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The Draka timeline (as presented in the appendix to Marching Through Georgia) has many problems in my opinion. Several events appear to be highly implausible (a slave state with a HIGH slave to citizen ratio becomes a world leader in technological innovation and industrialization), others happen without any real response from the rest of the world (defiance of England's empire wide ban on slavery, interference with the US Civil War), and the early 20th century diplomacy in Europe follows a path close to that in OTL (the presence of a completely different Africa should cause all sorts of differences in the England vs France, England vs Germany rivalries).
Just as an example, I will present the start of the timeline with some of my comments. Everything in italics is from the time line. The asterisk symbol was used by Stirling to indicate a change from OTL. If I understand the use correctly, when asterisk appears at the end of a sentence, that entire sentence is a change. When it appears in the middle, just that word is a change. Some of my comments are not as extensive as I had originally wished since I discovered that more research was needed than I could do easily.
1776 - Outbreak of American Revolution. Major Patrick Ferguson invents early breechloading rifle.
I have seen several references to the Ferguson rifle; I gather that it must be something of a legend. How good was it actually? I found a statement that only several hundred were used in combat and the British Army never did officially adopt it (was Ferguson's death at King's Mountain was a big factor?). I have this vague recollection that a number of them were used at King's Mountain. If so, the totally one-sided result of that battle would not have helped either. If Ferguson wasn't at King's Mountain and survived the American Revolution, I would expect him to keep pushing his design. If it had been adopted on a large scale, what would the effect be? If it was more expensive than muskets (which wouldn't surprise me), it would not have seen universal use at first. Elite light infantry units would be my guess for the first troops to have them. Within several years after English adoption, there should be knock off designs in Europe. Assuming that there is a French Revolution (probable) and Napoleon or somebody of similar nature takes over and fights most of Europe (quite likely IMHO), then the tactics used in "Napoleonic" warfare would be different from that in OTL. To begin with cavalry charges would be much more chancy. Probably impossible against a formation 100% equiped with Ferguson rifles or equivalent.
1779 - France, Spain, Netherlands*, declare war on Great Britain.
Actually, I believe this is NOT a change. I have seen several references to Netherlands as an active ally to France and Spain (see comments below).March 8, 2003 Note: According to a source I found, Great Britain declared war on the Netherlands.
1779 - British fleet under Admiral Lord Cochrane lands occupying force in Capetown.*
First a note from OTL. A small squadron under the command of one George Johnstone (whom I have never head of) left England on March 13, 1781 for the purpose of capturing the Dutch colony in south Africa. The French sent a small squadron under Suffren (whom I have heard of) to block this. Suffren found the English squadron at the Cape Verdes islands (getting water I believe). After the resulting engagement, the English squadron stopped for several days to repair the rigging of several ships. Suffren reached the Cape first and landed his troops, which blocked the English attempt to capture the Cape.
The chief problem I have with this item in the Draka timeline is that in 1779 England was somewhat hard pressed. There was an attempted French invasion of Ireland in this time period for example. With potential disaster several days sail away, I have trouble believing they could find the ships for this expedition then. After all, in OTL they didn't try for 2 years, and then didn't repeat it. Also, who is Admiral Lord Cochrane? The only one I know of was merely 4 years old at the time (probably father, uncle, grandfather, or great-uncle).
1780 - Colonel Ferguson's loyalists victorious in battle of King's Mountain.* Several Loyalists units, including Tarleton's Legion and the newly formed Ferguson's Legion, re-equiped with Ferguson breechloaders.* Savage partisan warfare warfare throughout Southern colonies.
Partisan warfare that extends well into 1781 I suspect, just like that in OTL (but on terms much more favorable to the Loyalists than in OTL of course). Upon consideration, this complete reversal of King's Mountain is possible. There are enough chaotic factors (weather delaying reinforcements for the North Carolinia frontermen, better scouting by Ferguson's troops, etc) and the forces were small enough (3000 total) that I believe that this is well within autorial discretion. For that matter, I haven't seen any mention of Ferguson being a Colonel in OTL. I wonder if Cowpens (or an equivalent battle) took place. If it did, I suspect that it went much more Tarleton's way (in OTL Battle of Cowpens, he fell for what amounted to a feigned retreat. He himself escaped the bag, but over half of his 1000+ men didn't). The loss of those troops appeared to have a significant effect on Cornwallis contest with Greene in North Carolina.
1781 - General Cornwallis besieged at Yorktown in Virginia. Surrenders to American rebels and their French allies.
Say again. What is he doing in Yorktown (or Virginia for that matter)?. He got there in OTL because of his decisions based on the situation in OTL. I must confess that I don't understand why he went north. IMHO, Greene should have been his prime consideration. I have this vague recollection (but not backed by anything I have on hand) of reading that he was somewhat frustrated on how the Southern strategy had gone. It had started out very well (at Charleston and Camden) and then had suffered the disasters at King's Mountain and Cowpens. With the complete reversal of King's Mountain (and the reversal or non-occurence of Cowpens), the military situation in the Southern colonies is different. With more troops at his disposal (and more confidence), he might have actually defeated Greene decisively (and then devoted effort to completely pacifying the Southern colonies). IMHO, if Greene had evaded him (like in OTL) and went into South Carolina, Cornwallis would have followed Greene, in hopes of trapping him against other British troops, and destroying him (remember, fewer or no British disasters in this timeline should lead to Cornwallis staying the course). Even if Cornwallis had invaded Virginia, he would be more likely to retreat south if not successful (because he should have a place to retreat to unlike OTL where I believe he didn't have a safe retreat path). I did find a reference to orders from General Clinton in NY that lead to Cornwallis fortifying Yorktown. I suppose that could still happen and lead to the Yorktown surrender.
But, what is happening further south? Later entries in the Draka timeline imply that Ferguson's legion was active and had at least some success. In that case, why did England give up Georgia and S. Carolina in the Treaty of Paris? The risk of improving the Loyalists position in the South is that they will be so successful that they would reduce the Patriot military position to nothing (without Greene, they would be in a lot of trouble).
On a side note, I have discovered that the army that Cornwallis had at Yorktown was considerably bigger than the army he had earlier in the year at Guildford Court House. Where did the extra troops come from? I know that there were British troops in Virginia but I don't know if there were other columns in the invasion of North Carolina. One of the unknowns that I didn't have the time to research (and wasn't certain how important the answers would be).