Secession : Civil War

[Caulaincourt]

http://s2.noelshack.com/uploads/images/5379862139982_grande_bannire_ohio.png


Presentation
Secession Civil War

The purpose of this game is to propose realistic and epic battles between both belligerent camps. The first versions of SCW will thus be divested of campaign, although a campaign is foreseen and will be developed if the mod finds success because, a real mod wouldn't be complete without a great campaign.

Actually the mod is for Kingdoms.

The team tries above all to reconstitute realistic and animated fights. The engine of Medieval II must be thus investigated and modified to allow a good balancing of the fights between modern units of marksmen. The improvement of the battle AI as well as mechanisms of morale is naturally at study.


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Secession Civil War 1.0 ;


Two new and detailed factions
an interface reworked for more dumping,
military music
historic battles are faithful to the real battles
The version 1.0 will allow to play quality battles with a minimum of dumping. Patches to come will enrich the contents as much in term of dumping as in terms of gameplay.




http://s2.noelshack.com/uploads/images/4715651007738_grande_bannire_canons.png



Development and progress

The mod SecessionCivil War continue to grow on its way. The development advances rather effectively and soon the version 1.0, certainly rather basic (custom and historic battles only), should be released.


The team :
Raph_VR, team leader
Caulaincourt, second
F-ake, second
Germanicu5, bAI scripter
Elrond petit pas tapons, videos
Hephaestion & Faras, searchers
Keneticpest, special translator


Special Acknowledgments:
=> The submod "better water (http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=324952)" has been implemented, thanks to davide.cool.
=> We use some content from NTW2, a great thank to the Lordz
=> The submod Swagger's Skies (http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=367254)by Swagger
=> Burreck's Blood and Dirt (http://www.twcenter.net/forums/downloads.php?do=file&id=1078) by Burreck
=> Grapeshot (http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?p=6144152#post6144152) by Gigantus
=> Thanks to all the modding community for its great research and work; the tutos and advices they give to modders since many years honor this website and the players. I particularly think to Gigantus, Jàn, Red_Evil, Inarus, Aradan, Ataegina, Cedric37, Lebre, advisors and special modders.




http://s2.noelshack.com/uploads/images/14159891309256_grande_bannire_sharpshooters.png



Visual overview


Please note that unless stated otherwise, ALL pictures, animations and other contents shown in this announcement are works in progress. We continue to improve SCW (all the units are actually being re-textured for example).


TRAILER 1


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppcTTqjM0Mk




Pictures

http://s2.noelshack.com/uploads/images/12890514049677_rguliers_du_sud.jpg (http://s2.noelshack.com/upload/12890514049677_rguliers_du_sud.jpg)


(http://s2.noelshack.com/upload/12890514049677_rguliers_du_sud.jpg)http://s2.noelshack.com/uploads/images/7905535927344_virginie1.jpg (http://s2.noelshack.com/upload/7905535927344_virginie1.jpg)


(http://s2.noelshack.com/upload/12890514049677_rguliers_du_sud.jpg)http://s2.noelshack.com/uploads/images/2048906018907_artlleurs_lourds.jpg (http://s2.noelshack.com/upload/2048906018907_artlleurs_lourds.jpg)


(http://s2.noelshack.com/upload/12890514049677_rguliers_du_sud.jpg)http://s2.noelshack.com/uploads/images/9405212214717_cavalerie_nordiste.jpg (http://s2.noelshack.com/upload/9405212214717_cavalerie_nordiste.jpg)


(http://s2.noelshack.com/upload/12890514049677_rguliers_du_sud.jpg)http://s2.noelshack.com/uploads/images/4416811824645_cumberland.jpg (http://s2.noelshack.com/upload/4416811824645_cumberland.jpg)


http://virtua.roma.ifrance.com/SECESSION/Zouaves3.jpg
http://virtua.roma.ifrance.com/SECESSION/Zouaves2.jpg (http://s2.noelshack.com/upload/12890514049677_rguliers_du_sud.jpg)




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History
Secession Civil War

Conflict Genesis
The question of slavery has divided the USA since its foundation.
Since the compromise of 1850 which had calmed for a while the violent fights within the Congress, in the press and in all the appearances of the political and social life between the opponents and the defenders of the slavery, the debate started again, now burning more than never, during the presidential elections of 1860, when the republican party of the North triumphed with its candidate, Abraham Lincoln. November 10th, 1860, when the result of the election was known, the legislature of the South Carolina ordered the election of an Convention asked to consider the question of the exit of the Union. It chose the split between the Southern States, partisans of the slavery, and the Northern States.

Eleven States declared successively (between December 20th 1860 - June 12th, 1861) to get out from the union and constituted a separate government, the Confederacy :


South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Alabama,
Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee and Virginia


http://s2.noelshack.com/uploads/images/11232777799881_carte_scession.jpg

A new constitution was adopted and appointed Jefferson Davis as president. The Confederates adopted a new capital, Richmond, and set an army like the Union.

In Washington, the Congress, during the last weeks of the presidency of Buchanan (the predecessor of Lincoln), tried some measures of conciliation which were unable to succeed. He left the White House on March 4th, 1861, bequeathing to his successor what was going to be a horrifying civil war. The war was engaged from the bombardment of Fort Sumter, in April 12th.

The confederate Congress gathered the 20th of June at Richmond. The definitive constitution was ratified by all the Confederate States. Having henceforth the free hands, the confederate government, under the almighty direction of Jefferson Davis, led the war operations with an extreme energy and delivered letters to European Powers, without managing however to make recognize in Europe the Confederacy as independent power, in spite of the sympathies which it found on behalf of France and of England.


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The military status
The United States possessed only 15,000 men of regular troops, scattered on the extreme points of the territory, and a big part of them joined the South cause. So, Confederates at the beginning of the war, seemed to have numerous advantages, the best officers, a population been used to weapons, a big abundance of equipment and ammunition, thanks to the treason of the War Minister and the Navy Minister of Buchanan. They had taken up more than 40 million dollars of federal properties, and aligned approximately 20 000 men on the battlefield.

From April 15th, Abraham Lincoln called to arms 75,000 militiamen, and summoned the Congress in an extraordinary session the 4th of July. General Scott, seventy-five-year-old, was named commander-in-chief of the federal army, which he had to organize before thinking of fighting the enemy. Everything was to create one rather to recreate; the military administration existed hardly, arsenals and stores of the North were deprived, staff were lacking, a large number of officers from the military academy of West Point offering their service to the confederate government (200 approximately on 950), among them, the colonel Lee, a Virginian, and one of the officers the most distinguished among the American army.

The militias of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, with volunteers hastily organized, formed the heart of the federal army. On May 3rd, Lincoln's new proclamation called 82,000 volunteers (64,000 for the land forces and 18,000 for the navy) whose recruitment must be made for all the period of the war.

To be continued...



Some banners to support our team:


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Thanks for having read this announcement until its end.


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Stay in connection for future announcements!



To come, previews of the factions!

[Caulaincourt]

http://img4.hostingpics.net/pics/441789bannierecartepng.png



http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_23d_O_D4nik/Sx_VCtBityI/AAAAAAAAAAk/PHjduWbmu_I/S45/BonnieBlueFlag.jpg The Confederacy Preview http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_23d_O_D4nik/Sx_VCtBityI/AAAAAAAAAAk/PHjduWbmu_I/S45/BonnieBlueFlag.jpg



Presentation



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Secession Civil War is a total modification of Medieval II TW - Kingdoms, taking place during the American Civil war, called Secession War in Europe.
The 1.0 version will just be a battle version (historical, custom and multiplayer) but the 2.0 will be a great campaign.

Now, some weeks before the first release, the time has come to preview the vaillant -but defeated- confederates. Indeed, if the USA could use their already organized army and almost their mighty navy to fight, the south states have had to make a brand new start ; armies, constitution, diplomacy... The lack of uniforms, ammunitions and weapons, the lower level of industry development and the terrible blocade of their ports have gradually paralysed the Confederacy, causing its inevitable crash.







http://www.noelshack.com/1/1/bannirebatterie-9db8c4d610.png



Visual overview


Please note that unless stated otherwise, ALL pictures, animations and other contents shown in this announcement are works in progress. We continue to improve SCW (all the units are actually being re-textured for example).

(http://s2.noelshack.com/upload/12890514049677_rguliers_du_sud.jpg)

Texan Infantry:
http://s2.noelshack.com/uploads/images/2167389769347_texans.jpg (http://s2.noelshack.com/upload/2167389769347_texans.jpg)

Texas has been a place of warfare for the last few decades from Spanish and American settlers fighting the native tribes like the Comanche or Apache to the Texas War of Independence, and even further, after its admission into the United States (1845), during the Mexican American War from 1846 to 1848. And now with the election of Abraham Lincoln as the 16th President of the United States in 1860. After the election came secession in 1861 and with the other southern states, Texas have formed the Confederate States of America and now again Texas is calling up its troops to defend itself again, against an aggressor who, some say, comes to destroy a way of life. So the Texan has become a skillful fighter over the years, with a tenacity unmatched in all North America, who will never back down from any fight that comes his way. From grandfather to father and now to son, all are ready to defend their rights as citizens of The Great State of Texas.\n
When the War broke out, Texas raised infantry regiments right away. The Government of the State outfitted them with the best uniforms and weapons the State Arsenals could afford. Texas regiments fought in all the theatres of the war. A Texas brigade was formed and fought in the Army of northern Virginia, winning great respect in the early years of the war. The Texas Regulars are a force to take into account on the battlefield, because they will never retreat in the face of the enemy - or so as last.





Confederate Sharpshooters :

http://s2.noelshack.com/uploads/images/9948308839623_sharp_du_sud.jpg (http://redirectingat.com/?id=3054X598607&xs=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fs2.noelshack.com%2Fupload%2F9948308839623_sharp_du_sud.jpg&sref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.twcenter.net%2Fforums%2Fshowthread.php%3Ft%3D393428%26page%3D6)

Sniping, or sharpshooting, was a recognized psychological weapon at the outset of the Civil War. The first troop of sharpshooters in the civil war was recruited in the North, by the champion marksman Hiram C. Berdan of New York, in the summer of 1861. A Confederate sharpshooter unit similar to Berdan's was authorized by act of Confederate Congress in 1862.
The sharpshooters used by both sides in the Civil War were less used as snipers, and more as skirmishers and scouts. These elite troops were well equipped (armed with Sharp's rifles, Whitworth rifles, sporting arms, and custom-made, privately owned target weapons -some weighing over 30 lbs) and trained, and placed at the front of any column to first engage the enemy. Marksmen were best organized in units no larger than companies and attached to regular regiments for special deployment at a field general's order in a specific action. An approximation of this system was adopted in both Union and Confederate armies.
On the Confederate side, sharpshooter units functioned as light infantry. Their duties included skirmishing and reconnaisance.
Confederate sharpshooters were often less well equipped, using British Whitworth rifles, rather than breech loading Berdan Sharps rifles.



VIRGINIAN INFANTRY
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Bushwhackers:


http://img4.hostingpics.net/thumbs/mini_244084bushbmp.png (http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=244084bushbmp.png)Bushwhacking was a form of guerrilla warfare common during American Civil War. This was particularly prevalent in rural areas during the Civil War where there were sharp divisions between those favoring the Union and Confederacy in the conflict. The perpetrators of the attacks were called bushwhackers.
In most areas, irregular warfare operated as an adjunct to conventional military operations. The most famous such "partisan ranger" (to use the title adopted by the Confederate government in formally authorizing such insurgents) was Col. John Singleton Mosby, who carried out raids on Union forces in the Shenandoah Valley and northern Virginia. In Missouri, however, secessionist bushwhackers operated outside of the Confederate chain of command. On occasion, a prominent bushwhacker chieftain might receive formal Confederate rank (notably the famous William Clarke Quantrill), or receive written orders from a Confederate general. They also assisted Confederate recruiters in Union-held territory.
While bushwhackers conducted a few well-organized raids in which they burned cities, most of the attacks involved ambushes of individuals or families in rural areas. In areas affected by bushwhacking the actions were particularly insidious since it amounted to a fight of neighbor against neighbor. Since the attacks were non-uniformed, the government response was complicated by trying to decide whether they were legitimate military attacks or criminal actions. The conflict with Confederate bushwhackers everywhere rapidly escalated into a succession of atrocities committed by both sides. Bushwhackers frequently went house to house, executing Unionist farmers, while union troops often executed or tortured suspects without trial and burned the homes of suspected guerrillas and those suspected of aiding or harboring them.



CSA zouaves:


http://img4.hostingpics.net/thumbs/mini_899019zouavescsabmp.png (http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=899019zouavescsabmp.png)The Zouaves of the French Army were first raised in Algeria in 1831, initially recruited solely from the Zouaoua (or Zwāwa), a tribe of Berbers finding homes in the mountains of Kabyly, then they became a purely French body. The legendary bravery of these soldiers was famous all along the nations, and so many armies imitated the french regiment.
Numerous Zouave regiments were organized from soldiers of the United States of America who adopted the name and the North African–inspired uniforms during the American Civil War. The Union army had more than 70 volunteer Zouave regiments throughout the conflict, while the Confederates fielded only about 25 Zouave units.Arguably the most famous Union Zouave regiment was from New York: the 5th New York Volunteer Infantry, "Duryee's Zouaves" (after its first colonel, Abram Duryee).The 5th New York thus suffered the highest percentage of casualties in the shortest amount of time of any unit in the Civil War.
In contrast to the many Federal units, most Confederate Zouaves were not full "regiments": many were companies within larger units. The cognomen "Louisiana Tiger" dates from the Mexican War, and refers to any Louisiana state trooper ; but the earliest, and most famous Louisiana Zouave unit was White's Company B (the "Tiger Rifles") of Major Chatham Roberdeau Wheat's First Special Battalion, Louisiana Volunteers, aka "Louisiana Tigers".
The Zouave uniform was sometimes quite elaborate, to the extent of being unwieldy. Some Zouave regiments wore a fez with a colored tassel and turban, a tight fitting short jacket (some without buttons), a wide 10-foot-long sash, baggy pantaloons or "chasseur" trousers, white leggings, and a short leather cuff for the calf, called jambieres. The sash was especially difficult to put on, often requiring the help of another Zouave. The Zouave uniform was better suited for warm climates and rough terrain. The loose pantaloons allowed for greater freedom of movement than trousers, while the short jacket was much cooler than the long wool blouse worn by most armies of the time. One of the reasons for the smaller number of Zouave units in the U.S. and Europe was the expense of the specialised uniform over that of mass-produced uniforms of a single color and cut. Difficulties in supply and replacement meant that Zouave and other exotic militia uniforms tended to be replaced by standard issue uniforms throughout the conflict.



Missouri Guard:
http://img4.hostingpics.net/thumbs/mini_245662kingdoms2010111022394662bmp.png (http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=245662kingdoms2010111022394662bmp.png)

Alabama Militia:
http://img4.hostingpics.net/thumbs/mini_632368kingdoms2010111023024435bmp.png (http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=632368kingdoms2010111023024435bmp.png)

A preview of the south interface:
http://img4.hostingpics.net/thumbs/mini_534432interfacebmp.png (http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=534432interfacebmp.png)






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History
Secession Civil War


A beginning...

Fort Monroe in Virginia, Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, and Fort Pickens, Fort Jefferson, and Fort Taylor, all in Florida, were the remaining Union-held forts in the Confederacy, and Lincoln was determined to hold them all. Under orders from Confederate President Jefferson Davis, troops controlled by the Confederate government under P. G. T. Beauregard bombarded Fort Sumter on April 12, forcing its capitulation. Northerners rallied behind Lincoln's call for all the states to send troops to recapture the forts and to preserve the Union, citing presidential powers given by the Militia Acts of 1792. With the scale of the rebellion apparently small so far, Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers for 90 days. For months before that, several Northern governors had discreetly readied their state militias; they began to move forces the next day. Confederate sympathizers seized Liberty Arsenal in Liberty, Missouri on April 20, eight days after Fort Sumter.

Four states in the upper South (Tennessee, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Virginia), which had repeatedly rejected Confederate overtures, now refused to send forces against their neighbors, declared their secession, and joined the Confederacy. To reward Virginia, the Confederate capital was moved to Richmond.

Winfield Scott, the commanding general of the U.S. Army, devised the Anaconda Plan to win the war with as little bloodshed as possible. His idea was that a Union blockade of the main ports would weaken the Confederate economy; then the capture of the Mississippi River would split the South. Lincoln adopted the plan in terms of a blockade to squeeze to death the Confederate economy, but overruled Scott's warnings that his new army was not ready for an offensive operation because public opinion demanded an immediate attack.

In April 1861, Lincoln announced the Union blockade of all Southern ports; commercial ships could not get insurance and regular traffic ended. The South blundered in embargoing cotton exports in 1861 before the blockade was effective; by the time they realized the mistake it was too late. "King Cotton" was dead, as the South could export less than 10% of its cotton. British investors built small, fast blockade runners that traded arms and luxuries brought in from Bermuda, Cuba and the Bahamas in return for high-priced cotton and tobacco. When the Union Navy seized a blockade runner the ship and cargo were sold and the proceeds given to the Navy sailors; the captured crewmen were mostly British and they were simply released. The Southern economy nearly collapsed during the war.

In the East...

Because of the public opinion, an immediate attack was tried at Manassas, Virginia, in July 1861; a march by Union troops under the command of Maj. Gen. Irvin McDowell on the Confederate forces there was halted in the First Battle of Bull Run, or First Manassas, McDowell's troops were forced back to Washington, D.C., by the Confederates under the command of Generals Joseph E. Johnston and P. G. T. Beauregard. It was in this battle that Confederate General Thomas Jackson received the nickname of "Stonewall" because he stood like a stone wall against Union troops. After Bull Run, it became obvious that the war would be longer than expected.

Alarmed at the loss, and in an attempt to prevent more slave states from leaving the Union, the U.S. Congress passed the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution on July 25 of that year, which stated that the war was being fought to preserve the Union and not to end slavery.

Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan took command of the Union Army of the Potomac on July 26, and the war began in earnest in 1862. Upon the strong urging of President Lincoln to begin offensive operations, McClellan attacked Virginia in the spring of 1862 by way of the peninsula between the York River and James River, southeast of Richmond. Although McClellan's army reached the gates of Richmond in the Peninsula Campaign, Johnston halted his advance at the Battle of Seven Pines, then General Robert E. Lee and top subordinates James Longstreet and Stonewall Jackson defeated McClellan in the Seven Days Battles and forced his retreat. The Northern Virginia Campaign, which included the Second Battle of Bull Run, ended in yet another victory for the South. McClellan resisted General-in-Chief Halleck's orders to send reinforcements to John Pope's Union Army of Virginia, which made it easier for Lee's Confederates to defeat twice the number of combined enemy troops.

In the West...

While the Confederate forces had numerous successes in the Eastern Theater, they were defeated many times in the West. They were driven from Missouri early in the war as a result of the Battle of Pea Ridge. Leonidas Polk's invasion of Columbus, Kentucky ended Kentucky's policy of neutrality and turned that state against the Confederacy. Nashville and central Tennessee fell to the Union early in 1862.

The Mississippi was opened to Union traffic to the southern border of Tennessee with the taking of Island No. 10 and New Madrid, Missouri, and then Memphis, Tennessee. In April 1862, the Union Navy captured New Orleans without a major fight, which allowed Union forces to begin moving up the Mississippi. Only the fortress city of Vicksburg, Mississippi, prevented Union control of the entire river.

General Braxton Bragg's second Confederate invasion of Kentucky ended with a meaningless victory over Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell at the Battle of Perryville, although Bragg was forced to end his attempt at invading Kentucky and retreat due to lack of support for the Confederacy in that state. Bragg was narrowly defeated by Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans at the Battle of Stones River in Tennessee.

The one clear Confederate victory in the West was the Battle of Chickamauga. Bragg, reinforced by Lt. Gen. James Longstreet's corps (from Lee's army in the east), defeated Rosecrans, despite the heroic defensive stand of Maj. Gen. George Henry Thomas. Rosecrans retreated to Chattanooga, which Bragg then besieged.

And in the East again :

Emboldened by Second Bull Run, the Confederacy made its first invasion of the North. General Lee led 45,000 men of the Army of Northern Virginia across the Potomac River into Maryland on September 5. Lincoln then restored Pope's troops to McClellan. McClellan and Lee fought at the Battle of Antietam near Sharpsburg, Maryland, on September 17, 1862, the bloodiest single day in United States military history. Lee's army, checked at last, returned to Virginia before McClellan could destroy it. Antietam is considered an Union victory because it halted Lee's invasion of the North. This clear first success for the USA provided an opportunity for Lincoln to announce his Emancipation Proclamation ; it became obvious to all the nations that the Confederacy will never win the war.



To be continued...





Thanks for having read this announcement until its end.



* * *



Stay in connection for future announcements!


To come, preview of the Union forces !

[Caulaincourt]

https://img189.imageshack.us/img189/6425/seccesionogo256copy.png
PRESENTS THE

http://s2.noelshack.com/uploads/images/4528286456067_usa.png UNION PREVIEW http://s2.noelshack.com/uploads/images/4528286456067_usa.png



Presentation
Secession Civil War stand now at the last step before the 1.0 gold version. Our team have enjoyed Christmas in rest but the time of war (and work) has come and we will finalized the SCW 1.0 for the 2010 release. We thanks all the community and TWC for their support and interest.

So today we will talk about the winner - the Union. A the beginning of the war, few would have bet that this bloody conflict would last four years, causing more than 617 000 deaths and destroying for years the South States. But the unexperienced and scattered US army was taken by surprise, having to fight against talented generals and brave privates, and it is thanks to its impressive industry and to its volunteers' inexhaustible reserve that the Union was able to renew its assaults and erase the (material and human) losses undergone during its multiple defeats.

The Union forces were divided in three great armies ; Potomac (east), Cumberland(west) and Ohio (between). The north strategy was clearly the reconquest, while its loyal navy was blockading all the south coasts, ruining the confederate economy. Its numberous army (about 1 million of soldiers in 1864-1865) and its arms factories allowed Union to loose some battles without becoming really in danger ; its modern strategy -total war- gave to North the final victory.


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Visual overview
Secession Civil War

TRAILER 2



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMI04GjOSXw



SCREENSHOTS


http://img4.hostingpics.net/thumbs/mini_774124Cumberland.jpg (http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=774124Cumberland.jpg) http://img4.hostingpics.net/thumbs/mini_259350EtatMajor.jpg (http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=259350EtatMajor.jpg) http://img4.hostingpics.net/thumbs/mini_128124Massachussets.jpg (http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=128124Massachussets.jpg) http://img4.hostingpics.net/thumbs/mini_874170Potomac.jpg (http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=874170Potomac.jpg) http://img4.hostingpics.net/thumbs/mini_180309Miliceest.jpg (http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=180309Miliceest.jpg) http://img4.hostingpics.net/thumbs/mini_220996Ohio.jpg (http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=220996Ohio.jpg)
http://img4.hostingpics.net/thumbs/mini_711400nord.png (http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=711400nord.png) http://img4.hostingpics.net/thumbs/mini_848813milicewest.jpg (http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=848813milicewest.jpg)


Focus on the United States Colored Troops (USCT)
The U.S. Congress passed the Second Confiscation Act in July 1862 that freed slaves of owners in rebellion against the United States, and a militia act that empowered the President to use freed slaves in any capacity in the army. President Abraham Lincoln, however, was concerned with public opinion in the four border states that remained in the Union, as well as with northern Democrats who supported the war. Lincoln opposed early efforts to recruit black soldiers, even though he accepted their use as laborers. Union Army setbacks in battles over the summer of 1862 forced Lincoln into the more drastic response of emancipating all slaves in states at war with the Union. In September 1862 Lincoln issued his preliminary proclamation that all slaves in rebellious states would be free as of January 1. Recruitment of colored regiments began in full force following the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1863.

http://img4.hostingpics.net/thumbs/mini_503852Milicenoire.jpg (http://www.hostingpics.net/viewer.php?id=503852Milicenoire.jpg)Many escaped or freed slaves were organized into Militia Volunteer Infantry. The regiment was a step in the evolution of Union thinking towards the escaped slaves who crossed their lines. Initially they were returned to their owners. Next they were considered contrabands and used as laborers. Finally the legal fiction that they were property was abandoned and they were allowed to enlist in the Army, although in segregated units commanded by white officers.

On May 22, 1863, the Bureau of Colored Troops was created to handle "all matters relating to the organization of colored troops." The designation United States Colored Troops replaced the varied state titles that had been given to the African American soldiers.

Approximately 175 regiments of over 178,000 free blacks and freed slaves served during the last two years of the war, and bolstered the Union war effort at a critical time. By war's end, the USCT were approximately a tenth of all Union troops.

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History
Secession Civil War
When the cautious McClellan failed to follow up on Antietam, he was replaced by Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside. Burnside was soon defeated at the Battle of Fredericksburg on December 13, 1862, when over twelve thousand Union soldiers were killed or wounded during repeated futile frontal assaults against Marye's Heights. After the battle, Burnside was replaced by Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker.
Hooker, too, proved unable to defeat Lee's army; despite outnumbering the Confederates by more than two to one, he was humiliated in the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863. He was replaced by Maj. Gen. George Meade during Lee's second invasion of the North, in June. Meade defeated Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1 to July 3, 1863). This was the bloodiest battle of the war, and has been called the war's turning point. Pickett's Charge on July 3 is often considered the high-water mark of the Confederacy because it signaled the collapse of serious Confederate threats of victory. Lee's army suffered 28,000 casualties (versus Meade's 23,000). However, Lincoln was angry that Meade failed to intercept Lee's retreat, and after Meade's inconclusive fall campaign, Lincoln turned to the Western Theater for new leadership. At the same time the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg surrendered, giving the Union control of the Mississippi River, permanently isolating the western Confederacy, and producing the new leader Lincoln needed.
The Union's key strategist and tactician in the West was indeed Ulysses S. Grant, who won victories at Forts Henry and Donelson, the Battle of Shiloh and the Battle of Vicksburg, which cemented Union control of the Mississippi River and is considered one of the turning points of the war. Grant marched to the relief of Rosecrans and defeated Bragg at the Third Battle of Chattanooga, driving Confederate forces out of Tennessee and opening a route to Atlanta and the heart of the Confederacy.

At the beginning of 1864, Lincoln made Grant commander of all Union armies. Grant made his headquarters with the Army of the Potomac, and put Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman in command of most of the western armies. Grant understood the concept of total war and believed, along with Lincoln and Sherman, that only the utter defeat of Confederate forces and their economic base would bring an end to the war. This was total war not in terms of killing civilians but rather in terms of destroying homes, farms, and railroads. Grant devised a coordinated strategy that would strike at the entire Confederacy from multiple directions. Generals George Meade and Benjamin Butler were ordered to move against Lee near Richmond, General Franz Sigel was to attack the Shenandoah Valley, General Sherman was to capture Atlanta and march to the sea, Generals George Crook and William W. Averell were to operate against railroad supply lines in West Virginia, and Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks was to capture Mobile, Alabama.
Union forces in the East attempted to maneuver past Lee and fought several battles during that phase ("Grant's Overland Campaign") of the Eastern campaign. Grant's battles of attrition at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor resulted in heavy Union losses, but forced Lee's Confederates to fall back repeatedly. An attempt to outflank Lee from the south failed under Butler, who was trapped inside the Bermuda Hundred river bend. Grant was tenacious and, despite astonishing losses (over 65,000 casualties in seven weeks), kept pressing Lee's Army of Northern Virginia back to Richmond. He pinned down the Confederate army in the Siege of Petersburg, where the two armies engaged in trench warfare for over nine months.
Grant finally found a commander, General Philip Sheridan, aggressive enough to prevail in the Valley Campaigns of 1864. Sheridan defeated Maj. Gen. Jubal A. Early in a series of battles, including a final decisive defeat at the Battle of Cedar Creek. Sheridan then proceeded to destroy the agricultural base of the Shenandoah Valley, a strategy similar to the tactics Sherman later employed in Georgia.


The march to victory
Meanwhile, Sherman maneuvered from Chattanooga to Atlanta, defeating Confederate Generals Joseph E. Johnston and John Bell Hood along the way. The fall of Atlanta on September 2, 1864, guaranteed the reelection of Lincoln as president. Hood left the Atlanta area to swing around and menace Sherman's supply lines and invade Tennessee in the Franklin-Nashville Campaign, but its defeats at the Battle of Franklin, then at Nashville, totally destroyed his army.
Leaving Atlanta, Sherman's army reached the Atlantic Ocean at Savannah, Georgia in December 1864, then turned north through South Carolina and North Carolina to approach the Confederate Virginia lines from the south, increasing the pressure on Lee's army, which was now much smaller than Grant's. Union forces won a decisive victory at the Battle of Five Forks on April 1, forcing Lee to evacuate Petersburg and Richmond. The Confederate capital fallen, it became clear to Robert E. Lee that continued fighting against the United States was both tactically and logistically impossible, and he surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia on April 9, 1865, at the McLean House in the village of Appomattox Court House. In an untraditional gesture and as a sign of Grant's respect and anticipation of peacefully folding the Confederacy back into the Union, Lee was permitted to keep his officer's saber and his horse, Traveller.

On April 14, 1865, President Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth, a Southern sympathizer. Lincoln died early the next morning, and Andrew Johnson became President.


A result ?
Slavery for the Confederacy's 3.5 million blacks effectively ended when Union armies arrived; they were nearly all freed by the Emancipation Proclamation. Slaves in the border states and those located in some former Confederate territory occupied prior to the Emancipation Proclamation were freed by state action or (on December 18, 1865) by the Thirteenth Amendment. The full restoration of the Union was the work of a highly contentious postwar era known as Reconstruction. The war produced about 1,030,000 casualties (3% of the population), including about 620,000 soldier deaths—two-thirds by disease.The war accounted for roughly as many American deaths as all American deaths in other U.S. wars combined

The old confederate states were occupied by the army US and reinstated in the union from 1865 till 1870.

At the end of the war, two central questions for the USA development had found their answers ; slavery and federalism.



Berdans' sharpshooters
http://s2.noelshack.com/uploads/images/17713096873164_nordgif.gif

[Caulaincourt]

http://pachome2.pacific.net.sg/%7Egrognard/games/gif/game_civilwar.gif https://img441.imageshack.us/img441/8196/civilwar.pnghttp://pachome2.pacific.net.sg/%7Egrognard/games/gif/game_civilwar.gif
TEAM IS PROUD TO PRESENT...


https://img189.imageshack.us/img189/6425/seccesionogo256copy.png

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2a/Battle_flag_of_the_US_Confederacy.svg/50px-Battle_flag_of_the_US_Confederacy.svg.png Version 1.0 http://upload.democraticunderground.com/discuss/images/avatars/flag1.gif




The 1.0 version features two new factions, the Union and the Confederacy, each of them aligning 20 generic units. Fight epic battles (solo or multiplayer mods) on more than 15 american maps.



http://s2.noelshack.com/uploads/images/13582596724488_bannire_bataille.png




Download Link

>>> FILEFRONT <<< (http://www.filefront.com/17735632/SCW_1.0.exe)



Installation

Requirements:
http://www.civilwar.org/assets/images/design_elements/icons/us_flag.gif SCW 1.0 requires the "Medieval 2 - Kingdoms Expansion" and is compatible with the official patchs 1.04 and 1.05. One installed campaign of the "Kingdoms Expansion" is enough.

Installation:
http://www.civilwar.org/assets/images/design_elements/icons/rebel_flag.gif Install SCW_1.0.exe into the default 'Medievall II Total' War directory (normally: 'Programs/SEGA/Medieval II Total War'). If you have installed Medieval II into another folder, please select the folder manually.
http://www.civilwar.org/assets/images/design_elements/icons/us_flag.gif OPTIONAL: download and install the appropriate translation


http://www.paradislatin.com/wordpress/wp-content/themes/paradislatin/_img/img_drapeau_francais-alpha.png French translation (http://www.gamefront.com/files/17736385/SCW_1.0_VF.exe)
http://www.paradislatin.com/wordpress/wp-content/themes/paradislatin/_img/img_drapeau_espagnol-alpha.png Spanish translation (http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=432730)

http://www.civilwar.org/assets/images/design_elements/icons/rebel_flag.gif Start the mod with the 'Secession Civil War' shortcut on your desktop.



Additional installation instructions only for Steam users:
1. Install the mod as instructed above.
2. Open Steam/Steamapps/Common/Medieval II Total War/mods. There you will find all your installed Kingdoms campaigns as well as the SCW modfolder.
3. Edit the name of one of the Kingdoms folders (americas, britannia, crusades, teutonic), preferably your least favorite campaign. The new name doesn't have to be anything specific.
4. Change the name of the SCW folder to the former name of the Kingdoms folder you just edited. For example, if you edited the americas folder, the SCW folder should be named "americas".
5. Select the appropriate campaign from the steam menu. If you renamed the SCW folder to americas, select the americas campaign. If you named it crusades, select the crusades campaign and so on.
6. Steam will now launch the mod.

Workaround installation instructions for Vista/W7 users:How to activate sounds with Windows Vista (http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=261332)
How to fiw stability, Vista Win7 issues (http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=360880) by Germanicu5



Even if this version is the result of months of work, our little team cannot be compared to more professionnal and skilled modding teams of the TWC community. It's why we will try to improve the game with both bug fixes and content patchs.
In this process of perpetual creation and improvement, all the help other modders or players could bring would be welcome. We particularly think about the musics you could know (movies, military marchs, historical musics) and which could bring more depht and dumping to SCW. Don't hesitate to post new threads or to contact us.


The Credits
See the in-game credits or this thread. (http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=412239)