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KFS Raids into the Confederation of Counties
Before the formation of the Jackson Republic

In the year 2062 (2034 for the 3rd edition of Morrow Project), The Kentucky Free State sent the Fifth Regiment across the Tennessee River. Eleven years earlier the army of the Rich Five had begun its expansion into Middle Tennessee for the purpose of expanding the labor force to serve the needs of the Rich Five. This invasion prompted the evacuation of Tennessee’s MP M&CA Combined Team into West Tennessee the following year. Two years after the M&CA relocation, several counties in West Tennessee formed a confederation for trade and mutual protection, the Confederation of Counties. Consolidation of power in Kentucky was completed and the Kentucky Free State was proclaimed in 2057 (2029 for the 3rd edition of Morrow Project). However, the subjection of Middle Tennessee was not completed for another three years. The commander of the Fifth Regiment had not told the Five Families of the difficulties in conquering Middle Tennessee nor of the formation of the Confederation. He was replaced, arrested, tried and executed within two days. The Rich Five reorganized the military leadership into a patronage system to ensure control and communication. The Inspector General Office of the Army was eliminated as the Secret Police was given policing authority over the Army.

The new commander, Gerald Carswell, of the Fifth Regiment was ordered to attack the Confederation immediately. His letter of refusal was accompanied by a report from the Captain of the Secret Police assigned to the Fifth Regiment listing the shortages of material, abundance of poorly trained troops, and absent morale as detriments to the task ordered. The Five gave him a year to turn the Regiment into an effective force. After nine months delay, the material and ammunition finally arrived. The commander trained his regiment for two months. The following month he sent recon patrols into Confederation territory while the Secret Police sent a few abduction teams to capture and return with some near border community leaders. Units not assigned to patrol duty built flat bottom johnboats for the infantry and pontoon boats for a wood pontoon bridge the artillery could use to cross. After reviewing the intelligence reports from the recon patrols and summations of the interrogations by the Secret Police, Colonel Carswell formulated a plan of attack.

Colonel Carswell was not impressed by Confederation. He concluded that a coordinated attack would cause the Confederation to collapse. He divided his regiment into four columns to attack across four points on the Tennessee River. Each column consisted of a platoon of cavalry, a company of foot infantry and a battery of artillery for support. The plan was that the V-300s of the cavalry would establish a beachhead across the river and protect the infantry as it crossed on johnboats and built the pontoon bridges. Once the artillery crossed the river, an infantry platoon would be left to guard the bridge while the remaining forces would advance to their target. Column A would attack Benton, column B would attack Murray, column C would attack Camden and column D would attack Parson. Once column A and column B had destroyed their initial target cities, they would converge on Mayton and destroy it. Column C would advance to Huntington after razing Camden and column D would advance to Lexton. The assaults would continue through Martin, Trenton and finally to Dyersburg to split the Confederation. The often-quoted paraphrase of Moltke the Elder, “No strategic plan survives contact with the enemy” would end up as “No strategic plan survives a river crossing” for Colonel Carswell.

At each river crossing, the cavalry platoon had established an effective defense of the beachhead and the initial supporting platoon had arrived. After a dry summer season, the river was low and the weather was clear with a full moon. The four-hour operation of building the pontoon bridges began. About an hour after the building began the weather turned starting at Benton. Clouds rolled in from the northwest with a drastic increase in southwesterly surface winds. Though slowed the bridge building continued. When the winds and clouds made it to the Parson crossing Benton was in the middle of a hailstorm driven by gale force winds. The advancing line of thunderstorms destroyed the bridges within three hours of the start of construction of each bridge. The Camden bridge site was struck by a F1 tornado. Carswell ordered those forces already across the river to attack their initial targets and destroy them, then return. Because column C had lost nearly all of its johnboats, it was ordered to rendezvous with column D in Parsons after mission completion and return using those boats. For Colonel Carswell four small victories can elevate one to hero status within the family.

Each town was set afire and suffered severe damage. For the attacking forces, the damage was light. One V-300 had a central wheel blown off with an improvised land mine and another had its anti-air machine gun destroyed. Of the infantry, two soldiers were seriously wounded and eight were lightly wounded. There were no combat deaths but the storm had killed seventeen soldiers building the Camden crossing bridge. After the withdrawal was completed, Carswell set up patrols and defensive positions to repel any counter attack. None was forthcoming. Lauded as a hero by the family, Gerald returned to Danville and was soon replaced as the commander of the Fifth Regiment. The new commander moved the regiment farther into the interior of the KFS to suppress a slave rebellion. The lack of any military action by the Confederation convinced the Council of Five that no credible threat outside of the Free State existed. For the next twenty years, the Army of the KFS was too busy suppressing a succession of slave revolts to venture across the Tennessee River. When they did, the response was very different, shocking and troubling.

In Newtonian physics, for every action there is an opposite reaction. If the KFS raids were the action, the reaction was the creation of the Jackson Republic, virtually opposed to the KFS in every way: anti-slave versus slave, democracy versus oligarchy, character versus class, communism versus capitalism, freedom versus servitude, motivation versus stagnation.

More than one hundred years would pass before the Army of the KFS would again advance beyond its borders.