mitigate unnecessary cold weather casualties. Nonetheless, by the formal end of the American Wisconsin Campaign - which would later be defined historically by the cessation of American westward movement in Wisconsin - Macomb had failed to achieve his objective of reaching the eastern bank of the Mississippi River before the first snowfall. Impressively, by the beginning of winter of 1830, Macomb and his forces occupied nearly all of the Wisconsin Territory, but still fruitlessly laid some 20 miles east of the Mississippi River and Fort Pike, which was regarded as the most important strategic objective in the campaign, and as a result the United States would be unable to end the Revolution before 1830. In testament to his frustration, Macomb later famously quipped in his journal that the elusive banks of the Mississippi "might as well be on the other side of the globe."



In Washington, the "Northwoods Affair" (as it had been labeled), which had formerly only been regarded as an issue that required attention in proportion to its severity (which was regarded as minimal) now saw an entirely new sense of urgency and attention. The swift response to the "Nullification Crisis" of the South by Jackson, which saw the garrisoning of federal American troops of northern origin in southern states in order to quell southern unrest, and the subsequent rash decision to repeal the Tariff of 1828, combined with the now publicized military effects of Pike's Wisconsin Campaign and the resulting inability of Macomb to professionally maneuver his forces to capture his assigned military objectives had allowed the secession of federal territory and the creation of the "North Star Republic" in the Upper Midwest (which was now slowly building legitimacy) to quickly gain more prominent concentration from both Jackson's supporters and mutually his respective opposition, especially as the United States' midterm elections in November of 1830 neared. This opposition chiefly and primarily came from the Whig Party, which was spearheaded by the still prominent John C. Calhoun, Pike's former unlikely political ally, who upon the resignation of his Vice Presidency in 1829 due to evident frustrations over Jackson's policies, had been nominated by South Carolina (his home state) to serve as a federal senator, and the popular political figurehead Henry Clay of Kentucky, the former United States Secretary of State under John Quincy Adams, who likewise was favored to be nominated by his state to serve as an eventual senator. As the repeal of the Tariff of 1828 had eliminated this issue from debate in the American Congress, it was quickly replaced by the issues of the Northwoods Affair and the Second Bank of the United States, a national monetary reserve which had likewise come under fire from Jackson, although not to the same literal degree as the Republic. The American Whigs campaigned feverishly throughout the fall of 1830 following the revelation of Pike's successful Wisconsin Campaign, and also highlighted the necessity in retaining the national bank, as the repeal of the unpopular Tariff of 1828 and the absence of several profitable enterprises due to the Upper Midwest's secession (and thus the inability for the region's constituents to be taxed by the government) had lead to a spontaneous regression of debt, which was once again only speculated to become worse and was likely to accumulate interest. Jackson's unpopular stance of attacking the bank even despite worsening conditions surrounding the nation's debt (of which it had a large sum, due in great part to the amended 1815 Treaty of Ghent) only added to growing Whig popularity, mainly in southern American states, who had taken up natural opposition to Jackson and the Democratic Party's policies in some areas by as early as 1828. Furthermore, Jackson's handling of the Northwoods Affair were criticized by Clay and Calhoun as unnecessarily costly, and although they had (not yet) proclaimed that a policy of peace with the new unrecognized state should be pursued (as public avocation of secession of federal territory was regarded as political suicide, even though Calhoun had formerly trivially advocated for South Carolina's secession) they instead quickly exclaimed that Jackson's inability to initially negotiate with Northwoods settlers and his rash decision to exercise military action before exhausting all possible peaceful solutions only provided testament to the Democratic Party's incompetence. As a result of these issues, by the conclusion of mid-term elections in November of 1830, the Whig Party had gained a staggering twenty seats in the lower house of the United States legislature, while the Democrats saw their majority in the House (which they still held due to the much larger northern states, which housed the majority of their supporters) cut by an equivalent twenty.



The news of Pike's success in the Wisconsin Frontier in 1830 had completely reinvigorated the patriotic fervor of the Northwoods secessionists, in great credit to the published account of Pike's exploits during the Campaign in the Minnesota Voyager (courtesy of Carver) in October of the same year. Furthermore, secret correspondence between the assembled dissenters at Saint Anthony Falls and relatives that many of the dissenters had left behind in the Wisconsin Frontier indirectly provided firsthand accounts that Macomb and his forces had ceased their advance westward in preparation for the harsh winter, and had left nearly 20 miles of unoccupied territory between themselves and the Mississippi River's east bank, indirectly proving that the United States' ability to crush the Revolution by force would not feasibly happen until spring of 1831 at the earliest. These correspondences and the spread of news of this event throughout Saint Anthony Falls (and subsequently to Fort Pike) also provided Pike with the complete relief that his preparation of defenses at Fort Pike and the surrounding area, which had begun in early October of 1830, would be able to continue unmolested throughout the winter of 1830, and most importantly ensured the Republic that the promised secret foreign aid, which was already underway from Great Britain and France, would arrive before hostilities resumed between Macomb's regiments and Pike in the spring of 1831 following the dissolution of snow in the Upper Midwest due to warmer weather. Furthermore, the United States mid-term elections of 1830 highlighted the fact that Macomb would be unlikely to receive military reinforcements in order to bolster his numbers, as a political blockade by the Whigs to allow further appropriation of federal military assets to deal with the increasingly unpopular handling of the Northwoods Affair was now a full possibility, and a request by Jackson to do so would only further hinder his chances for reelection to a second term in 1832. Pike's preparations thus continued throughout the early winter months of 1830, and included the creation of battlements and breastworks along the western bank of the Mississippi in close proximity to the major river bridge crossing, (which laid only 300 yards downriver from Fort Pike itself,) increased reinforcement to the Fort's large walls, and the addition of several Napoleonic era cannons, which had been commandeered from the Nebraska Frontier's Fort Bellevue courtesy of Harold Degard. The cannons were hastily emplaced on the Fort's southern wall and provided Pike the ability to direct long range fire onto any force advancing upriver both before and after the force traversed the crossing, which Pike estimated that Macomb was sure to do, as the Americans would be tactically required to cross the river in order to initiate a siege, and would also come under rifle fire before crossing from men stationed at the breastworks that were built on the river's western bank, and would then be exposed to further rifle fire upon eventually successfully crossing, as Pike's men also uprooted any vegetation or natural barriers that the Americans would be likely to use for cover upon their advance. Pike's preparations, however, were continually hindered by a lack of suitable military manpower, as manual labor with only 200 men in the harsh winter conditions proved to be difficult, and this shortage would only be resolved by the eventual arrival of the promised foreign aid in December, which forced the General - unhappily - to wait.



Nonetheless, by November 30th of 1830, the shipment of nearly 4,000 modern rifles and ammunition from Paris and a half dozen commissioned officers and an equal number of senior non-commissioned officers from London was finally announced as only two weeks away from arriving by Claude Verdier from France and Richard Pakenham from Great Britain, the international "observers" turned emissaries who had voluntarily resided and continually monitored the events of the Republic on behalf of their respective nations from Saint Anthony Falls since February in the personal residence of Stephen Carver. The supplies, provisions and personnel had been reportedly successfully offloaded in Manitoba after a long transatlantic journey, which the European vessels had undertaken in an effort to mitigate the discovery of the nations' clandestine support to the unrecognized Republic by American vessels, and had succeeded in doing so through great efforts and at no loss to either crew or cargo. The Council, flush with excitement, secretly dispatched word to Pike that the aid was expected to arrive in Saint Anthony Falls by the second week of December, and as a result also immediately began to put into action long drafted plans for the Republic's final military recruiting effort, which would thus enable Pike to field an entire regiment of 3,000 men no later than March. This "recruiting push" in combination with the anticipated arrival of nearly 4,000 rifles (and the French caravan that carried them) in addition to a dozen British advisers to Saint Anthony Falls, however, ultimately provoked the long feared realization by the Council that the Republic would be unable to keep the foreign aid secret any longer, even despite the fact that Saint Anthony Falls was not under direct observation from American forces, as the Northwoods press (which had conversely been tamed only a couple months prior) was likely to divulge any and all details in their jubilation and celebration following the arrival of foreign aid, regardless of international consequences, as the ability to disguise such a large and sudden shipment of both material and personnel was impossible, and word of the event would subsequently filter to Macomb and thus to Washington. Nonetheless, in preparation for the eventual revelation of this event (and the severe international incident that was bound to follow,) on December 3rd, Carver once again used his powerful Minnesota Voyager to call for nearly 2,800 men to volunteer for federal military service. The resulting "call to arms" and the answer of this call from Northwoods settlers was once again overwhelming, mostly due to the region's renewed patriotic fervor as a result of the publicized Wisconsin Campaign, and by December 16th, 2,800 men out of the 3,500 able bodied applicants that had applied had been selected to supplement Pike's 200-man element, thus finally forming a full 3,000 man infantry regiment, and the new recruits were quickly ushered into the ominous and improved fortifications of Fort Pike to undergo extensive future training and drilling. The Council quickly used funds from the First Federal Bank (and its still successful "war bond" drive) to create uniforms in keeping with the original dark green design for the newly selected volunteers, a tall order for Northwoods sewers and seamstresses, who worked around the clock to satisfy General Pike and the Council's desires to give the Regiment a professional appearance. On December 15th, 1830, the 4,000 rifles from France and the complementary ammunition - as well as the dozen British advisers - had finally arrived in Saint Anthony Falls to overwhelming public celebration, and was publicized in great detail, fully eliminating any past secrecy.



By January of 1831, the events surrounding the arrival of a large amount of French and British aid to the Upper Midwest secessionists had finally reached Washington through Macomb, and as expected, severe consequences for international relations between Britain, France and the United States followed. The Whig Party was quick to capitalize on the opportunity, and Henry Clay argued that if Jackson and the Democrats had not resorted to immediate conflict, the severing of relations would not have taken place. Regardless, the Whig opposition was regarded as trivial to the sweeping public anger regarding the entire affair, and the British and French embassies in Washington were quickly shut down by London and Paris in fear of American reprisal, and the respective ambassadors were forcibly expelled to their host countries by the American Congress soon after, and both representatives quickly and agreeably fled with no objection, mostly due to the fear of physical harm to themselves from riotous Americans who had congregated around the closed embassies. Widespread American protest soon followed, and Jackson's cabinet and Andrew Stevenson, the Speaker of the House, likewise voiced their objections in clear disdain to London and Paris, but were careful not to call for war between the United States and the two nations, although their objections fell only barely short of calling for these open hostilities, as both Winfield Scott and Macomb had advised that a three front war between both the United States and Northwoods secessionists, Great Britain and France was strategically impractical. As a result, Jackson and Stevenson instead immediately called for harsh economic repercussions, and by January 15th the Democratic Party introduced and passed two bills in both the House and Senate that enacted a complete boycott and embargo of all British and French goods and trade. The United States Navy also reallocated naval assets to the northern Atlantic, disabling the European nations from providing further aid to the Republic by allowing its own vessels to possibly intercept any future attempts to do so, and in revelation of the new developments in the Northwoods Affair, the Whig Party likewise slowly backpedaled from its previous platform in an effort to appeal to furious American voters, and instead concentrated their attacks on Jackson, as he (in their opinion) had done nothing to prevent the British and French aid from arriving in the Upper Midwest to begin with, and had as a result severely underestimated the determination of the Northwoods secessionists in a direct reflection of his overall utter incompetency. As a result of the utter abolishment of British and French secrecy in the conflict, the issue also eroded the possibility of the Whigs to reject further appropriation of forces to reinforce Macomb following the conclusion of winter, as a possible political blockade of this request would be heavily unpopular with the majority of Whig voters, but this fear, however, was conveniently replaced by the fact that the United States was forced to maintain sizable garrisons along its eastern coastlines in order to prevent the possibility of a future British or French invasion, a possibility which remained very real even despite the absence of actual declarations of war between the three nations due to the harsh economic repercussions that had been introduced. To complicate matters further, the overall poor state of the American military was weak in comparison to the overwhelming combined might of Great Britain and France, who had both been previously expelled from the continent in 1815 and 1763/1803, respectively, and many American military and political leaders assumed that a lack of American military presence in the east would ultimately invite both Britain and France to introduce proposals to reclaim their once lost North American possessions, as they would then be militarily unopposed to do so, and these proposals were likely to be deemed as reasonable in London and Paris due to the depreciating relations between the nations and the lack of a balance of power on the continent, which lacked any sizable European foothold aside from British Columbia. The lack of taxable trade income that resulted due to the embargo of French and British goods also significantly disabled the United States from decreasing its debt, and as a result a large amount of support for the continuation of the Second Bank of the United States (which still remained under fire from Jackson) began to build throughout the early months of 1831, but support for the Whigs on this issue quickly waned and was brushed aside in favor of Jackson and the Democrat's much more popularly hostile policies in the Northwoods Affair against the Upper Midwest secessionists, Britain and France, which most Americans regarded as a significantly more important and pressing issue.



The response from Britain and France to America's quick and sudden backlash due to the new revelations in the Northwoods Affair were, however, far less hostile in nature in comparison. Despite the expulsion of both nation's ambassadors from Washington and the closure of embassies, both Paris and London remained silent and offered no explanation or response to the American anger, mainly in an effort to appease rising widespread American public dissent regarding the affair. The silence also attributed to the possibility that Britain and France sought instead to reverse their broken relations with the United States, which would likely take place after the conclusion of hostilities between the Northwoods secessionist and the United States if America emerged as the victor, as both Britain and France had effectively lost their respective largest trading partner in North America due to the enacted embargo and boycotts, and the silence of both nations was regarded by London and Paris as a much more beneficial policy to harnessing future friendly relations with the United States should their investment into Northwoods independence fail and was regarded as the least damaging option, rather than voicing a stance of pure hostility and open support for the secessionists, which was regarded as potentially much more damaging and would result in further consequences for international relations between the three nations. Britain and France were also careful not to invite the thought of war, much like the Americans, as military conflict on the continent with the United States, while tempting, was regarded as much too costly due to the large garrisons that the United States maintained (and would likely continue to maintain) along its eastern coastlines. The absence of Anglo-Canadian settlers which had once dominated Ontario due to their subsidized displacement from the amended 1815 Treaty of Ghent also dissuaded British interest, as the retaking of its former Canadian colonies (if the British military efforts succeeded) and a subsequent treaty replacing these colonies under British control would do little to offset the means that would be required to be exhausted to take them, as the provinces were now devoid of settlers (aside from Americans who had migrated to the area to fill the void presented by The Great Migration, who would be overly hostile) and thus provided no taxable subjects or revenue and thus no obvious short-term fiscal benefit.



Nonetheless, despite the international implications due to the publicized arrival of British and French foreign aid in the winter of 1830 to Saint Anthony Falls, the 4,000 French rifles and dozen British advisers had arrived, and immediate action by the Northwoods Council to take advantage of their arrival could not feasibly be dislodged by the United States until spring, as Macomb's forces had undertaken winter quarters and still remained some 20 miles east of the Mississippi in the Wisconsin Frontier. Pike thus worked feverishly to transform the raw influx of 2,800 volunteers, who had arrived at Fort Pike in great numbers due to the Republic's last military recruitment effort in December of 1830, into 2,800 soldiers, and by January of 1831 both Pike's original remaining 195 volunteers of the Regiment (who had gained a significant amount of experience due to their actions in the Wisconsin Campaign) and the dozen British advisers that had been dispatched to the Fort upon their arrival in Saint Anthony Falls trained and drilled the large formations of unorganized men in order to prepare for the coming spring campaign of 1831, when Macomb was speculated to likely resume his offensive. The preparation of defenses at the Fort itself and in the surrounding areas also continued, as Pike now had at his disposal a large amount of manpower (and thus labor) that had previously been absent. By March of 1831, Pike's preparations, the training and drilling of the large amount of recruits, and the outfitting of these recruits turned soldiers with both rifles and uniforms was nearly complete even to his high standards, and this staggering transformation rate was in great credit due to the British advisers and to Pike's experienced men, who had both combined their efforts in order to ensure timely and effective training, and both the advisers, the trainers and the recruits had been disallowed any amount of rest or respite by order of Pike due to the urgency of the situation until the tasks at hand were completed, tasks of which Pike had clearly defined to high standards before their initiation. The 1st North Star Infantry Regiment, which now proudly boasted its full proposed numbers, also benefited from the arrival of British advisers, who recommended to Pike to further divide the regiment into smaller echelons in order to expedite its efficiency in combat. The Regiment was thus further divided into six battalions of roughly 400 - 500 men each, and these battalions were then furthered divided into company sized elements. The first two battalions, the 1st and 2nd North Star Infantry Battalions, were dictated as the primary rifle battalions and the main effort of the regiment, and also contained the most (and only) combat experience of the regiment, as Pike divided his original remaining 195 volunteers between the two battalions after the completion of training in order to provide the elements with much needed leadership. The third battalion, the 1st North Star Field Artillery Battalion, was also established, and was commissioned to provide the Regiment with its own complement of field artillery, and thus was ordered to man the garrison of the Fort itself and the cannons it contained (although it contained only 3 guns, far behind the doctrinal number of 12 guns that the field artillery battalion was proposed to eventually field.) The remaining three battalions were held in reserve, and were thus aptly named the 1st North Star Support Battalion, the 1st North Star Reconnaissance Squadron (which was reconnaissance in name only, as it contained only half a dozen horses, also far behind its doctrinal number it was proposed to eventually field, and was thus almost identical to its cousin infantry battalions) and the 1st North Star Engineer Battalion, all of which provided the Regiment with engineers, cooks and other rear-guard support forces in order to enhance its sustainability during an envisioned future campaign. Pike also elected and commissioned several officers in the grade of Lieutenant Colonel from his large pool of manpower based on their recognized leadership ability during training to command his newly erected battalions, and these commanders then likewise were allowed to elect and commission officers in the grade of Captain to lead their companies, troops or batteries, and this trend continued, even to the platoon level, the Regiment's smallest echelon. These officers also recommended promotions for distinguished enlisted soldiers to become non-commissioned officers, and Pike's unique leadership and promotion scheme, which had been primarily developed to award merit, qualification and performance (as opposed to the archaic practice of awarding promotion based on name, royalties and wealth, which Pike had grown a sharp distaste for due to his experience with the practice firsthand during his career in the American Army) was highly effective in providing the Regiment with an organized chain of command and support channel and only strengthened its completely unparalleled organization. This original and unique design, which emphasized the Regiment's ability to completely sustain itself without support from other independent units in the event of future conflict, would later serve as the foundation of almost all of the Republic's military forces, and its reorganization provided testament to Pike and the Council's still steadfast determination to win sovereignty and recognition of their newly founded nation, as its ability to fight independently even following the imminent situation reflected directly on Saint Anthony Falls' belief that independence would eventually be achieved. Nonetheless, as March turned to April, Pike was satisfied in his preparation, and the defense of Fort Pike which had once been deemed as impossible had been suddenly shifted to the realm of practical due to the introduction of a fully equipped, fully uniformed and well organized 3,000 man regiment, in great credit to the arrival of the much anticipated foreign aid. As the harsh winter and the large amount of snow that blanketed the Upper Midwest finally and slowly subsided throughout the invitation of spring, so too did its arrival welcome the stage to be set for the long awaited Minnesota Campaign - where the fate of the young Republic would ultimately be decided.