Axal Drake
Unit: 35th, Company B
Age: 19 (18Sep1846)
Height:5'10"
Weight: 130lbs
Handedness: Right
Birthplace: Sheffield, England

Physical Description:
5'10" and 130lbs, with light brown hair and brown eyes. He has a noble demeanor and the vocabulary of a gentleman, but the scars in his hands, lower arms and even face speak of a practiced iron worker. He is thin but his arms are corded muscles. He has a bold stance but all, said and done he does not inspire second glances. Too bland a face, too square a jaw with a slight underbite and too furrowed his brows and broad forehead to be called handsome.

Clothing:
He wears a pressed uniform, newly purchased with well kept boots polished and a thick backpack that includes his kit. He has a gold pocket watch that was a gift from his Father, and a locket with his sweet hearts picture in it.

Background:
Grandfather: William Orde-Powlett, 2nd Baron Bolton (*1782, +1850)
Parents: Charles Drake (*1820, +1856), Catherine Orde-Powlett (*1826, +1864)
Born: 18.09.1846, Sheffield, UK

Charles Drake was born in Sheffield in 1820. Both his parents and his younger brother and sister died in the Cholera Epidemic of Sheffield in 1832.
The successful miller Edward Vickers took the young orphan under his tutelage and let him work in the mill.
Vickers invested his money in the railway industry and was soon able to partly take control of the foundry Naylor and Sanderson. and rename the business to Naylor Vickers & Co. In 1828 Vickers married Anne Naylor, took over the steel-foundry business of his father-in-law for good and founded Vickers Limited.
Edward, for reasons unknown to Charles, had taken a liking to the young boy and soon learned that the boy, at 12 already as tall and strong as other boys at least two years older, had a talent for metalcraft and so offered and paid for an apprenticeship as a blacksmith in his newly founded company.
In 1838 Vickers Ltd was heavily involved in the railroad construction between Sheffield and Rotherdam and Charles had already taken lead as a capable foreman.
In 1841 Charles met and learned to love Catherine Orde-Powlett, daughter of William Orde-Powlett, 2nd Baron Bolton. Even at the age of 21 Catherine was a head-strong woman and she also fell in love with the hard-working blacksmith, despite the reservations of her noble family leading to a marriage in December 1845 at the cost of cutting all connections and noble priviledges of Yorkshire high society.
Axal was born in September 1846 and Catherine's family was shocked since they believed (rumour-mongered) that Edward Vickers had used his political influence to forge the birth documents. There might be truth in those rumours as Vickers became Mayor of Sheffield in 1847.
When Catherine's father, Baron Bolton, died in 1850 he was gracious enough to give his daughter and her family a large amount of money that allowed Charles to also invest into Vickers Ltd. which was taken over by Edward's second son Thomas and his brother Albert. Thomas developed the firm into a leading steel casting business using the German Riepe process.
Unfortunately, Thomas and Charles did not get along well and Thomas used his influence in the army, most notably FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan, and in business to enforce Charles' enlistment/draft for the Crimean War against Russia.
Catherine suspected, umtil her very end, some intrigue by William Henry Orde-Powlett, 3rd Baron Bolton, a nephew of her grandfather (the 1st Baron Bolton).from another branch of the family.
Baron Raglan, however actually took command in the war himself and so got to know Charles, too. In war, ability counted more than noble blood, at least in the lower ranks.
In the Baltic in 1854, near the Russian capital of Saint Petersburg, an Anglo-French fleet instituted a naval blockade and bottled up the outnumbered Russian Baltic Fleet, causing economic damage to Russia by blockading trade while also forcing the Russians to keep a large army guarding St. Petersburg from a potential allied attack.
The Crimean War was one of the first conflicts in which military forces used modern technologies such as explosive naval shells, railways and telegraphs. The war quickly became a symbol of logistical, medical and tactical failures and mismanagement.
Charles' blacksmithing skills were duly noted and Charles may have started a naval career under mentorship of Baron Raglan but unfortunately the warship he served on was sunk and the whole crew lost to the churning Baltic Sea.
Axal, meanwhile, had been mostly influenced by his mother Catherine as his father was always working hard even before the war. She was responsible for the largest part of his education using up most of the money sent by her father. She hired private teachers to allow Axal a classical education, hoping for what she thought to be a better future than working in the growing steel industry of Sheffield.
Being literate at an early age he was able to read his father's letters from the war and also follow the newsletters. Which also, and probably naturally, influenced his view on Russia negatively.
Thomas Vickers seemed to have some sort of bad conscience for he offered to have Axal apprentice in his company.
His mother was not happy, but even though she continued to work as a teacher she was unable to cover the costs. Her resentment at the treatment, or perceived offence, by her relatives, the hidden anger at the death of her loved husband to the silly war in the Baltic slowly but steadily disconnected her from wealthier circles in society and she began to realize that her son did not have it in him to go into politics or law. Becoming ever more frustrated and choked by the hardships of life as a widow she relented and finally accepted Vicker's offer. Axal's apprenticeship as an iron worker started in 1859.
In 1863 Catherine returned from a vacation in Paris (strangely enough, a relative of FitzRoy Somerset had invited her along for reasons she never uncovered) with a copy of Jules Verne's Cinq Semaines en ballon and Axal was utterly fascinated by the fantasies of the Frenchman.
In March 1864 Axal's hometown was devastared in the Great Sheffield Flood. Their house and all their belongings were utterly destroyed. Much worse, though, his mother drowned and Axal was not even able to find and retrieve her body for a decent burial.
Remembering that he had a cousin in zhe US, seeing no future for him in England, feeling the urge to completely start a new life Axal packed his meagre belongings amd travelled to Liverpool. He spent his last money to purchase a ticket and immigrated to the US.
Aboard the ship on the journey across the Atlantic he got to know many Irish and soon realized that any noble bearing or notions would bring only trouble. So he learned to keep a low profile.

On arrival into the United States, he saw a military recruiter offering a considerable bonus for a single term of enlistment.