The Second Civil War- The Complete History

by Adam Yoshida

  “Where are you?” Sarah Watkins’ voice was ice-cold.

  “I’m where I said that I would be, Sarah. I’m at the Capitol.”

  “Do you know what’s going on? There are soldiers coming to arrest the people there for treason.”

  “Technically, I believe that it’s insurrection,” answered Sorensen, “and depending on what goes on inside of the Capitol in the next few minutes, it is they – and not we – who will be the insurgents.”

  “This is tearing the whole country apart,” said Sarah, tearfully, “don’t you care about that?”

  “Some things are more important than comity for the sake of comity.”

  “This is tearing us apart. Do you have any idea what my friends are saying?”

  “I can take a guess.”

  “Don’t you care? Don’t you feel?”

  “I think, Sarah... I think that what is happening here is more important that you and I. I wish that you could see that...”

  “Don’t come home,” Sarah hissed.

  “I might not even be able to,” answered Christopher, twisting the knife. The call disconnected.

  U.S. Senate

  The dazed Chief Justice of the United States sat in front of the United States Senate, ashen-faced. He wished that he could be anywhere other than here. All of his legacy, all of his work would ultimately be judged based upon this single act. The Constitution required that the Chief Justice of the United States preside over any impeachment trial of a President of the United States and he could have, if he had wished, foiled entire process by the simple expedient of absenting himself from the city. But duty had not permitted it. The process over which he found himself presiding was irregular and perhaps even unfair and immoral, but it was Constitutional. All of his life, his first duty had been to the Constitution. It was too late for him to vote “present,” especially on a question of such awful moment for the country.

  “The Senate having resolved itself into a court of impeachment and having voted, by majority vote, to dispense with all formal presentation of the charges and evidence as well as any refutation of the same, I now – while registering my formal objection to the process used by the Senate – call for the Senators to cast a vote of either guilty or not guilty on the sole article of impeachment.”

  U.S. Capitol Grounds

  As soon as the 4th Battalion arrived on the scene, the mobs of protestors had begun to disperse on both sides. Some of the pro-Administration members of the mob had withdrawn to a safe distance, where they found themselves in the unusual position of cheering on the United States Armed Forces. Others had, on seeing the guns and armored vehicles, simply run away as fast and as far as was humanly possible. Every single Federal law enforcement resource that could be mustered was also deployed to the scene, as members of the Congressional Provisional Battalion eyed the soldiers of the U.S. Army across the couple of hundred years that separated them.

  “Attack, attack, attack,” came the frantic orders to Colonel Gregory from the political branch of the government, desperate to forestall the vote inside of the Capitol but unwilling to withdraw their threat of physical coercion in order to thwart it by democratic means. Colonel Gregory raised his radio to speak and carefully enunciated his words.

  “This is Roland Actual. All units, standby.”

  The Colonel signaled his driver to bring the Humvee to a stop and opened the door. As he jumped to the ground, several of his soldiers moved to follow him. He held up his hand and gestured for them to stay put.

  Moving beyond the line of Stryker fighting vehicles, the Colonel began to walk methodically towards the line of nervous men with rifles and whatever other improvised weapons had been issued to the Congressional Provisional Battalion. The men and women of the CPB eyed the lone U.S. Army officer warily as he moved ever closer to them.

  “Who is in command over there?” shouted the Colonel.

  “What does it matter?” sneered one of the CPB soldiers, “you’re just going to do whatever your President says anyways.”

  “I want to talk to the commander here. One soldier to another,” replied Gregory, taking another step towards the barricade.

  For nearly a minute, the Colonel stood silent, his arms in the air, as the Congressional soldiers kept their rifles pointed towards him. Then Jacob Henry, now wearing an unadorned uniform, came tearing forward.

  “Lower those rifles,” ordered Henry as he approached from the opposite side.

  “Sir,” said the Colonel, “my name is Michael Gregory. I am the commander of the 4th Battalion, Third Infantry Regiment, United States Army. I have been ordered by the President of the United States to render assistance to the civil power in putting down an insurrection within the city of Washington, DC. The forces under your command represent a clear obstruction to the enforcement of the laws of the United States. I will remove that obstruction by force if necessary, but I wish to avoid unnecessary bloodshed.”

  “Colonel,” replied the CPB commander, “my name is Jacob Henry, and I am the commander of what has been designated, pursuant the resolution of the House of Representatives, as the Congressional Provisional Battalion. I will not initiate offensive action against your forces, but I will defend this position against any illegal intrusion.”

  “Mr. Henry,” said Gregory, “my orders come from the President. I will use force to execute my orders if required. Your force cannot possibly hope to withstand mine.”

  “We shall see,” replied Henry, “but we shall certainly try. Personally, I wouldn’t count on all of your boys to shoot us when you give them the other to do so. I wouldn’t rule out that some will come over to our side.”

  “Well,” replied Gregory, “we shall see.”

  U.S. Senate

  “The vote being fifty-six guilty to two not guilty, I hereby direct that a verdict of guilty be recorded against Kevin Jonathan Bryan, President of the United States and that, consequently, Kevin Jonathan Bryan do be removed from his office and disqualified from any other office of trust or profit under the United States,” said the Chief Justice.

  A great cheer arouse from the Senate Chamber and reverberated throughout the Capitol, spreading almost instantly from the inside to the outside as the people still gathered in the surrounding area saw what the Congress had done.

  “The proceeding are now adjourned,” announced the Chief Justice, banging his gavel with a convincing thump.

  As soon as the Chief Justice stepped down from the rostrum, Michael Nelson walked up to him, a Bible tucked under his arm.

  “Alright John,” he said, “let’s go and do this thing.”

  The Oval Office, The White House

  “Why hasn’t the attack begun?” demanded an outraged President.

  “The commander of the forces on scene first attempted to parlay with the opposing force,” said the Secretary of Defense.

  “Well now...” said the exhausted President, trailing off.

  “Mr. President, that will never hold up or be recognized as legitimate by a majority of the American people, or even the courts,” assured Chief of Staff Jamal Anderson in his most-soothing tone of voice available.

  “Just tell them to go. Now,” ordered the President.

  Smithfield, NC

  The 3rd Squadron of the Seventh Cavalry Regiment was passing through central North Carolina when the latest broadcasts from Washington, DC announced that the Senate had removed President Bryan from office.

  “...Scholars are divided on the legality of the act of the Senate,” explained the NBC Radio broadcast, “in that the so-called impeachment trial occurred both with almost all of the Senate Democrats physically barred from the Capitol and, further, without the President being allowed to present a defense of any sort.”

  “An impeachment trial,” insisted the Republican commentator, “is not a trial in the criminal sense. An accused individual has no specific rights. This is wholly a political act and, therefore, can take any form so long as it respects the forms set out wi
thin the Constitution.”

  “But surely,” challenged the anchor, “the Founders – who you so often defer to – never intended for an impeachment to take place wholly while the members of one party were absent from Congress.”

  “They chose to absent themselves from the Congress. Clearly, that was a very foolish act. Like how the United Nations was able to authorize the Korean War because the Soviets were boycotting the U.N. Security Council at the time. There’s nothing illegitimate about taking advantage of one side’s tactical error.”

  “But you already hear Senate Democrats arguing that they were, in fact, basically physically barred from the Capitol by the threat of violence and this militia that has been raised by the Speaker of the House.”

  “The question, however, is simply whether or not the action of the Senate was permitted under the rules of the Senate. A quorum existed and a majority of two-thirds voted to remove the President from office. Accordingly, Terrance Rickover is now – or will be as soon as he’s sworn into office – the President of the United States.”

  Word of the movement by the Seventh Cavalry had not taken long to make its way to the internet and the world. General Starnes had made the decision, for the time being, to simply ignore everyone calling him and ordering him to stop, not even bothering to answer any of their calls.

  “Perhaps,” said Colonel Robinette, “by the time we get to Washington, this thing will be effectively over.”

  “I don’t know,” replied Starnes, gesturing towards the crowds that had gathered to cheer the progress of the cavalry squadron on at nearly every town along their route. “Do you think that they’ll cheer us like this everywhere? I mean, as much as I hate that son of a bitch, he definitely still has supporters.”

  U.S. House of Representatives

  “Please raise your right hand, place your left hand on the Bible, and repeat after me,” said the shell-shocked Chief Justice as he stood in front of the packed House chamber. The Speaker of the House followed his instructions.

  “I, Terrance Timothy Rickover, do solemnly swear...”

  “I, Terrance Timothy Rickover, do solemnly swear...”

  “That I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States...”

  “That I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States...”

  “And that I will, to the best of my ability...”

  “And that I will, to the best of my ability...”

  “Preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

  “Preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. So help me God.”

  The Chief Justice weakly extended his hand.

  “Congratulations, Mr. President,” he meekly said, as the entire House broke out in wild applause. Terrance Rickover stood up and turned to the assembled crowd, which included practically everyone still within the Capitol complex, with the House floor crowded with not only members but also practically every single staffer and intern.

  “My fellow Americans,” said the Acting President, “I assume the office of the Acting Presidency with a heavy heart. I recognize that the process by which I have arrived at this place has been rushed and irregular. I regret that it must be so. But, that being said, with the army having been ordered to bear down upon the Capitol to suppress the Congress of the United States, I feel justified in asserting that as one norm had already been broken it had become necessary to break others.

  “We have taken this action in order to uphold the Constitution when, quite simply, we ran out of other options.

  “My single overriding priority now is to resolve the present crisis without violence. To that end, I have ordered the ad hoc security force that had been created to protect the Congress not to fire a single shot unless they are first fired upon. I hereby, as the President of the United States, order that all elements of Federal power – both military and civilian law enforcement – cease any and all plans for an assault upon this building immediately.

  “The single objective of our Federal Government in the immediate future must be the restoration of order both here and abroad. We will restore normality to our financial markets and ensure that the acts of our government are regular and predictable, so that normal economic activity might resume both in this country and in the world.

  “My fellow citizens, I appeal to you now: refrain from violence. We can still have peace – and we can have it today – if we recognize all that we have in common as Americans. We can restore basic Constitutional principles and make our government genuinely accountable to the people once more. We can still ensure that America is at peace at home and strong abroad. We can do all of these things, but we can do them only if we, now decide to pull back from the brink and let all of the old feuds die.

  “I will speak to you again soon. God bless you and God bless the United States of America.”

  U.S. Capitol Grounds

  Time had run out. The White House and the Secretary of Defense were ordering the attack continuously. Why had the attack not come yet? When was it coming? The questions and the orders were non-stop. Some of Colonel Gregory’s soldiers argued that they should follow the orders of Terrance Rickover, who now claimed to be the President, but that claim was seemingly recognized by no one in the 4th Battalion’s chain of command. Who really was in charge? For Colonel Gregory’s money it was whoever was in the White House and the Pentagon issuing orders and he, as a soldier, was duty-bound to follow those orders.

  The Colonel took a deep breath before he finally spoke.

  “All units, this is Roland Actual. Begin the attack.”

  The Stryker vehicles moved forward across the open ground in the direction of the Capitol. Moving slowly, at just a few miles per hour, they gave plenty of time for the members of the Congressional Provisional Battalion holding the perimeter to fall back in a gentle and graceful dance. The Congressional soldiers didn’t have weapons that would allow them to fire upon the armored vehicles with any effect and, in any case, they didn’t want to have to do so.

  As the vehicles approached the steps of the Capitol, the CPB soldiers trained their rifles upon them. The radio net for the Congressional Army exploded with orders.

  “Hold your fire, hold your fire...”

  The Congressional soldiers held their weapons close as the Company worth of Strykers dropped their rear hatches. A loudspeaker mounted on one of the vehicles broadcast out demands.

  “Lay down your weapons! We do not wish to fire upon you, but will do so if you resist!”

  “Hold steady!” ordered Jack Hawkins, the U.S. Representative from Oklahoma whose combat experience and position of authority had made him the ideal man to command the company of soldiers defending the West Front of the Capitol.

  The soldiers of Bravo Company of the 4th Battalion were pouring out of their vehicles now, moving into firing positions versus the Congressional militia. One after another scrambled out of the back of their Strykers and gathered into formation.

  “We have been ordered by the President of the United States to facilitate the return of this place to the control of the United States Government!” shouted Captain Devon Gagnon, the commander of Bravo Company.

  “Lay down your weapons!” Captain Gagnon continued, “and no one will be hurt!”

  “I have been ordered by the President of the United States to hold this place on behalf of the government of the United States!” shouted back Congressman Hawkins, “and I will use force to see that this is done. If you attempt to take this place by force, you will be fired upon!”

  On a hand signal from Gagnon, Bravo Company began to carefully advance up the Capitol steps. Representative Hawkins stood in absolute silence.

  “Put down your guns!” ordered Captain Gagnon, echoed by most of the rest of the soldiers of Bravo Company. Their shouts became an indecipherable cacophony of noise. They were joined by the members of the Congressional Provisional Battalion screaming warnings back at the Army sol
diers to stay back.

  Ten thousand cameras were filming the events in front of the Capitol. Both groups of soldiers moved inexorably closer together as one agonizing second after another passed, both training their rifles menacingly on one another. Before anyone could gain a handle on the situation, they were at almost point blank range. It agonizing frame-by-frame examination of multiple video feeds to figure out what happened next. One of the Congressional Provisional Battalion soldiers, a twenty-six-year-old Capitol policeman named Wayne Shelton, opened fire on one of the Army soldiers. Many argue that he did so because he saw a sudden movement by the soldier. Others think that he just panicked. Some believe that he just did it. Whatever the reason, once Wayne Shelton opened fire, everyone opened fire all at once.

  In a span of just under fifteen seconds, the four hundred and seventeen men and women ranged against each other on the steps of the Capitol fired the better part of two thousand rounds at one another from extremely close range. Neither side was prepared either for combat or for the tremendous carnage that ensued. Rifle bullets fired from just feet away tore into human flesh as both sides fired in either full automatic or semi-automatic modes. To the degree that there was any sensible control left within Bravo Company, its soldiers sought immediately to pull backwards in order to allow the automatic weapons of their Strykers to engage without inflicting friendly casualties. Within the less well-disciplined Congressional Provisional Battalion, all command and control broke down almost instantly. Congressman Hawkins attempted to order his soldiers to halt fire and withdraw, but within seconds he was silenced when he was struck in the neck by the first of the seventeen bullets that would hit him. Some of the militiamen broke and ran wildly, while others simply responded with an insensate rage, firing every single bullet that they had in the direction of the Army.