Timeline-191
Encyclopedia
The Southern Victory Series or Timeline-191 are both fan names given to a series of Harry Turtledove
alternate history
novels, including How Few Remain
as well as the Great War
, American Empire
, and Settling Accounts
series. The name is derived from Robert E. Lee
's Special Order 191
, which detailed the Army of Northern Virginia
's invasion of the Union
in September 1862 during the American Civil War
. The divergence occurs
when Union forces do not find a copy of Special Order 191, on September 10, 1862. The novels detail the consequences of this until 1944 in the alternate world.
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In reality, before the Battle of Antietam
, Federal troops accidentally recovered a copy of Special Order 191 (used as wrapping around a number of cigars), which spelled out in detail Lee's plan for the invasion of Maryland
. Using this intelligence, Federal forces, under George B. McClellan
, moved north and forced the battle at Antietam, ending the invasion.
In this alternate timeline, Lee's orders are recovered by trailing Confederate troops before they were allowed to fall into Union hands. The resulting Confederate advance catches McClellan and the U.S. by surprise. Instead of fighting at Antietam, General Lee forces McClellan into a battle on the banks of the Susquehanna River
in Pennsylvania
and destroys the Army of the Potomac
in the Battle of Camp Hill on October 1, 1862.
After the decisive Confederate victory, Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia
move eastward to occupy Philadelphia
. As a direct result, the Confederate States of America
earn diplomatic recognition from the UK
and France. Both European nations then force mediation on the United States; this action results in full independence for the Confederate States. In less than two years, the War of Secession had ended.
While considering the mediation offer, Abraham Lincoln
mentions to the British ambassador Richard Lyons
that he has in his desk drawer a proclamation
that would have freed slaves in the rebellious Confederacy. Lincoln has discussed the proclamation's viability with his cabinet, but after the U.S. defeat at Camp Hill, he decided against issuing it. He was warned by Lyons that if the proclamation were issued, he would have been perceived as acting in desperation, since the U.S. was about to officially concede defeat and that issuing such an order would amount to nothing more than an attempt to raise insurrection inside what was now another country, and doing so would be seen as a directly hostile act.
completes the conquest of Kentucky
; sometime after the U.S. agreed to mediation, Kentucky becomes the twelfth state to enter the Confederacy. In addition, the pro-Confederate Five Civilized Tribes of the Indian Territory
are given territory of their own in the C.S., later to become the State of Sequoyah
. The Caribbean island of Cuba
is subsequently purchased by the Confederate States from Spain in 1878 for $3,000,000
, becoming the 14th Confederate State.
Lincoln and his vice president Hannibal Hamlin
are defeated in the 1864 elections by Horatio Seymour
, and another Republican
president will not be elected until 1880. The Republicans also become the minority in Congress but in 1880 voters—tired of the Democrats
' soft line against the Confederate States—opt to return the Republicans to the majority.
In the 1860s, Russia offers Alaska
to the United States with a purchase price of seven million dollars (the real-life Alaska Purchase
occurred in 1867, during Andrew Johnson
's tenure in office, for a price of $7,200,000). However the U.S., financially drained from its losing war effort, does not have the necessary funding to complete the purchase. Since the U.S. cannot buy Alaska, it remains a Russian colony.
The United States, probably in reaction to their defeat in the War of Secession, appears to have sped up the conquest and settlement of the Great Plains
relative to our timeline. George Armstrong Custer
and his brother Thomas Custer
are still alive in 1881 because there were (presumably) no Sioux Indians around in 1876 to fight him at Little Bighorn
. In reaction to the (historical) Sioux uprising of 1862
, the Army conducts a war of extermination against them. Prior to the Great War, Dakota
itself enters the Union as a single state, possibly as a result of the swiftness with which the Army (necessarily larger than in this timeline because of the Confederate
threat) pacifies the Dakota Territory and allows settlers to move in. (In our timeline the Dakota territory split because of an ongoing debate about the placement of the capital.)
In addition, the USA may have had a significant and victorious Indian War prior to the Second Mexican War, suggesting that massive firepower and a national need for some kind of martial victory propelled the United States to a much quicker and clear-cut answer to their Native American question, namely the extermination or deportation of the Natives.
In the Presidential election of 1880
, Republican James G. Blaine
defeats the incumbent Democrat Samuel J. Tilden
. Blaine runs on a hard-line platform, which ultimately precipitates another war against the Confederate States over the latter nation's purchase of the Mexican
provinces Sonora
and Chihuahua. (This purchase allowed the Confederate States to build their own coast-to-coast railway lines, eliminating the need to use the heavily taxed United States lines.)
During the war, the Mormons in Utah
rebel by severing transcontinental communication and transportation around Salt Lake City. John Pope
is appointed as the military governor, puts down the revolt, and imposes martial law. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is classified as a political organization and the Mormon
leaders are executed.
The United States' attempt to invade Virginia is easily thrown back by Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson
as the United States struggles to find a man his equal. A key reason for the Confederate success in the war, in addition to fighting a defensive war, is that the Confederates are led by excellent generals like Jackson, while the United States's military, despite possessing a massive advantage in numbers and resources, suffers from incompetent leadership. William Rosecrans
, the commander of the entire US army, casually reveals at one point that there is no overall strategy for winning the war whatsoever. He envisions a vague idea of the opposing armies making counteroffensives back and forth against each other, which he feels the United States would assuredly win. This lack of planning leaves the German military observer, Alfred von Schlieffen, aghast.
The United States next attempts to launch a massive invasion of Louisville
to knock the Confederates out of Kentucky but it soon becomes a bloody stalemate, as the appointment of Stonewall Jackson to command the defense, the negligence of U.S. commanders, and most of all, the use of breech-loading artillery and repeating rifles makes taking a position very difficult. The Confederate army under Jackson never tries to invade more United States territory than it possessed before the war, for two reasons. First, it does not have the resources for an offensive into hostile lands. Second, the Confederacy's success hinges on the support of Britain and France, who feel they are aiding a smaller nation wrongfully attacked by a larger one, and launching attacks into the United States would be seen as aggression for which they might lose foreign support. Galled by orders to wage a purely defensive war, Jackson takes them to the extreme, pioneering tactics of full-scale trench warfare
which devastates Louisville (in scenes reminiscent of the World War I of mainline reality). The Louisville campaign quickly bogs down for the United States, and results in a bloodbath with little territory gained. The United Kingdom and France continue to shell the Great Lakes
ports; France also shells Los Angeles, while the British bombard San Francisco and raid the mint.
The United States receives some good news when a young volunteer cavalry colonel, Theodore Roosevelt
, and George Armstrong Custer rout a British division under Charles Gordon invading Montana from Canada. However, the British also invade northern Maine
and annex it into the Canadian province of New Brunswick
. Finally, facing defeat on almost all fronts, Republican president James G. Blaine is forced to capitulate. The U.S. officially surrenders on April 22, 1882, ending the Second Mexican War.
Confederate President James Longstreet
, in an attempt to appear the conciliator, offers generous terms to end the war, limited only to the USA's acknowledgment of the Confederate acquisition of the two purchased Mexican provinces. The most humiliating term is the annexation of most of northern Maine to Canada, forced by the British as the cost of their participation in the war. Regardless of the generous nature of the Confederacy's terms, and most likely inspired by Britain's partial annexation of his home state, and the defeat overall, President Blaine takes the end of the war hard.
Both American nations experience major changes after the war. In the United States, many Republicans are voted out of Congress in the 1882 elections
. Stung with the loss in the Second Mexican War, Blaine is ousted as president two years later. The elections of 1882 and 1884
begin Democratic control over Congress and the White House, which will last 36 years.
In return for British and French assistance, Confederate President James Longstreet
is obliged to propose the nominal manumission
of the country's slaves, which proceeds throughout the 1880s.
The defeated United States, realizing it needs powerful allies to counter the Confederate alliances with Britain and France, begins an alliance with the German Empire
and adopts many of its military and economic practices.
Witnessing the collapse of the Republican Party, former President Abraham Lincoln, now an orator, allies with U.S. socialists and leads left-wing Republicans into their fledgling Socialist party. The Republicans soon begin a long descent into the general obscurity of becoming a solely Midwestern regional party, never again winning the presidency or a Congressional majority, losing around a third of its supporters to the Democrats, and all of its left-wingers (around one third) to the Socialists.
The Austro-Hungarian Imperial Crown Prince Franz Ferdinand
and his wife are both killed by a bomb (whereas in our real timeline, they were shot to death) while touring the city of Sarajevo
in June 1914. The Austrian government quickly learns that a Serb
group was responsible, and Austria accuses the government of nearby Serbia
of colluding with the terrorists. Tsar
Nicholas II of Russia
backs Serbia, while Kaiser
Wilhelm II of Germany backs Austria-Hungary. The major powers of each system mobilize their militaries, effectively signifying their intent to go to war. In August 1914, the Great War begins, initially pitting Great Britain, France, and Russia against Germany and Austria-Hungary (this is exactly how the real-life World War I started).
Across the Atlantic, Democratic President Theodore Roosevelt
orders the US military to mobilize in late July, following Germany's lead. In response, Confederate President Woodrow Wilson
orders the CS military to do the same. Fighting soon breaks out on their common border and the high seas.
The United States officially brings the war to North America when Roosevelt declares war on the Confederate States in early August 1914. Confederate President Wilson responds in kind, although he had hoped to avoid a war. Wilson's speech, given in a tightly-packed public square of Richmond
, Virginia decorated with statues of southern war heroes George Washington
and Albert Sidney Johnston
, becomes particularly famous.
Hoping to emulate General Lee, the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia
(ANV) launches a massive invasion of Maryland
and Pennsylvania
in August, targeting the northern de facto
capital of Philadelphia. The ANV quickly overruns the de jure
capital of Washington, D.C. and pushes on through Maryland.
The US Army takes a different approach and orders the US First Army under Lieutenant General
George Custer and the US Second Army under Major General
John Pershing to cross the Ohio River
and invade Kentucky
. Although Confederate resistance is high, especially from river gunboats modeled after the original USS Monitor
, the US succeeds in establishing a bridgehead on the southern bank. US forces also invade western Virginia, aiming for the rail junction at Big Lick, Virginia (Roanoke
in our timeline).
A separate US invasion of Sonora, intended to capture the Confederacy's sole Pacific port of Guaymas
, soon becomes bogged down. A young army captain named Irving Morrell is wounded in this venture, and spends much of the next six months in Tucson, New Mexico (real-life Tucson, Arizona
) recuperating.
The US also launches attacks on the British Dominion of Canada
, specifically in Manitoba
, Ontario
, and Quebec
. Perhaps the most successful maneuver during these early stages of war is the US Navy's capture of the British base at Pearl Harbor
in the Sandwich Islands
(Hawaii) in a surprise attack.
, only 50 miles from Philadelphia. From that high-water–mark, U.S. forces slowly start to push the Confederates back into Maryland.
Although the US forces easily conquer the southern bank of the St. Lawrence River, crossing it proves another matter. The geography of the Niagara Peninsula
soon bottlenecks the invading army. Though Winnipeg, Manitoba
, a major rail junction, lies relatively close to the US border, the War Department
allocates too few troops to capture it.
Trench warfare
becomes ubiquitous as each side digs in for protection from machine gun
s. Troops huddle in these trenches as heavy artillery in their rear pounds the enemy lines night and day. They dread the order "Over the top!" which means they have to leave the safety of their lines to charge into No man's land
, in the hope of capturing the enemy trenches on the other side. The US, drawing on German chemical expertise, seeks to push forward using chemical warfare
. The use of chlorine gas, however, makes only minor gains. Far from the quick, glorious conquest each side had imagined, the Great War becomes a long, bloody stalemate.
Early in 1915, another front opens when the Utah
Mormons
secede from the United States and declare themselves the independent nation of Deseret
. Mormon relations with the rest of the country had been hostile since the Utah War
of the 1850s and the brief uprising during the Second Mexican War. They wrongly believe that the distracted US government will be unable to subdue them. However, as Utah sits on one of the major transcontinental rail lines, President Roosevelt states the US will not tolerate unlawful rebellion. The Mormon rebellion rages until mid-1916, when it is finally crushed and Salt Lake City is captured. Utah is then placed under military rule by Roosevelt, a situation that will continue until the 1930s.
In the autumn of 1915, as the armies of the Confederacy are fighting those of the United States along the border regions, the CSA's blacks rise up in revolt. Bitter over their treatment by the whites, and fueled by a rhetoric of Marxism
and the teachings of Abraham Lincoln
, the blacks declare Red revolution in several areas across the CSA and establish "socialist republics," while massacring whites and seeking justice against their former white masters; most trials are shams, however, and the executions brutal. These rebellions are gradually crushed by 1916, although white justice mellows somewhat as thoughts are preoccupied with winning the war. Ironically, the lasting effect of the Red revolt is to make white people start to believe in the military potential of blacks.
by the British) is introduced to combat for the first time by US forces operating in the Roanoke Valley
.
In this case, as in our time line, the name of the vehicle comes from the cover name used. In Britain, those assembling the vehicle were told they were mobile water tanks; in this time line, they are coded 'barrel,' though there is some indication something called a 'barrel' was coming. Private Reginald Bartlett, escaping with a Confederate naval officer, heard U.S. soldiers singing a song, "Roll Out the Barrel" (not related to our timeline's Czech polka
Rosalinda, which became popular in 1938 and was given the English-language lyrics Roll Out the Barrel).
While in Tennessee, Lieutenant General Custer transforms his tactics for cavalry
into a doctrine for the new barrels, but the War Department is not interested. When Custer's summer offensive begins, tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers are lost attacking Confederate lines, and the new barrels, deployed singly in an infantry support role rather than massed as an armored fist, break down in the hilly terrain to little effect.
The lack of British troops in Canada means that the USA, while initially held back by the Canadians, slowly advances toward their triple objectives of Quebec City, Toronto, and Winnipeg. Largely thanks to the efforts of Irving Morrell, U.S. forces push up to Banff
in the Canadian Rockies
and cut off the second
of three mountain passes that connect the Pacific coast to the rest of Canada.
At sea, the great Battle of the Three Navies between the USA on one side, and the United Kingdom and Japan on the other, prevents the Entente from recapturing the Sandwich Islands. With the Central Pacific in U.S. hands, a U.S. Navy flotilla makes its way south toward the Cape of South America and the Atlantic on the other side, with the intent of cutting off Argentine
grain and beef shipments to Great Britain.
On the Maryland front, the state is cleared of Confederate soldiers, save for those holding Washington, the de jure U.S. capital. In the autumn, the U.S. continues to attack Nashville, Tennessee
to no avail, raising the spectre of a possible Democratic loss at the polls, and the possibility that a Socialist President will seek peace with the CSA and renounce all the bloody gains. Except for a local attack on the Roanoke Front that pushes the U.S. out of western Virginia, the Confederates stay on the defensive through the autumn, attempting to drain the USA dry in the hope that the U.S. population will become sick of the war.
Nevertheless, for all the wishes of the Socialist Party and the Confederates, Theodore Roosevelt easily beats Socialist Eugene V. Debs
in the November election
. In Richmond, however, the hopes of new President Gabriel Semmes (a relative of Raphael Semmes
), elected in 1915, and his Cabinet are dashed. At this stage, the U.S. government has another four years to crush the CSA before needing to seek re-election, while the Confederates are running out of their own white soldiers to further the conflict. Semmes successfully proposes a bill to authorize the training and arming of Negro troops to serve in the lines, with civil rights (excepting interracial marriage) to follow after the war, including citizenship in the CSA. Meanwhile the U.S. begins the process of formally returning Kentucky to the union.
In Europe, the war seems little changed from our timeline, with the exception of Verdun's capture by the Germans, and an apparently heavier use of North African infantry by the French Army. In addition, Italy remains neutral in the conflict and the Easter Rising
in Dublin is not put down, spreading to the rest of Ireland.
— April 22, 1917 — and quickly breaks through the Confederate trench lines north of the Tennessee capital of Nashville.
The Confederates withdraw to a line centered on Nashville, where Custer hits them again three weeks later by outflanking the city using a plan concocted by Morrell. Nashville soon falls, despite the best efforts of the newly formed C.S. colored regiments to stave off Custer's barrels, and the state capital becomes First Army headquarters.
From Nashville, in July, Custer attacks the C.S. lines in the direction of Murfreesboro
. Near Nolensville
the U.S. receives a Confederate request for a local armistice. President Roosevelt assents, and peace on the North American front comes to Tennessee a week before the rest of the U.S.–C.S. frontline. Custer is outraged at the halt, but Roosevelt explains that it would be difficult for the USA to defend the large salient into Tennessee it has captured, and at the same time, the southeastern chunk of Kentucky that still remains in Confederate hands would prove a nuisance in postwar years as Kentuckians elected to the Confederate Congress would constantly demand a new war against the USA to recapture lost territory in their state. Thus, Roosevelt's plan involves a bit of horse-trading whereby the USA withdraws from the parts of Tennessee it has captured in exchange for all remaining parts of Kentucky.
On the same day the Barrel Roll Offensive began in Tennessee, the U.S. Army in northern Virginia attacks southward toward Manassas
at the same time that U.S. troops enter occupied Washington, D.C. The de jure U.S. capital is recaptured after several days of intense street fighting, which levels the city and its famous landmarks (such as the Washington Monument
and the White House
).
In northern Virginia, several U.S. attacks force the C.S. Army of Northern Virginia to retreat south. In battles at Round Hill
, Centreville
, and Bull Run
creek, rear-guard actions led by a few battered batteries of the First Richmond Howitzers prevent the complete destruction of the latest incarnation of Robert E. Lee's fabled army. However, it is obvious the war is on the verge of being lost; this is a notion that does not bode well with several Confederate soldiers, who reckoned the war was won only months before.
The Confederate States of America started sending peace feelers to Philadelphia as early as the fall of Nashville, but Theodore Roosevelt refused to grant a cease-fire until certain the CSA was severely hammered elsewhere. The last hammers on the Confederate Army come in late July, when fighting reaches the town of Fredericksburg, Virginia
, only fifty miles from the Confederate States capital. With a cease-fire already in effect in Tennessee, Sequoyah overrun, and fighting out west in Texas and Arkansas
sputtering down, the CSA agrees to a general armistice on land and at sea. For the first time since August 1914, the guns fall silent in North America.
At sea, however, the submarine
CSS Bonefish, led by Confederate Navy man Roger Kimball, carries out a sneak attack on the USS Ericsson despite being fully aware of the war's end. For a few years after the war, both the U.S. and C.S. believe that the ship's destruction was the work of the Royal Navy
, the war between the USA and the British Empire at sea still not over at this point.
At the same time, in Europe, mutinies in the French Army
prove serious enough to lead to France's exit from the war. (In reality, these mutinies—caused by French soldiers' disgust at being ordered into suicidal and utterly pointless attacks across no-man's land—resulted in the French Army command agreeing to order no more offensives in exchange for French soldiers continuing to fight defensively.) Without the addition of U.S. troops, it causes France to surrender. Russia
collapses into revolution and anarchy (similarly to reality), leaving only the Confederate States and Great Britain to fight against the United States, Germany, and Austria-Hungary. Italy remains neutral and the Ottoman Empire joins the war on the side of the Central Powers. In South America, Brazil abandons the neutrality it had held since the beginning of the war and allies with Chile (which supports the Central Powers) against Argentina (which supports the Allies), threatening the supply line to Britain.
In Canada, Custer's barrel methods are used to break through the Anglo-Canadian lines, leading to the fall of Quebec City, Quebec
and Winnipeg, Manitoba
. The United States establishes the Republic of Quebec out of the Canadian province, and American and Québécois forces charge towards Toronto, Ontario
. By this point the CS has been defeated, and with all the US soldiers on the US-CS Front now ready to head to Canada the British Empire requests a cease-fire, which is granted in early June. With U.S.–German-Brazilian naval operations cutting off Great Britain from its Argentine and Australian food suppliers, the United Kingdom sues for peace later that summer; the UK was the last opponent of the Quadruple Alliance that was still in the war.
Longer term ramifications of war begin to be felt, and both the U.S. and C.S. navies have to deploy minesweeper
s to clear their harbors, an activity which continues through to the late 1920s and early 1930s.
Not everyone in the victorious United States shares in the celebration of the victory, however. Returning veterans find scabs working for cheaper wages in the factories and mines they worked at before going away to fight. More veterans find themselves being put down by capitalists and factory owners, and go on strike in industrial centers like Pittsburgh and Toledo
. The owners deploy the Pinkertons
and police against the strikers, but the war veterans, who had faced far worse challenges in the trenches, repel them. The country seems to be on the verge of revolution, and the Socialist Party capitalizes on gains among the lower classes. In November 1918, they capture the House of Representatives for the first time, disrupting Theodore Roosevelt's plans for domestic and foreign affairs.
Meanwhile, citizens of the defeated and truncated Confederacy are hardly in a mood to celebrate. President Roosevelt forced humiliating terms upon them in return for peace, President Semmes having no choice but to agree to them. Significant amounts of territory were lost: Kentucky had already rejoined the Union in 1916; western Texas had been admitted into the Union in 1917 as the state of Houston, with its capital at Lubbock
, and Sequoyah was under occupation. Pieces of Arkansas, Sonora, and Virginia held by US troops at the armistice were also annexed into Missouri, New Mexico (a state that comprises our New Mexico and Arizona), and West Virginia respectively.
In addition, the post-war settlement severely curtails the size of the C.S. Army and Navy, and demands the payment of massive reparations to Philadelphia. These terms contribute further to Confederate anger. The reparations cause the Confederate dollar to spiral out of control, as hyperinflation
ruins the CSA economy. (This is directly analogous to the inflation in the Weimar Republic
after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles
.)
As a result, anti-USA sentiment among the white population increases, and several reactionary political parties form across the Confederate States. One of these fringe groups is the Freedom Party, founded by Anthony Dresser in Richmond, Virginia, sometime after the end of the Great War. (Note: in our history, the original founder of the then-fringe German Nazi Party — later ousted by Hitler — was named Anton Drexler
.).
As for the British Empire, President Roosevelt forces London to recognize the Republic of Quebec
(established in April 1917 as the war in Canada was drawing to a close) and the Republic of Ireland
(including all of Ulster
), and to relinquish claims to the Bahamas, Bermuda
, the Sandwich Islands
, and all of the Dominion of Canada.
The German Empire
annexes the French Congo and Belgian Congo, occupies Belgium, and sets up the puppet states of Ukraine and the Kingdom of Poland
, which "has the same relation to Germany as Quebec has to America". The exact status of the Baltic states is unsure, but they are mentioned as being neutral in the Settling Accounts series.
In Canada, the Dominion government is declared an illegal assembly. The U.S. Army sets up its occupation headquarters in Winnipeg and turns each province into a military district. The U.S. Army uses a harsh policy of hostage taking to prevent Canadians from rising up. If a U.S. soldier is shot or another act of rebellion occurs, U.S. forces take anywhere from 10 to 30 hostages and demand that the perpetrator turn him- or herself in. If he or she does not by the given deadline, the hostages are executed by firing squad. Occupied Canada is declared US territory as part of the new American Empire, "stretching from the Gulf of California
to the Arctic Ocean." In 1919, General George Custer requests and is granted the post of governor-general
of Occupied Canada in retribution for what he perceives to be the Canadian "murder" of his brother Tom in the fighting of 1881.
— harangues crowds at public meetings and squares about how the Confederacy has been "stabbed in the back" by the Whig Party, the War Department, and, most of all, the black minority, who rose up in Red rebellion in 1915. Featherston's angry mannerisms connect him and his Party to the masses, and soon the Freedom Party becomes the white man's proto-version of the Socialists popular with Confederate blacks and Northerners in the USA. Featherston comes to be seen as the Party's true leader, and the "Sarge" wins the Party's leadership in a power struggle against Dresser in mid-1919. Once comfortably settled in his new office, Featherston reorganizes the Freedom Party into a political party revolving around his goals and ambitions, and white-shirted "stalwarts" are soon elected into the Confederate Congress, while their assault squads take on Featherston's enemies.
(The "stab in the back" was a common trope employed by conservative Germans in real life to explain Germany's defeat. Influential figures such as Erich Ludendorff
blamed the Kaiserreich's defeat squarely on leftists and Jews. This rhetoric later became the bread and butter of the Nazi Party as led by former corporal Adolf Hitler
.)
The victorious United States, with its American Empire, ignores political events occurring in the CSA. Most members of Congress pay no attention to the rise of the Freedom Party, save for Flora Hamburger, a worried Socialist Representative from New York City. Despite her calls for action, her party takes no notice, instead focusing on voting President Roosevelt out of office in 1920
. The Socialists succeed, their candidate Upton Sinclair
defeating Roosevelt in the election that November — the first time since the election of 1880
that a Democrat has lost a presidential race. Sinclair is inaugurated president of the United States on March 4, 1921 to much rejoicing from the Socialist party.
Later in 1921, Jake Featherston runs for office against Wade Hampton V of the Whigs and Ainsworth Layne of the Radical Liberals. Featherston loses by a narrow margin to Hampton, but resolves to fight on. In 1923, Grady Calkins, a deranged Freedom Party stalwart, assassinates the president at a Birmingham, Alabama
rally. The Freedom Party immediately begins to lose support, suffering losses in the elections of 1923 and 1925. Another factor limiting the Freedom Party's chances for success is U.S. President Sinclair's lifting of the war reparations (requested by Hampton's successor, Burton Mitchel), which removes a key plank from the Freedom Party's platform. Featherston and his most ardent stalwarts spend the next several years in the political wilderness.
(It may be of note that historically, France, to whom the bulk of German reparations were owed, offered to forgive Weimar Germany's debts if the United States offered to forgive debts owed to the United States by France. President Herbert Hoover
rejected the plan, since many (if not most) of the loans to be forgiven were made by private banks. Reparations continued to be a defining issue in Weimar politics.)
In Canada, Governor-General Custer rules the former dominion with an iron-felt glove, surviving several assassination attempts by Manitoban farmer Arthur McGregor. Custer kills McGregor in the farmer's final attempt as he is parading through Winnipeg, Manitoba. At this point, the war hero is retiring, having been forced out by the new Socialist administration. Sinclair aims to return the U.S. to the days of peace, hoping that by treating its neighbors with respect there will never be another war. He is popular enough to win re-election in 1924 — the same year the Freedom Party begins to involve its stalwarts in the Mexican Civil War (compare to the real-world Spanish Civil War
), an action where the U.S. supported the republican rebels, but its support was limited compared to the supplies, weapons, and barrels that the C.S.A. gave to Emperor Maximilian's army.
As in the real world, the new medium of radio offers novel ways for politicians to reach the people. Jake Featherston is the first politician to realize its potential, and soon people sitting in their homes can hear his raspy, thundery voice shouting from their radio sets, telling them the "truth" about the Yankees, Whigs, and blacks. Even with this broadened appeal to the masses, the Freedom Party's hopes ebb further with Featherston's defeat at the polls in 1927 against incumbent Burton Mitchel III. The Confederate people are just starting to enjoy the fruits of peace and prosperity, and the war and black uprisings are coming to be seen as part of the past, despite Featherston and his stalwarts doing their utmost to keep them alive in the collective memory. Things change when, in early 1929, the world's stock markets crash
.
In the CSA, Burton Mitchel III is blamed. In the USA, which came out of the 1920s with a booming economy and a Canadian revolt having been crushed in 1925, newly elected President Hosea Blackford takes the heat, with shantytowns being named Blackfordburghs (in imitation of our timeline's "Hooverville
s"). Millions lose their jobs, and in Utah, occupied since 1916, Mormon
fanatics gun down Governor-General John Pershing. When Japan and the USA go to war in 1932 after Japan is caught smuggling weapons to the occupied Canadian province of British Columbia
by the USS Remembrance, and Japanese bombers attack Los Angeles, Blackford is easily turned out of office by the Democratic ticket of Calvin Coolidge
and Herbert Hoover
. On January 5, 1933, Coolidge dies before he could take office (Coolidge died on the same date in our timeline). Hoover assumes the presidency, practicing Coolidge's campaign policy of government non-intervention in the economy.
At the same time in the CSA, whole cities are echoing to the boot-steps of marching Freedom Party stalwarts, their ranks flowing once more with the angry and the wrathful, preparing for Election Day 1933. Jake Featherston attacks the Mitchel Administration with the most vulgar venom and hate, blaming Mitchel for the crash, and condemning his ineffectual response to the (historical) floods that devastated the Mississippi River valley in 1927
. Millions of Confederates lap it up and shout for more, which Featherston provided. On taking the oath of office on March 4, 1934, the world holds its breath: "Freedom" is on the march.
In Europe, the storm clouds are also beginning to gather. The final vestiges of the Bolshevik
revolution were crushed by 1927; among the last holdouts was the Volga town of Tsaritsyn
under the "Man of Steel" (Joseph Stalin
) and his second in command "The Hammer" (Vyacheslav Molotov
). Under Tsar Michael
, Russia remains a primarily agricultural, backward country. Frequent anti-Semitic pogrom
s and foreign loans manage to deflect further restlessness but the latter were a contributing factor in the 1929 crash when Austria-Hungary demanded the repayment of a loan that Russia was unable to fulfill.
Austria-Hungary itself remains a united empire but only the Austrians
and Hungarians feel any loyalty to the Habsburg monarchs. In fact, the multi-ethnic federation seems to be held together only by German aid and bayonets. The Ottoman Empire
also appears to be in the same boat, undertaking the genocide
of its Armenian
population. Despite strong censure from the United States, and more lukewarm protests from Berlin, the Turks continue the genocide
until the Ottoman Empire is mostly devoid of Armenians. (In our timeline, the genocide occurred during World War I, ending shortly after the war.)
Kaiser Wilhelm II rules a strong Germany and his troops continue to occupy Belgium, the Ukraine, and the puppet Kingdom of Poland but post-war relations with the U.S. have soured to the point that many people on both sides of the Atlantic believed that Germany and the United States will someday be engaged in a full-fledged war. The Business Collapse puts an end to that, however, and the old allies reassert themselves once more.
After the Collapse, France finds itself under Action Française
and its king Charles XI
, who begins talking about the return of Alsace-Lorraine
to French rule. In Britain, the Silver Shirts under Oswald Mosley
hold similar views, and support Action Française, though they never become more than a minority in Parliament. Italy never comes under Mussolini's rule but, other than this, little information is provided about its history in this timeline.
In the Pacific, Japan is far from quiet. Prior to the Pacific War with the United States, Japan pressured both France and Holland to cede Indochina
and the East Indies
respectively, with proper compensation. Great Britain fears that its Pacific colonies of Hong Kong, Malaya
, Singapore
and possibly India
will also be annexed by Japan; however, Japan shows no interest in doing so. Japan also gains much influence in China during this period and seems to have established a puppet state of Manchukuo
as well. This empire is in addition to Japan's possessions in the Philippines
which it "liberated" from Spain in the early years of the 20th century.
is elected over Hoover in 1936
, the Freedom Party's shouts start to be heeded.
The Freedom Party in the Confederate States has begun to turn the country into a one-party state, with the Confederate Congress passing laws proposed by President Jake Featherston. He faces no opposition from the Confederate Supreme Court, having maneuvered the high court into making its position vulnerable, whereupon he merely extended executive power and abolished the judicial branch. Forced elections in 1935 and 1937 solidify and confirm Freedom Party control of the House and Senate, with state legislatures and governorships captured as well. The Army is purged in 1936 and conscription recommences in 1938. The troublesome Vice President Willy Knight is removed from office after his attempt on Featherston's life later that year and soon imprisoned. The police force is slowly padded with stalwarts and soon, with a nod from the national administration and Attorney General Ferdinand Koenig, the states are installing correctional camps for "riotous" and "unruly" Whigs and Radical Liberals.
Radical Liberal Louisiana is toppled by Freedom stalwarts, with Governor Huey Long
assassinated in 1938, his regime being replaced by an administration more compliant with Featherston's interests. With black rebellions flaring up all over the CSA, Featherston has begun looking for quiet and suitable places to exact revenge for real or imagined (mostly imagined) wrongs that the blacks have committed. Louisiana is the perfect place to begin "reducing population."
In late 1940, Al Smith finally agrees to hear Jake Featherston's demands for the former Confederate states of Houston, Kentucky and Sequoyah. In the resulting plebiscites of January 7, 1941, Kentucky and west Texas (Houston) vote to return to the CSA. Featherston promises not to remilitarize them, or to ask for Sequoyah (which votes pro-USA) or other former CSA territory such as the annexed areas of Virginia, Arkansas and Sonora. Within weeks, Featherston breaks his promise and plants his modernized and expanded Confederate Army on the Ohio River, convincing Smith that the time to face Featherston down has finally come.
Tensions rise in Europe when Germany's longtime ruler dies. The new Kaiser Friedrich Wilhelm V
refuses to return the former French territory of Alsace-Lorraine that France's ruling party had demanded. Britain, France and the CSA soon declare war on Germany, with Russia joining in days later.
With war breaking out in Europe, Jake Featherston feels it is time to have his revenge against his greatest enemy: the United States of America. On the first day of summer in 1941, he orders Operation Blackbeard to begin. The next day — June 22, 1941 — the Confederate States of America bring the war to North America with a surprise attack on Philadelphia and southern Ohio.
(The Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union—in our timeline—occurred on the same day. The name of the German invasion plan was Operation Barbarossa
, named after a well-known German Emperor in the Middle Ages who had according to legend, 'a great red beard', thus the CSA's operation's name.)
and the rest of the Entente announce hostilities against the USA.
Philadelphia expects Featherston to strike in the east, following the pattern of the last war. Brigadier General Abner Dowling and Colonel Irving Morrell know better and have prepared for the coming strike as best they could, but U.S. forces in Ohio simply do not have the equipment or manpower needed to halt the Confederate army under George Patton.
Within two months, Sandusky
on Lake Erie
falls to Confederate soldiers, preventing raw materials in the west from reaching the factories of the east. Just before Sandusky fell, radical Mormons armed with Confederate weapons begin a new drive for independence in Utah, capturing the settlement belt
from Ogden in the north to Provo in the south; see Utah Troubles.
At sea, the U.S. fares little better although neither side wins control of the sea lanes. In July, the Royal Navy lures the carriers USS Remembrance and Sandwich Islands away from Bermuda
. The island, a strategically valuable submarine and air base, falls to a joint Anglo-Confederate task force as a result. The Bahamas are next to fall, the U.S. Marines being forced to fight island by island before surrendering.
Stalemate characterizes the war in the Pacific throughout most of 1941. The first major clash between Japan and the U.S. comes at the Battle of Midway
(which takes place on a Sunday morning two and a half weeks before Christmas: December 7, 1941, the date of the attack on Pearl Harbor
in reality). During the battle the USS Remembrance, transferred to the Pacific after the loss of Bermuda, is sunk and the island itself taken. Although Japan suffers one carrier sunk and another damaged, the U.S. Pacific Fleet is now left devoid of aircraft carriers and reliant upon land-based air cover.
The war in Europe spawns early triumphs for the Entente. In Ukraine
, the local soldiers and population welcome the arriving Russians as liberators, ensuring that most of the German satellite is lost. Elsewhere the manpower-swarming tactics of the Russians, unchanged from the last war, ensure that they suffer heavy losses for small gains. The Kaiser's army, particularly its panzer
s and 88mm flak cannon
s, prove instrumental in preventing the loss of East Prussia
and Poland
.
In South America, a tense peace is maintained between Argentina and Chile, who both decide that they have had enough fighting in the Great War
. All of South America's nations are apparently neutral in the new conflict.
In the West, the French Army swiftly recaptures Alsace-Lorraine (and possibly captures the Rhineland
) and stands on the Rhine. Ireland is overrun by the British, while the Anglo-French thrust through the Low Countries succeeds beyond all expectations. The Belgians welcome the Entente as liberators. The Dutch, though more pro-German, are brushed aside, and some of the North German Plain was overrun.
Yet victory does not follow. A British end-run through Norway
, made for unclear reasons — possibly for either Swedish iron ore through Narvik
or Norwegian naval bases (or both) — fails spectacularly. Churchill's bright idea does nothing more than drive the furious Norwegians into the Central Powers' camp. France proves unable to cross the Rhine and the Germans on that front soon rally. Austria-Hungary, despite its clear weakness, remains united, and though Bulgaria wavers as a German ally she never abandons Berlin entirely. Only the Low Countries campaign still shows promise for the Entente by the end of 1941, but Hamburg
still remains unconquered. By February 1942, the German Army feels confident enough to launch counter-offensives against the British outside Hamburg and the Russians in the Ukraine.
In North America, the post-Blackbeard season proves uninspiring for both sides. Shortly after Sandusky fell, Jake Featherston declares that he will make peace with the U.S. if his 'reasonable' demands are met. All the 'unredeemed territory' is to be handed back, the post-Great War reparations that destroyed the C.S. economy are to be repaid and the Northern (but not Southern) side of the border is to be demilitarized. Smith replies that night with the heaviest air raid on Richmond yet, but not before announcing on the wireless "I have not yet begun to fight!"
Yet despite Smith's bravado, the situation for the U.S. seemed bleak into February 1942. A counter-attack in northern Virginia under Daniel MacArthur soon bogs down. With too many men sandwiched between the Appalachians and the Atlantic, the U.S. Army crosses the Rappahannock River but is held at the Rapidan line. A subsequent Confederate counterattack under Patton fails to dislodge the U.S., and both sides settle in for the winter.
After the stalling of the Virginia front, Featherston realizes that another knock-out blow is needed, and begins planning for a drive eastwards in the spring of 1942. Ohio remains quiet, with nothing more than local offensives. The revolt in Utah shows no signs of ending; by Christmas 1941 U.S. forces are stalled within Provo
.
Neither side achieves a decisive advantage in the air war, which is characterized by Clarence Potter as a "duel with machine guns at a pace and a half." Both air forces soon resort to only night attacks on the east coast, as flak and fighters make daylight raids too costly. Farther west, daytime raids continue. On a tactical level, dive bombers prove effective at hitting ground targets but vulnerable to fighters and flak; Confederate "Asskickers" suffer enormously from both. Neither U.S. Wright-27s nor Confederate "Hound Dog" fighters have any great advantage over the other.
It is during this time that the "population reductions" in the South begin in earnest. Any black man whose passbook is out of order is immediately arrested and shipped out to a camp; in the cities Negroes are used as war plant labor while suffering reprisals for black car bomb
s and other terrorist acts.
In the Louisiana camps, the slaughter begins with submachine gun
s, a method that proved inefficient. The camps simmer at the edge of rebellion, while most guards cannot stomach the job and some commit suicide. Soon poison gas is found to be superior for the guards' minds and is more efficient. Sealed trucks are ostensibly used to transfer blacks between camps; in practice the fumes would leave them dead and ready for disposal in mass grave
s.
Despite the Freedom Party's best efforts, news of the killings reached Philadelphia. Congresswoman Flora Blackford announces the Confederacy's crimes to the world, only to receive scathing comparisons with Utah from the Entente and sympathetic but indifferent reactions from U.S. citizens.
In February 1942, Confederate bombers, which have been bombarding Philadelphia since the war's beginning, manage to hit the Powel House, destroying the building and its underground bunker. Al Smith is in the bunker during the bombing and is killed. His vice president Charles La Follette is sworn in as president shortly afterward. In his first speech as president, La Follette vows to continue the war and win it for the United States.
The campaign succeeds in reaching Pittsburgh but is unable to fully occupy the city. General Nathan Bedford Forrest III
, the head of the Confederate military, advises that the fighting in Pittsburgh has achieved its strategic aim of destroying the city's industrial capacity and recommends pulling the Confederate troops out. However, President Featherston refuses to allow any withdrawal. U.S. forces under Brigadier General Morrell next attack and surround Pittsburgh, destroying the light Mexican screening force. Still, Featherston refuses to allow the encircled forces to attempt a breakout. The Confederate Army is whittled down to a few ragged survivors by determined U.S. resistance and brutal house-to-house fighting. On February 2, 1943, the Confederates still inside Pittsburgh are forced to surrender. As a result of this defeat, General Forrest begins to discuss with Clarence Potter the possibility of overthrowing Featherston. (This is likely a reference to the Battle of Stalingrad
in our own timeline.)
In other plotlines, Flora Blackford becomes more hawkish on the war, opposing the administration's attempt to negotiate a settlement in Utah, where the Mormon uprising continues. She finds herself frequently agreeing with Robert Taft, the Democratic Senator from Ohio.
In Utah, the Mormon rebels have realized that they cannot achieve a conventional military victory and so resort to a series of suicide bombings throughout the United States, first with car bombs and then with suicide "people bombs." Blacks in the CSA soon begin imitating these attacks.
The extermination campaign against the CSA's black population continues and is expanded, with Jefferson Pinkard remaining a pivotal figure. Cyclone poison gas, originally used for pest extermination, is brought into the camps. (analogous to the gas chambers in Nazi concentration camps). However, the Confederates are worried when a diversionary attack, launched at the same time as the Pittsburgh campaign and led by Major General Dowling, threatens to capture the main extermination camp in Texas and expose its operations to the world.
The naval war remains inconclusive. The U.S. beats off a Japanese attack against the Sandwich Islands
and achieves an advantage in the Pacific. In the Atlantic, the main activity is preventing British convoys from bringing supplies to the Canadian underground. The Royal Navy and the German High Seas Fleet meet in battle late in 1942, with both sides claiming victory.
Britain and France are still bogged down in western Germany, while Confederate newspapers report that the Russians are driving on Warsaw
. Partisan resistance is a large problem for both sides: Britain contends with Irish rebellion, Russia fights Jews, Finns, Chechens
and Azerbaijan
is, while Austria-Hungary bleeds from (amongst others) Serb, Bosnian, and Romanian rebels, with people bombs killing several prominent military leaders.
By 1943 both the United States and the Confederacy, along with other countries, have initiated programs to develop atomic weapons. While no power has developed a weapon yet, it appears that the United States and German programs are ahead of the Confederate one, with Germany the closest to completion. Around the turn of the New Year in 1943, the U.S. achieves its first sustaining chain reaction at its plant in Hanford, Washington. The British and the French are also rumored to be working on atomic weapons.
Meanwhile, the Mormon rebellion in Utah is finally suppressed. Mormons outside of the ruins of Salt Lake City surrender to occupying U.S. troops. Plans are put forth in Congress to expel the rebels from Utah, possibly to the Sandwich Islands. These same soldiers are sent to put down the flames of revolt in Canada. In mid-1943, Winnipeg is surrounded and under siege by the U.S. and Québécois armies.
Mexican Army forces begin to be deployed to provide internal security in the Confederacy, replacing white Confederate soldiers sent to the front lines. Their efficiency against experienced guerrilla bands is limited, and the guerrillas' hit-and-run attacks become more and more brash.
To the surprise of the U.S. Navy, an assault on Midway Island reveals the Japanese have completely abandoned their garrison there. Many suspect that the Japanese are concentrating their resources for an assault on British-held Malaya
and Singapore
. An amphibious assault on Wake Island
some months later regains U.S. control of the island but also finds no signs of the Japanese.
C.S.A. President Featherston demands more progress from the Confederate nuclear program, fearing that the U.S. will develop the weapon first. In an attempt to slow down the U.S. nuclear program, C.S. bombers fly a long-range mission to bomb the "uranium
works" in Hanford, Washington. No serious damage is incurred, and the program continues under heightened security. A later U.S. bombing raid on the Confederate atomic program in Lexington, Virginia, kills several prominent Confederate nuclear physicists.
The U.S. conquest of Baja California
takes place soon after the beginning of the lull in Pacific operations. Marines land midway down the peninsula and take Cabo San Lucas
on the southern tip, while the U.S. Army pushes from San Diego deep into the territory, seizing control of the remainder of Baja. Harassment operations soon begin against the Confederate forces in Guaymas and the Sonoran coast.
A seaborne operation led by the U.S. to re-recapture Bermuda from British and C.S. forces succeeds. The United States begins running guns to Irish rebels fighting against the British occupiers. As these operations continue, the U.S. also sends arms to anti-Freedom Party rebels in Confederate Cuba.
General Dowling's Eleventh Army continues to put pressure on Lubbock, Texas, the linchpin of Confederate defenses in the west. After Lubbock is captured, and the state of Houston subsequently revived, Brigade Leader Jefferson Pinkard destroys records and gas chambers at Camp Determination before the Yankees break through. Freedom Party Guard Units are deployed to slow down the U.S. advance, delaying the capture of Camp Determination for a time. Pinkard is put in charge of Camp Humble, not far from Houston, Texas, to continue population reductions. The United States use the mass graves at Camp Determination as a propaganda
theme.
In Europe, the German Army drive British forces out of their territory and over the Dutch border. Subsequent operations are undertaken to free the Netherlands and "liberate" Belgium from Franco-British forces. In the east, German armored units deal a decisive blow to Russian forces outside of Kiev
, tightening German control in the area. Another thrust is aimed at the capital of Petrograd
, which the Russians unsuccessfully try to turn back. Russia is no longer able to mount offensive operations, now trying to defend their Motherland with a battered and wounded army. Austria-Hungary is wracked by terrorist attacks but continues reprisals against the Serbians.
Facing off against Confederate General Patton, Morrell grinds down through Tennessee to capture the railroad junction of Chattanooga. In August 1943, United States airborne forces seize Lookout Mountain
and Missionary Ridge
, overlooking Chattanooga, Tennessee
, forcing the collapse of the Confederate defenses of the city; General Patton plans to treat the city as a second Pittsburgh, forcing a bloody attrition battle on the U.S. Instead, Confederate forces are forced to retreat to northwest Georgia. After several more counterattacks by the ill-equipped Confederate forces, the United States is poised to capture Atlanta, the last major transportation hub still linking both halves of the Confederacy.
As the U.S. Army moves through Tennessee (and even when that state is not even halfway occupied by the U.S.), plans are put forth in Congress to return Kentucky and Tennessee to the United States (under martial law
), along with a revived Houston.
With the surprising success in its war effort, U.S. President La Follette, in a speech to U.S. Congress in fall 1943, demands that Confederate President Featherston surrender unconditionally, with him and his inner circle being banished to a distant island. Paralleling Al Smith's refusal of a similar demand in 1941, Featherston refuses this latest demand, responding to it by ordering two rockets to be fired into Philadelphia, proving to the United States that he is unwilling to give up so easily.
The world is shocked when Germany uses the first superbomb to destroy Petrograd (St. Petersburg), Russia. The Confederates aren't far behind and Featherston sends Potter with a jury-rigged plutonium (Jovium to Confederate scientists) truck bomb to infiltrate and attack Philadelphia. The carnage is fearsome, but critical government buildings are spared atomic destruction. Soon after, Featherston is forced to flee Richmond, while Patton pulls back to Alabama -- desperately defending the Confederate munitions works at Huntsville and Birmingham. U.S. planes drop a uranium bomb on Newport News, Virginia
, narrowly missing the Confederate President, who is giving a speech in nearby Hampton Roads. The U.S. drop a second superbomb, this time on Charleston, in apparent revenge for South Carolina being the first state to secede from the Union back in 1860.
Germany uses its next superbomb against Paris, while Britain strikes Hamburg
with its own superbomb. Germany retaliates with three superbombs on English cities nearly simultaneously, London is the most prominent, along with Norwich
and Brighton
. Winston Churchill promises a swift response, but a German turbo airplane shoots down the British bomber containing the second British bomb in Belgium "somewhere between Bruges and Ghent", sparing Germany.
In the wake of German atomic attacks, Russia, France and Britain, after a change of government, request armistices; the U.S. continues to gain territory and further squeeze the Confederacy. The U.S. recognizes an independent Republic of Texas, which splits the Confederacy yet again, cutting off Sonora and Chihuahua from the rest of the C.S. The new President of Texas (in reciprocity for the U.S. diplomatic move) arranges for U.S. forces to liberate the death camps in his state. Jefferson Pinkard is arrested for crimes against humanity.
Patton's army surrenders in Alabama under threat of atomic attack, while Featherston is shot attempting to escape to what remains of the Confederacy by the black guerrilla Cassius (the son of Scipio/Xerxes, and sole survivor of his family). Confederate Vice President Donald Partridge thus becomes President long enough to sign a statement of unconditional surrender, which is accepted by General Morrell on behalf of the United States. With this, the Confederate States, after 83 years of independence, ceases to exist.
U.S. troops move in for the long occupation, shooting tens or hundreds of Confederate civilians for every attack against U.S. forces. (There is mention of 1,500 random hostages being shot at Miami on a single day). The final dispensation of the defeated warring powers' territory is unclear, though the U.S. makes it clear that it plans to eventually absorb the entire Confederacy into the Union. The U.S. also holds criminal trials to punish crimes against humanity in a similar manner to the Nuremberg Trials
of our timeline, executing the deposed Attorney General and Director of Communications, as well as numerous camp guards. In Canada, the simmering rebellion is put down after the US agrees to treat captured Canadians as POWs, and also threatening to superbomb Saskatoon
.
Harry Turtledove
Harry Norman Turtledove is an American novelist, who has produced works in several genres including alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction.- Life :...
alternate history
Alternate history (fiction)
Alternate history or alternative history is a genre of fiction consisting of stories that are set in worlds in which history has diverged from the actual history of the world. It can be variously seen as a sub-genre of literary fiction, science fiction, and historical fiction; different alternate...
novels, including How Few Remain
How Few Remain
How Few Remain is a 1997 alternate history novel by Harry Turtledove. It is the first part of the Southern Victory Series saga, which depicts a world in which the Confederacy won the American Civil War. The book received the Sidewise Award for Alternate History in 1997, and was also nominated for...
as well as the Great War
Great War (Harry Turtledove)
Great War is an alternate history trilogy by Harry Turtledove, which follows How Few Remain. It is part of Turtledove's Southern Victory Series series of novels...
, American Empire
American Empire (Harry Turtledove)
The American Empire series is a trilogy of alternate history novels by Harry Turtledove. It follows How Few Remain and the Great War trilogy, and is part of the Southern Victory Series...
, and Settling Accounts
Settling Accounts (Harry Turtledove)
The Settling Accounts tetralogy is an alternate history setting of World War II by Harry Turtledove in North America, presupposing that the Confederate States of America won the U.S. Civil War. It is part of the Southern Victory Series, following How Few Remain and trilogies Great War and...
series. The name is derived from Robert E. Lee
Robert E. Lee
Robert Edward Lee was a career military officer who is best known for having commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War....
's Special Order 191
Special Order 191
Special Order 191 was a general movement order issued by Confederate Army General Robert E. Lee in the Maryland Campaign of the American Civil War...
, which detailed the Army of Northern Virginia
Army of Northern Virginia
The Army of Northern Virginia was the primary military force of the Confederate States of America in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War, as well as the primary command structure of the Department of Northern Virginia. It was most often arrayed against the Union Army of the Potomac...
's invasion of the Union
Union (American Civil War)
During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the federal government of the United States, which was supported by the twenty free states and five border slave states. It was opposed by 11 southern slave states that had declared a secession to join together to form the...
in September 1862 during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. The divergence occurs
Point of divergence
In discussion of counterfactual history, a divergence point , also referred to as a departure point or point of divergence , is a historical event with two possible postulated outcomes...
when Union forces do not find a copy of Special Order 191, on September 10, 1862. The novels detail the consequences of this until 1944 in the alternate world.
1861–1862: The First War Between the States (War of Secession)
In reality, before the Battle of Antietam
Battle of Antietam
The Battle of Antietam , fought on September 17, 1862, near Sharpsburg, Maryland, and Antietam Creek, as part of the Maryland Campaign, was the first major battle in the American Civil War to take place on Northern soil. It was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with about 23,000...
, Federal troops accidentally recovered a copy of Special Order 191 (used as wrapping around a number of cigars), which spelled out in detail Lee's plan for the invasion of Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
. Using this intelligence, Federal forces, under George B. McClellan
George B. McClellan
George Brinton McClellan was a major general during the American Civil War. He organized the famous Army of the Potomac and served briefly as the general-in-chief of the Union Army. Early in the war, McClellan played an important role in raising a well-trained and organized army for the Union...
, moved north and forced the battle at Antietam, ending the invasion.
In this alternate timeline, Lee's orders are recovered by trailing Confederate troops before they were allowed to fall into Union hands. The resulting Confederate advance catches McClellan and the U.S. by surprise. Instead of fighting at Antietam, General Lee forces McClellan into a battle on the banks of the Susquehanna River
Susquehanna River
The Susquehanna River is a river located in the northeastern United States. At long, it is the longest river on the American east coast that drains into the Atlantic Ocean, and with its watershed it is the 16th largest river in the United States, and the longest river in the continental United...
in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
and destroys the Army of the Potomac
Army of the Potomac
The Army of the Potomac was the major Union Army in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War.-History:The Army of the Potomac was created in 1861, but was then only the size of a corps . Its nucleus was called the Army of Northeastern Virginia, under Brig. Gen...
in the Battle of Camp Hill on October 1, 1862.
After the decisive Confederate victory, Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia
Army of Northern Virginia
The Army of Northern Virginia was the primary military force of the Confederate States of America in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War, as well as the primary command structure of the Department of Northern Virginia. It was most often arrayed against the Union Army of the Potomac...
move eastward to occupy Philadelphia
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
. As a direct result, the Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
earn diplomatic recognition from the UK
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
and France. Both European nations then force mediation on the United States; this action results in full independence for the Confederate States. In less than two years, the War of Secession had ended.
While considering the mediation offer, Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
mentions to the British ambassador Richard Lyons
Richard Lyons, 1st Viscount Lyons
Richard Bickerton Pemell Lyons, 1st Viscount Lyons, GCB, GCMG, PC, DCL was an eminent British diplomat.-Biography:...
that he has in his desk drawer a proclamation
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation is an executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War using his war powers. It proclaimed the freedom of 3.1 million of the nation's 4 million slaves, and immediately freed 50,000 of them, with nearly...
that would have freed slaves in the rebellious Confederacy. Lincoln has discussed the proclamation's viability with his cabinet, but after the U.S. defeat at Camp Hill, he decided against issuing it. He was warned by Lyons that if the proclamation were issued, he would have been perceived as acting in desperation, since the U.S. was about to officially concede defeat and that issuing such an order would amount to nothing more than an attempt to raise insurrection inside what was now another country, and doing so would be seen as a directly hostile act.
1862–1881: American Changes
Shortly after the conclusion of Camp Hill, Confederate general Braxton BraggBraxton Bragg
Braxton Bragg was a career United States Army officer, and then a general in the Confederate States Army—a principal commander in the Western Theater of the American Civil War and later the military adviser to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.Bragg, a native of North Carolina, was...
completes the conquest of Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
; sometime after the U.S. agreed to mediation, Kentucky becomes the twelfth state to enter the Confederacy. In addition, the pro-Confederate Five Civilized Tribes of the Indian Territory
Indian Territory
The Indian Territory, also known as the Indian Territories and the Indian Country, was land set aside within the United States for the settlement of American Indians...
are given territory of their own in the C.S., later to become the State of Sequoyah
State of Sequoyah
The State of Sequoyah was the proposed name for a state to be established in the eastern part of present-day Oklahoma. In 1905, faced by proposals to end their tribal governments, Native Americans of the Five Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory proposed such a state as a means to retain some...
. The Caribbean island of Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
is subsequently purchased by the Confederate States from Spain in 1878 for $3,000,000
Confederate States of America dollar
The Confederate States of America dollar was first issued into circulation in April 1861, when the Confederacy was only two months old, and on the eve of the outbreak of the Civil War....
, becoming the 14th Confederate State.
Lincoln and his vice president Hannibal Hamlin
Hannibal Hamlin
Hannibal Hamlin was the 15th Vice President of the United States , serving under President Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War...
are defeated in the 1864 elections by Horatio Seymour
Horatio Seymour
Horatio Seymour was an American politician. He was the 18th Governor of New York from 1853 to 1854 and from 1863 to 1864. He was the Democratic Party nominee for president of the United States in the presidential election of 1868, but lost the election to Republican and former Union General of...
, and another Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
president will not be elected until 1880. The Republicans also become the minority in Congress but in 1880 voters—tired of the Democrats
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
' soft line against the Confederate States—opt to return the Republicans to the majority.
In the 1860s, Russia offers Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
to the United States with a purchase price of seven million dollars (the real-life Alaska Purchase
Alaska purchase
The Alaska Purchase was the acquisition of the Alaska territory by the United States from Russia in 1867 by a treaty ratified by the Senate. The purchase, made at the initiative of United States Secretary of State William H. Seward, gained of new United States territory...
occurred in 1867, during Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson was the 17th President of the United States . As Vice-President of the United States in 1865, he succeeded Abraham Lincoln following the latter's assassination. Johnson then presided over the initial and contentious Reconstruction era of the United States following the American...
's tenure in office, for a price of $7,200,000). However the U.S., financially drained from its losing war effort, does not have the necessary funding to complete the purchase. Since the U.S. cannot buy Alaska, it remains a Russian colony.
The United States, probably in reaction to their defeat in the War of Secession, appears to have sped up the conquest and settlement of the Great Plains
Great Plains
The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, which lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...
relative to our timeline. George Armstrong Custer
George Armstrong Custer
George Armstrong Custer was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. Raised in Michigan and Ohio, Custer was admitted to West Point in 1858, where he graduated last in his class...
and his brother Thomas Custer
Thomas Custer
Thomas Ward Custer was a United States Army officer and two-time recipient of the Medal of Honor for bravery during the American Civil War...
are still alive in 1881 because there were (presumably) no Sioux Indians around in 1876 to fight him at Little Bighorn
Battle of the Little Bighorn
The Battle of the Little Bighorn, also known as Custer's Last Stand and, by the Indians involved, as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, was an armed engagement between combined forces of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho people against the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army...
. In reaction to the (historical) Sioux uprising of 1862
Dakota War of 1862
The Dakota War of 1862, also known as the Sioux Uprising, was an armed conflict between the United States and several bands of the eastern Sioux. It began on August 17, 1862, along the Minnesota River in southwest Minnesota...
, the Army conducts a war of extermination against them. Prior to the Great War, Dakota
Dakota Territory
The Territory of Dakota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until November 2, 1889, when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of North and South Dakota.The Dakota Territory consisted of...
itself enters the Union as a single state, possibly as a result of the swiftness with which the Army (necessarily larger than in this timeline because of the Confederate
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
threat) pacifies the Dakota Territory and allows settlers to move in. (In our timeline the Dakota territory split because of an ongoing debate about the placement of the capital.)
In addition, the USA may have had a significant and victorious Indian War prior to the Second Mexican War, suggesting that massive firepower and a national need for some kind of martial victory propelled the United States to a much quicker and clear-cut answer to their Native American question, namely the extermination or deportation of the Natives.
In the Presidential election of 1880
United States presidential election, 1880
The United States presidential election of 1880 was largely seen as a referendum on the end of Reconstruction in Southern states carried out by the Republicans. There were no pressing issues of the day save tariffs, with the Republicans supporting higher tariffs and the Democrats supporting lower...
, Republican James G. Blaine
James G. Blaine
James Gillespie Blaine was a U.S. Representative, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, U.S. Senator from Maine, two-time Secretary of State...
defeats the incumbent Democrat Samuel J. Tilden
Samuel J. Tilden
Samuel Jones Tilden was the Democratic candidate for the U.S. presidency in the disputed election of 1876, one of the most controversial American elections of the 19th century. He was the 25th Governor of New York...
. Blaine runs on a hard-line platform, which ultimately precipitates another war against the Confederate States over the latter nation's purchase of the Mexican
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
provinces Sonora
Sonora
Sonora officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 72 municipalities; the capital city is Hermosillo....
and Chihuahua. (This purchase allowed the Confederate States to build their own coast-to-coast railway lines, eliminating the need to use the heavily taxed United States lines.)
1881–1882: The Second War Between the States (Second Mexican War)
Early on in the war, Confederate troops under Jeb Stuart capture a large quantity of gold and silver ore from a Union mining town after successfully occupying the newly purchased provinces. Meanwhile, Union Colonel George Armstrong Custer successfully uses Gatling guns against Kiowa Indians and Confederate cavalry in Kansas. Soon, the United Kingdom and France, both Confederate allies, blockade and bombard US port cities.During the war, the Mormons in Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
rebel by severing transcontinental communication and transportation around Salt Lake City. John Pope
John Pope (military officer)
John Pope was a career United States Army officer and Union general in the American Civil War. He had a brief but successful career in the Western Theater, but he is best known for his defeat at the Second Battle of Bull Run in the East.Pope was a graduate of the United States Military Academy in...
is appointed as the military governor, puts down the revolt, and imposes martial law. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is classified as a political organization and the Mormon
Mormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...
leaders are executed.
The United States' attempt to invade Virginia is easily thrown back by Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson
Stonewall Jackson
ຄຽשת״ׇׂׂׂׂ֣|birth_place= Clarksburg, Virginia |death_place=Guinea Station, Virginia|placeofburial=Stonewall Jackson Memorial CemeteryLexington, Virginia|placeofburial_label= Place of burial|image=...
as the United States struggles to find a man his equal. A key reason for the Confederate success in the war, in addition to fighting a defensive war, is that the Confederates are led by excellent generals like Jackson, while the United States's military, despite possessing a massive advantage in numbers and resources, suffers from incompetent leadership. William Rosecrans
William Rosecrans
William Starke Rosecrans was an inventor, coal-oil company executive, diplomat, politician, and United States Army officer. He gained fame for his role as a Union general during the American Civil War...
, the commander of the entire US army, casually reveals at one point that there is no overall strategy for winning the war whatsoever. He envisions a vague idea of the opposing armies making counteroffensives back and forth against each other, which he feels the United States would assuredly win. This lack of planning leaves the German military observer, Alfred von Schlieffen, aghast.
The United States next attempts to launch a massive invasion of Louisville
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
to knock the Confederates out of Kentucky but it soon becomes a bloody stalemate, as the appointment of Stonewall Jackson to command the defense, the negligence of U.S. commanders, and most of all, the use of breech-loading artillery and repeating rifles makes taking a position very difficult. The Confederate army under Jackson never tries to invade more United States territory than it possessed before the war, for two reasons. First, it does not have the resources for an offensive into hostile lands. Second, the Confederacy's success hinges on the support of Britain and France, who feel they are aiding a smaller nation wrongfully attacked by a larger one, and launching attacks into the United States would be seen as aggression for which they might lose foreign support. Galled by orders to wage a purely defensive war, Jackson takes them to the extreme, pioneering tactics of full-scale trench warfare
Trench warfare
Trench warfare is a form of occupied fighting lines, consisting largely of trenches, in which troops are largely immune to the enemy's small arms fire and are substantially sheltered from artillery...
which devastates Louisville (in scenes reminiscent of the World War I of mainline reality). The Louisville campaign quickly bogs down for the United States, and results in a bloodbath with little territory gained. The United Kingdom and France continue to shell the Great Lakes
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...
ports; France also shells Los Angeles, while the British bombard San Francisco and raid the mint.
The United States receives some good news when a young volunteer cavalry colonel, Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
, and George Armstrong Custer rout a British division under Charles Gordon invading Montana from Canada. However, the British also invade northern Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
and annex it into the Canadian province of New Brunswick
New Brunswick
New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...
. Finally, facing defeat on almost all fronts, Republican president James G. Blaine is forced to capitulate. The U.S. officially surrenders on April 22, 1882, ending the Second Mexican War.
Confederate President James Longstreet
James Longstreet
James Longstreet was one of the foremost Confederate generals of the American Civil War and the principal subordinate to General Robert E. Lee, who called him his "Old War Horse." He served under Lee as a corps commander for many of the famous battles fought by the Army of Northern Virginia in the...
, in an attempt to appear the conciliator, offers generous terms to end the war, limited only to the USA's acknowledgment of the Confederate acquisition of the two purchased Mexican provinces. The most humiliating term is the annexation of most of northern Maine to Canada, forced by the British as the cost of their participation in the war. Regardless of the generous nature of the Confederacy's terms, and most likely inspired by Britain's partial annexation of his home state, and the defeat overall, President Blaine takes the end of the war hard.
Both American nations experience major changes after the war. In the United States, many Republicans are voted out of Congress in the 1882 elections
United States House election, 1882
The U.S. House election, 1882 was an election for the United States House of Representatives in 1882 which occurred during President Chester A. Arthur's term....
. Stung with the loss in the Second Mexican War, Blaine is ousted as president two years later. The elections of 1882 and 1884
United States House election, 1884
The U.S. House election, 1884 was an election for the United States House of Representatives in 1884 which coincided with the election of President Grover Cleveland....
begin Democratic control over Congress and the White House, which will last 36 years.
In return for British and French assistance, Confederate President James Longstreet
James Longstreet
James Longstreet was one of the foremost Confederate generals of the American Civil War and the principal subordinate to General Robert E. Lee, who called him his "Old War Horse." He served under Lee as a corps commander for many of the famous battles fought by the Army of Northern Virginia in the...
is obliged to propose the nominal manumission
Manumission
Manumission is the act of a slave owner freeing his or her slaves. In the United States before the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which abolished most slavery, this often happened upon the death of the owner, under conditions in his will.-Motivations:The...
of the country's slaves, which proceeds throughout the 1880s.
The defeated United States, realizing it needs powerful allies to counter the Confederate alliances with Britain and France, begins an alliance with the German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
and adopts many of its military and economic practices.
Witnessing the collapse of the Republican Party, former President Abraham Lincoln, now an orator, allies with U.S. socialists and leads left-wing Republicans into their fledgling Socialist party. The Republicans soon begin a long descent into the general obscurity of becoming a solely Midwestern regional party, never again winning the presidency or a Congressional majority, losing around a third of its supporters to the Democrats, and all of its left-wingers (around one third) to the Socialists.
Great War
- The Great War TrilogyGreat War (Harry Turtledove)Great War is an alternate history trilogy by Harry Turtledove, which follows How Few Remain. It is part of Turtledove's Southern Victory Series series of novels...
- American FrontThe Great War: American FrontThe Great War: American Front is the first alternate history novel in the Great War trilogy by Harry Turtledove. It is part II of Turtledove's Southern Victory Series of novels. It takes the Southern Victory Series from 1914 to 1915.-Plot summary:...
(1998) - Walk in HellThe Great War: Walk in HellThe Great war: Walk in Hell is the second book in the Great War series of alternate history books by Harry Turtledove. It is also part of the Southern Victory Series series...
(1999) - BreakthroughsThe Great War: BreakthroughsThe Great War: Breakthroughs is the third and final installment of the Great War trilogy in the Southern Victory Series of alternate history novels by Harry Turtledove. It takes the Southern Victory Series to 1917.-Plot summary:...
(2000)
- American Front
1914: Declaration and invasion
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria
Franz Ferdinand was an Archduke of Austria-Este, Austro-Hungarian and Royal Prince of Hungary and of Bohemia, and from 1889 until his death, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne. His assassination in Sarajevo precipitated Austria-Hungary's declaration of war against Serbia...
and his wife are both killed by a bomb (whereas in our real timeline, they were shot to death) while touring the city of Sarajevo
Sarajevo
Sarajevo |Bosnia]], surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans....
in June 1914. The Austrian government quickly learns that a Serb
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
group was responsible, and Austria accuses the government of nearby Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
of colluding with the terrorists. Tsar
Tsar
Tsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...
Nicholas II of Russia
Nicholas II of Russia
Nicholas II was the last Emperor of Russia, Grand Prince of Finland, and titular King of Poland. His official short title was Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias and he is known as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.Nicholas II ruled from 1894 until...
backs Serbia, while Kaiser
Kaiser
Kaiser is the German title meaning "Emperor", with Kaiserin being the female equivalent, "Empress". Like the Russian Czar it is directly derived from the Latin Emperors' title of Caesar, which in turn is derived from the personal name of a branch of the gens Julia, to which Gaius Julius Caesar,...
Wilhelm II of Germany backs Austria-Hungary. The major powers of each system mobilize their militaries, effectively signifying their intent to go to war. In August 1914, the Great War begins, initially pitting Great Britain, France, and Russia against Germany and Austria-Hungary (this is exactly how the real-life World War I started).
Across the Atlantic, Democratic President Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
orders the US military to mobilize in late July, following Germany's lead. In response, Confederate President Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
orders the CS military to do the same. Fighting soon breaks out on their common border and the high seas.
The United States officially brings the war to North America when Roosevelt declares war on the Confederate States in early August 1914. Confederate President Wilson responds in kind, although he had hoped to avoid a war. Wilson's speech, given in a tightly-packed public square of Richmond
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
, Virginia decorated with statues of southern war heroes George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
and Albert Sidney Johnston
Albert Sidney Johnston
Albert Sidney Johnston served as a general in three different armies: the Texas Army, the United States Army, and the Confederate States Army...
, becomes particularly famous.
Hoping to emulate General Lee, the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia
Army of Northern Virginia
The Army of Northern Virginia was the primary military force of the Confederate States of America in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War, as well as the primary command structure of the Department of Northern Virginia. It was most often arrayed against the Union Army of the Potomac...
(ANV) launches a massive invasion of Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
and Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
in August, targeting the northern de facto
De facto
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...
capital of Philadelphia. The ANV quickly overruns the de jure
De jure
De jure is an expression that means "concerning law", as contrasted with de facto, which means "concerning fact".De jure = 'Legally', De facto = 'In fact'....
capital of Washington, D.C. and pushes on through Maryland.
The US Army takes a different approach and orders the US First Army under Lieutenant General
Lieutenant General
Lieutenant General is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages where the title of Lieutenant General was held by the second in command on the battlefield, who was normally subordinate to a Captain General....
George Custer and the US Second Army under Major General
Major General
Major general or major-general is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. A major general is a high-ranking officer, normally subordinate to the rank of lieutenant general and senior to the ranks of brigadier and brigadier general...
John Pershing to cross the Ohio River
Ohio River
The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...
and invade Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
. Although Confederate resistance is high, especially from river gunboats modeled after the original USS Monitor
USS Monitor
USS Monitor was the first ironclad warship commissioned by the United States Navy during the American Civil War. She is most famous for her participation in the Battle of Hampton Roads on March 9, 1862, the first-ever battle fought between two ironclads...
, the US succeeds in establishing a bridgehead on the southern bank. US forces also invade western Virginia, aiming for the rail junction at Big Lick, Virginia (Roanoke
Roanoke, Virginia
Roanoke is an independent city in the Mid-Atlantic U.S. state of Virginia and is the tenth-largest city in the Commonwealth. It is located in the Roanoke Valley of the Roanoke Region of Virginia. The population within the city limits was 97,032 as of 2010...
in our timeline).
A separate US invasion of Sonora, intended to capture the Confederacy's sole Pacific port of Guaymas
Guaymas
Guaymas is a city and municipality located in the southwest part of the state of Sonora in northwestern Mexico. The city is located 117 km south of the state capital of Hermosillo, and 242 miles from the U.S. border, and is the principal port for the state. The municipality is located in the...
, soon becomes bogged down. A young army captain named Irving Morrell is wounded in this venture, and spends much of the next six months in Tucson, New Mexico (real-life Tucson, Arizona
Tucson, Arizona
Tucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States. The city is located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The 2010 United States Census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 1,020,200...
) recuperating.
The US also launches attacks on the British Dominion of Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, specifically in Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, and Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
. Perhaps the most successful maneuver during these early stages of war is the US Navy's capture of the British base at Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
in the Sandwich Islands
Hawaiian Islands
The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll...
(Hawaii) in a surprise attack.
1915: Stalemate and rebellion
Both American offensives soon stall, however; the US armies find it difficult to push south, and the Army of Northern Virginia is slowed by the winter of 1914–15. The Confederate invasion of Pennsylvania soon grinds to a halt at the Susquehanna RiverSusquehanna River
The Susquehanna River is a river located in the northeastern United States. At long, it is the longest river on the American east coast that drains into the Atlantic Ocean, and with its watershed it is the 16th largest river in the United States, and the longest river in the continental United...
, only 50 miles from Philadelphia. From that high-water–mark, U.S. forces slowly start to push the Confederates back into Maryland.
Although the US forces easily conquer the southern bank of the St. Lawrence River, crossing it proves another matter. The geography of the Niagara Peninsula
Niagara Peninsula
The Niagara Peninsula is the portion of Southern Ontario, Canada lying between the south shore of Lake Ontario and the north shore of Lake Erie. It stretches from the Niagara River in the east to Hamilton, Ontario in the west. The population of the peninsula is roughly 1,000,000 people...
soon bottlenecks the invading army. Though Winnipeg, Manitoba
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
, a major rail junction, lies relatively close to the US border, the War Department
United States Department of War
The United States Department of War, also called the War Department , was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army...
allocates too few troops to capture it.
Trench warfare
Trench warfare
Trench warfare is a form of occupied fighting lines, consisting largely of trenches, in which troops are largely immune to the enemy's small arms fire and are substantially sheltered from artillery...
becomes ubiquitous as each side digs in for protection from machine gun
Machine gun
A machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm, usually designed to fire rounds in quick succession from an ammunition belt or large-capacity magazine, typically at a rate of several hundred rounds per minute....
s. Troops huddle in these trenches as heavy artillery in their rear pounds the enemy lines night and day. They dread the order "Over the top!" which means they have to leave the safety of their lines to charge into No man's land
No man's land
No man's land is a term for land that is unoccupied or is under dispute between parties that leave it unoccupied due to fear or uncertainty. The term was originally used to define a contested territory or a dumping ground for refuse between fiefdoms...
, in the hope of capturing the enemy trenches on the other side. The US, drawing on German chemical expertise, seeks to push forward using chemical warfare
Chemical warfare
Chemical warfare involves using the toxic properties of chemical substances as weapons. This type of warfare is distinct from Nuclear warfare and Biological warfare, which together make up NBC, the military acronym for Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical...
. The use of chlorine gas, however, makes only minor gains. Far from the quick, glorious conquest each side had imagined, the Great War becomes a long, bloody stalemate.
Early in 1915, another front opens when the Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
Mormons
Mormons
The Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, a religion started by Joseph Smith during the American Second Great Awakening. A vast majority of Mormons are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while a minority are members of other independent churches....
secede from the United States and declare themselves the independent nation of Deseret
State of Deseret
The State of Deseret was a proposed state of the United States, propositioned in 1849 by Latter-day Saint settlers in Salt Lake City. The provisional state existed for slightly over two years and was never recognized by the United States government...
. Mormon relations with the rest of the country had been hostile since the Utah War
Utah War
The Utah War, also known as the Utah Expedition, Buchanan's Blunder, the Mormon War, or the Mormon Rebellion was an armed confrontation between LDS settlers in the Utah Territory and the armed forces of the United States government. The confrontation lasted from May 1857 until July 1858...
of the 1850s and the brief uprising during the Second Mexican War. They wrongly believe that the distracted US government will be unable to subdue them. However, as Utah sits on one of the major transcontinental rail lines, President Roosevelt states the US will not tolerate unlawful rebellion. The Mormon rebellion rages until mid-1916, when it is finally crushed and Salt Lake City is captured. Utah is then placed under military rule by Roosevelt, a situation that will continue until the 1930s.
In the autumn of 1915, as the armies of the Confederacy are fighting those of the United States along the border regions, the CSA's blacks rise up in revolt. Bitter over their treatment by the whites, and fueled by a rhetoric of Marxism
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
and the teachings of Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
, the blacks declare Red revolution in several areas across the CSA and establish "socialist republics," while massacring whites and seeking justice against their former white masters; most trials are shams, however, and the executions brutal. These rebellions are gradually crushed by 1916, although white justice mellows somewhat as thoughts are preoccupied with winning the war. Ironically, the lasting effect of the Red revolt is to make white people start to believe in the military potential of blacks.
1916: Slaughter
Taking advantage of the Confederacy's plight, the U.S. First Army marches into western Tennessee after slogging through western Kentucky, while the C.S. Army of Northern Virginia is pushed south toward Washington. In mid-spring of 1916, a new armored technical advance called the "barrel" (referred to as a tankTank
A tank is a tracked, armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities...
by the British) is introduced to combat for the first time by US forces operating in the Roanoke Valley
Roanoke River
The Roanoke River is a river in southern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina in the United States, 410 mi long. A major river of the southeastern United States, it drains a largely rural area of the coastal plain from the eastern edge of the Appalachian Mountains southeast across the Piedmont...
.
In this case, as in our time line, the name of the vehicle comes from the cover name used. In Britain, those assembling the vehicle were told they were mobile water tanks; in this time line, they are coded 'barrel,' though there is some indication something called a 'barrel' was coming. Private Reginald Bartlett, escaping with a Confederate naval officer, heard U.S. soldiers singing a song, "Roll Out the Barrel" (not related to our timeline's Czech polka
Polka
The polka is a Central European dance and also a genre of dance music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas. It originated in the middle of the 19th century in Bohemia...
Rosalinda, which became popular in 1938 and was given the English-language lyrics Roll Out the Barrel).
While in Tennessee, Lieutenant General Custer transforms his tactics for cavalry
Cavalry
Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...
into a doctrine for the new barrels, but the War Department is not interested. When Custer's summer offensive begins, tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers are lost attacking Confederate lines, and the new barrels, deployed singly in an infantry support role rather than massed as an armored fist, break down in the hilly terrain to little effect.
The lack of British troops in Canada means that the USA, while initially held back by the Canadians, slowly advances toward their triple objectives of Quebec City, Toronto, and Winnipeg. Largely thanks to the efforts of Irving Morrell, U.S. forces push up to Banff
Banff, Alberta
Banff is a town within Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. It is located in Alberta's Rockies along the Trans-Canada Highway, approximately west of Calgary and east of Lake Louise....
in the Canadian Rockies
Canadian Rockies
The Canadian Rockies comprise the Canadian segment of the North American Rocky Mountains range. They are the eastern part of the Canadian Cordillera, extending from the Interior Plains of Alberta to the Rocky Mountain Trench of British Columbia. The southern end borders Idaho and Montana of the USA...
and cut off the second
Kicking Horse Pass
Kicking Horse Pass is a high mountain pass across the Continental Divide of the Americas of the Canadian Rockies on the Alberta/British Columbia border, and lying within Yoho and Banff National Parks...
of three mountain passes that connect the Pacific coast to the rest of Canada.
At sea, the great Battle of the Three Navies between the USA on one side, and the United Kingdom and Japan on the other, prevents the Entente from recapturing the Sandwich Islands. With the Central Pacific in U.S. hands, a U.S. Navy flotilla makes its way south toward the Cape of South America and the Atlantic on the other side, with the intent of cutting off Argentine
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
grain and beef shipments to Great Britain.
On the Maryland front, the state is cleared of Confederate soldiers, save for those holding Washington, the de jure U.S. capital. In the autumn, the U.S. continues to attack Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
to no avail, raising the spectre of a possible Democratic loss at the polls, and the possibility that a Socialist President will seek peace with the CSA and renounce all the bloody gains. Except for a local attack on the Roanoke Front that pushes the U.S. out of western Virginia, the Confederates stay on the defensive through the autumn, attempting to drain the USA dry in the hope that the U.S. population will become sick of the war.
Nevertheless, for all the wishes of the Socialist Party and the Confederates, Theodore Roosevelt easily beats Socialist Eugene V. Debs
Eugene V. Debs
Eugene Victor Debs was an American union leader, one of the founding members of the International Labor Union and the Industrial Workers of the World , and several times the candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States...
in the November election
United States presidential election, 1916
The United States presidential election of 1916 took place while Europe was embroiled in World War I. Public sentiment in the still neutral United States leaned towards the British and French forces, due to the harsh treatment of civilians by the German Army, which had invaded and occupied large...
. In Richmond, however, the hopes of new President Gabriel Semmes (a relative of Raphael Semmes
Raphael Semmes
For other uses, see Semmes .Raphael Semmes was an officer in the United States Navy from 1826 - 1860 and the Confederate States Navy from 1860 - 1865. During the American Civil War he was captain of the famous commerce raider CSS Alabama, taking a record sixty-nine prizes...
), elected in 1915, and his Cabinet are dashed. At this stage, the U.S. government has another four years to crush the CSA before needing to seek re-election, while the Confederates are running out of their own white soldiers to further the conflict. Semmes successfully proposes a bill to authorize the training and arming of Negro troops to serve in the lines, with civil rights (excepting interracial marriage) to follow after the war, including citizenship in the CSA. Meanwhile the U.S. begins the process of formally returning Kentucky to the union.
In Europe, the war seems little changed from our timeline, with the exception of Verdun's capture by the Germans, and an apparently heavier use of North African infantry by the French Army. In addition, Italy remains neutral in the conflict and the Easter Rising
Easter Rising
The Easter Rising was an insurrection staged in Ireland during Easter Week, 1916. The Rising was mounted by Irish republicans with the aims of ending British rule in Ireland and establishing the Irish Republic at a time when the British Empire was heavily engaged in the First World War...
in Dublin is not put down, spreading to the rest of Ireland.
1917: Breakthroughs
Lieutenant General Custer secretly develops a scheme for the U.S. to quickly win the war, using a massed-barrel formation forbidden by the War Department. Disguising his true intentions to all but his adjutant, Major Abner Dowling, and Lieutenant Colonel Irving Morrell, and lying to President Roosevelt, Custer launches his Barrel Roll Offensive on Remembrance DayRemembrance Day
Remembrance Day is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth countries since the end of World War I to remember the members of their armed forces who have died in the line of duty. This day, or alternative dates, are also recognized as special days for war remembrances in many non-Commonwealth...
— April 22, 1917 — and quickly breaks through the Confederate trench lines north of the Tennessee capital of Nashville.
The Confederates withdraw to a line centered on Nashville, where Custer hits them again three weeks later by outflanking the city using a plan concocted by Morrell. Nashville soon falls, despite the best efforts of the newly formed C.S. colored regiments to stave off Custer's barrels, and the state capital becomes First Army headquarters.
From Nashville, in July, Custer attacks the C.S. lines in the direction of Murfreesboro
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Murfreesboro is a city in and the county seat of Rutherford County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 108,755 according to the United States Census Bureau's 2010 U.S. Census, up from 68,816 residents certified during the 2000 census. The center of population of Tennessee is located in...
. Near Nolensville
Nolensville, Tennessee
Nolensville is a town in Williamson County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 3,099 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Nolensville is located at ....
the U.S. receives a Confederate request for a local armistice. President Roosevelt assents, and peace on the North American front comes to Tennessee a week before the rest of the U.S.–C.S. frontline. Custer is outraged at the halt, but Roosevelt explains that it would be difficult for the USA to defend the large salient into Tennessee it has captured, and at the same time, the southeastern chunk of Kentucky that still remains in Confederate hands would prove a nuisance in postwar years as Kentuckians elected to the Confederate Congress would constantly demand a new war against the USA to recapture lost territory in their state. Thus, Roosevelt's plan involves a bit of horse-trading whereby the USA withdraws from the parts of Tennessee it has captured in exchange for all remaining parts of Kentucky.
On the same day the Barrel Roll Offensive began in Tennessee, the U.S. Army in northern Virginia attacks southward toward Manassas
Manassas, Virginia
The City of Manassas is an independent city surrounded by Prince William County and the independent city of Manassas Park in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Its population was 37,821 as of 2010. Manassas also surrounds the county seat for Prince William County but that county...
at the same time that U.S. troops enter occupied Washington, D.C. The de jure U.S. capital is recaptured after several days of intense street fighting, which levels the city and its famous landmarks (such as the Washington Monument
Washington Monument
The Washington Monument is an obelisk near the west end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate the first U.S. president, General George Washington...
and the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
).
In northern Virginia, several U.S. attacks force the C.S. Army of Northern Virginia to retreat south. In battles at Round Hill
Round Hill, Loudoun County, Virginia
Round Hill is a town in Loudoun County, Virginia, United States. Its population was estimated at 639 in 2005 by the U.S. Census Bureau. The town is located at the crossroads of Virginia routes 7 and 719 , approximately 50 miles northwest of Washington, D.C...
, Centreville
Centreville, Virginia
Centreville is an unincorporated community in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. Recognized by the U.S. Census Bureau as a Census Designated Place , the community population was 71,135 as of the 2010 census and is approximately west of Washington, DC.-Colonial Period:Beginning in the 1760s,...
, and Bull Run
Bull Run (Occoquan River)
Bull Run is a free-flowing tributary stream of the Potomac River that originates from a spring in the Bull Run Mountains in Loudoun County, Virginia, and flows south to the Occoquan River...
creek, rear-guard actions led by a few battered batteries of the First Richmond Howitzers prevent the complete destruction of the latest incarnation of Robert E. Lee's fabled army. However, it is obvious the war is on the verge of being lost; this is a notion that does not bode well with several Confederate soldiers, who reckoned the war was won only months before.
The Confederate States of America started sending peace feelers to Philadelphia as early as the fall of Nashville, but Theodore Roosevelt refused to grant a cease-fire until certain the CSA was severely hammered elsewhere. The last hammers on the Confederate Army come in late July, when fighting reaches the town of Fredericksburg, Virginia
Fredericksburg, Virginia
Fredericksburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia located south of Washington, D.C., and north of Richmond. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 24,286...
, only fifty miles from the Confederate States capital. With a cease-fire already in effect in Tennessee, Sequoyah overrun, and fighting out west in Texas and Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
sputtering down, the CSA agrees to a general armistice on land and at sea. For the first time since August 1914, the guns fall silent in North America.
At sea, however, the submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
CSS Bonefish, led by Confederate Navy man Roger Kimball, carries out a sneak attack on the USS Ericsson despite being fully aware of the war's end. For a few years after the war, both the U.S. and C.S. believe that the ship's destruction was the work of the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
, the war between the USA and the British Empire at sea still not over at this point.
At the same time, in Europe, mutinies in the French Army
French Army Mutinies (1917)
The French Army Mutinies of 1917 took place amongst the French troops on the Western Front in Northern France. They started just after the conclusion of the disastrous Second Battle of the Aisne, the main action in the Nivelle Offensive, and involved, to various degrees, nearly half of the French...
prove serious enough to lead to France's exit from the war. (In reality, these mutinies—caused by French soldiers' disgust at being ordered into suicidal and utterly pointless attacks across no-man's land—resulted in the French Army command agreeing to order no more offensives in exchange for French soldiers continuing to fight defensively.) Without the addition of U.S. troops, it causes France to surrender. Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
collapses into revolution and anarchy (similarly to reality), leaving only the Confederate States and Great Britain to fight against the United States, Germany, and Austria-Hungary. Italy remains neutral and the Ottoman Empire joins the war on the side of the Central Powers. In South America, Brazil abandons the neutrality it had held since the beginning of the war and allies with Chile (which supports the Central Powers) against Argentina (which supports the Allies), threatening the supply line to Britain.
In Canada, Custer's barrel methods are used to break through the Anglo-Canadian lines, leading to the fall of Quebec City, Quebec
Quebec City
Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...
and Winnipeg, Manitoba
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
. The United States establishes the Republic of Quebec out of the Canadian province, and American and Québécois forces charge towards Toronto, Ontario
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
. By this point the CS has been defeated, and with all the US soldiers on the US-CS Front now ready to head to Canada the British Empire requests a cease-fire, which is granted in early June. With U.S.–German-Brazilian naval operations cutting off Great Britain from its Argentine and Australian food suppliers, the United Kingdom sues for peace later that summer; the UK was the last opponent of the Quadruple Alliance that was still in the war.
The American Empire
- The American Empire TrilogyAmerican Empire (Harry Turtledove)The American Empire series is a trilogy of alternate history novels by Harry Turtledove. It follows How Few Remain and the Great War trilogy, and is part of the Southern Victory Series...
- Blood and Iron (2001)
- The Center Cannot Hold (2002)
- The Victorious Opposition (2003)
1918: Old Animosities Rekindled
The United States celebrates hard during 1918, revelling in the euphoria of having finally won revenge on the Confederate States, with parades and parties lasting well into the autumn. President Roosevelt and General Custer (General being his true rank now, Roosevelt having promoted the aging officer in Nashville towards the end of the war) ride together in the Philadelphia Remembrance Day Parade, the biggest to date. The tradition of showing the national flag upside down to show distress is put aside to show that the USA had reversed the outcomes of both 1862 and 1882.Longer term ramifications of war begin to be felt, and both the U.S. and C.S. navies have to deploy minesweeper
Minesweeper (ship)
A minesweeper is a small naval warship designed to counter the threat posed by naval mines. Minesweepers generally detect then neutralize mines in advance of other naval operations.-History:...
s to clear their harbors, an activity which continues through to the late 1920s and early 1930s.
Not everyone in the victorious United States shares in the celebration of the victory, however. Returning veterans find scabs working for cheaper wages in the factories and mines they worked at before going away to fight. More veterans find themselves being put down by capitalists and factory owners, and go on strike in industrial centers like Pittsburgh and Toledo
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...
. The owners deploy the Pinkertons
Pinkerton National Detective Agency
The Pinkerton National Detective Agency, usually shortened to the Pinkertons, is a private U.S. security guard and detective agency established by Allan Pinkerton in 1850. Pinkerton became famous when he claimed to have foiled a plot to assassinate president-elect Abraham Lincoln, who later hired...
and police against the strikers, but the war veterans, who had faced far worse challenges in the trenches, repel them. The country seems to be on the verge of revolution, and the Socialist Party capitalizes on gains among the lower classes. In November 1918, they capture the House of Representatives for the first time, disrupting Theodore Roosevelt's plans for domestic and foreign affairs.
Meanwhile, citizens of the defeated and truncated Confederacy are hardly in a mood to celebrate. President Roosevelt forced humiliating terms upon them in return for peace, President Semmes having no choice but to agree to them. Significant amounts of territory were lost: Kentucky had already rejoined the Union in 1916; western Texas had been admitted into the Union in 1917 as the state of Houston, with its capital at Lubbock
Lubbock, Texas
Lubbock is a city in and the county seat of Lubbock County, Texas, United States. The city is located in the northwestern part of the state, a region known historically as the Llano Estacado, and the home of Texas Tech University and Lubbock Christian University...
, and Sequoyah was under occupation. Pieces of Arkansas, Sonora, and Virginia held by US troops at the armistice were also annexed into Missouri, New Mexico (a state that comprises our New Mexico and Arizona), and West Virginia respectively.
In addition, the post-war settlement severely curtails the size of the C.S. Army and Navy, and demands the payment of massive reparations to Philadelphia. These terms contribute further to Confederate anger. The reparations cause the Confederate dollar to spiral out of control, as hyperinflation
Hyperinflation
In economics, hyperinflation is inflation that is very high or out of control. While the real values of the specific economic items generally stay the same in terms of relatively stable foreign currencies, in hyperinflationary conditions the general price level within a specific economy increases...
ruins the CSA economy. (This is directly analogous to the inflation in the Weimar Republic
Inflation in the Weimar Republic
The hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic was a three year period of hyperinflation in Germany between June 1921 and July 1924.- Analysis :...
after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
.)
As a result, anti-USA sentiment among the white population increases, and several reactionary political parties form across the Confederate States. One of these fringe groups is the Freedom Party, founded by Anthony Dresser in Richmond, Virginia, sometime after the end of the Great War. (Note: in our history, the original founder of the then-fringe German Nazi Party — later ousted by Hitler — was named Anton Drexler
Anton Drexler
Anton Drexler was a German right-wing political leader of the 1920s, known for being Adolf Hitler's mentor during his early days in politics.-Biography:...
.).
As for the British Empire, President Roosevelt forces London to recognize the Republic of Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
(established in April 1917 as the war in Canada was drawing to a close) and the Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
(including all of Ulster
Ulster
Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...
), and to relinquish claims to the Bahamas, Bermuda
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...
, the Sandwich Islands
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
, and all of the Dominion of Canada.
The German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
annexes the French Congo and Belgian Congo, occupies Belgium, and sets up the puppet states of Ukraine and the Kingdom of Poland
Kingdom of Poland (1916–1918)
The Kingdom of Poland, also informally called the Regency Kingdom of Poland , was a proposed puppet state during World War I by Germany and Austria-Hungary in 1916 after their conquest of the former Congress Poland from Russia...
, which "has the same relation to Germany as Quebec has to America". The exact status of the Baltic states is unsure, but they are mentioned as being neutral in the Settling Accounts series.
In Canada, the Dominion government is declared an illegal assembly. The U.S. Army sets up its occupation headquarters in Winnipeg and turns each province into a military district. The U.S. Army uses a harsh policy of hostage taking to prevent Canadians from rising up. If a U.S. soldier is shot or another act of rebellion occurs, U.S. forces take anywhere from 10 to 30 hostages and demand that the perpetrator turn him- or herself in. If he or she does not by the given deadline, the hostages are executed by firing squad. Occupied Canada is declared US territory as part of the new American Empire, "stretching from the Gulf of California
Gulf of California
The Gulf of California is a body of water that separates the Baja California Peninsula from the Mexican mainland...
to the Arctic Ocean." In 1919, General George Custer requests and is granted the post of governor-general
Governor-General
A Governor-General, is a vice-regal person of a monarch in an independent realm or a major colonial circonscription. Depending on the political arrangement of the territory, a Governor General can be a governor of high rank, or a principal governor ranking above "ordinary" governors.- Current uses...
of Occupied Canada in retribution for what he perceives to be the Canadian "murder" of his brother Tom in the fighting of 1881.
1919–1924: American Blood & Iron
The Freedom Party finds itself achieving successes in Richmond. Its chief speaker — a vengeful, spiteful, and bitter ex-sergeant named Jake FeatherstonJake Featherston
Jacob "Jake" Featherston is a fictional character inthe Southern Victory Series novel series by Harry Turtledove. He is the fictional timeline's equivalent of Adolf Hitler.-Character introduction:...
— harangues crowds at public meetings and squares about how the Confederacy has been "stabbed in the back" by the Whig Party, the War Department, and, most of all, the black minority, who rose up in Red rebellion in 1915. Featherston's angry mannerisms connect him and his Party to the masses, and soon the Freedom Party becomes the white man's proto-version of the Socialists popular with Confederate blacks and Northerners in the USA. Featherston comes to be seen as the Party's true leader, and the "Sarge" wins the Party's leadership in a power struggle against Dresser in mid-1919. Once comfortably settled in his new office, Featherston reorganizes the Freedom Party into a political party revolving around his goals and ambitions, and white-shirted "stalwarts" are soon elected into the Confederate Congress, while their assault squads take on Featherston's enemies.
(The "stab in the back" was a common trope employed by conservative Germans in real life to explain Germany's defeat. Influential figures such as Erich Ludendorff
Erich Ludendorff
Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff was a German general, victor of Liège and of the Battle of Tannenberg...
blamed the Kaiserreich's defeat squarely on leftists and Jews. This rhetoric later became the bread and butter of the Nazi Party as led by former corporal Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
.)
The victorious United States, with its American Empire, ignores political events occurring in the CSA. Most members of Congress pay no attention to the rise of the Freedom Party, save for Flora Hamburger, a worried Socialist Representative from New York City. Despite her calls for action, her party takes no notice, instead focusing on voting President Roosevelt out of office in 1920
United States presidential election, 1920
The United States presidential election of 1920 was dominated by the aftermath of World War I and a hostile response to certain policies of Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic president. The wartime economic boom had collapsed. Politicians were arguing over peace treaties and the question of America's...
. The Socialists succeed, their candidate Upton Sinclair
Upton Sinclair
Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. , was an American author who wrote close to one hundred books in many genres. He achieved popularity in the first half of the twentieth century, acquiring particular fame for his classic muckraking novel, The Jungle . It exposed conditions in the U.S...
defeating Roosevelt in the election that November — the first time since the election of 1880
United States presidential election, 1880
The United States presidential election of 1880 was largely seen as a referendum on the end of Reconstruction in Southern states carried out by the Republicans. There were no pressing issues of the day save tariffs, with the Republicans supporting higher tariffs and the Democrats supporting lower...
that a Democrat has lost a presidential race. Sinclair is inaugurated president of the United States on March 4, 1921 to much rejoicing from the Socialist party.
Later in 1921, Jake Featherston runs for office against Wade Hampton V of the Whigs and Ainsworth Layne of the Radical Liberals. Featherston loses by a narrow margin to Hampton, but resolves to fight on. In 1923, Grady Calkins, a deranged Freedom Party stalwart, assassinates the president at a Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...
rally. The Freedom Party immediately begins to lose support, suffering losses in the elections of 1923 and 1925. Another factor limiting the Freedom Party's chances for success is U.S. President Sinclair's lifting of the war reparations (requested by Hampton's successor, Burton Mitchel), which removes a key plank from the Freedom Party's platform. Featherston and his most ardent stalwarts spend the next several years in the political wilderness.
(It may be of note that historically, France, to whom the bulk of German reparations were owed, offered to forgive Weimar Germany's debts if the United States offered to forgive debts owed to the United States by France. President Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States . Hoover was originally a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business...
rejected the plan, since many (if not most) of the loans to be forgiven were made by private banks. Reparations continued to be a defining issue in Weimar politics.)
In Canada, Governor-General Custer rules the former dominion with an iron-felt glove, surviving several assassination attempts by Manitoban farmer Arthur McGregor. Custer kills McGregor in the farmer's final attempt as he is parading through Winnipeg, Manitoba. At this point, the war hero is retiring, having been forced out by the new Socialist administration. Sinclair aims to return the U.S. to the days of peace, hoping that by treating its neighbors with respect there will never be another war. He is popular enough to win re-election in 1924 — the same year the Freedom Party begins to involve its stalwarts in the Mexican Civil War (compare to the real-world Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
), an action where the U.S. supported the republican rebels, but its support was limited compared to the supplies, weapons, and barrels that the C.S.A. gave to Emperor Maximilian's army.
1924–1934: The Center Cannot Hold
Wall Street Crash of 1929
The Wall Street Crash of 1929 , also known as the Great Crash, and the Stock Market Crash of 1929, was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States, taking into consideration the full extent and duration of its fallout...
.
In the CSA, Burton Mitchel III is blamed. In the USA, which came out of the 1920s with a booming economy and a Canadian revolt having been crushed in 1925, newly elected President Hosea Blackford takes the heat, with shantytowns being named Blackfordburghs (in imitation of our timeline's "Hooverville
Hooverville
A 'Hooverville' was the popular name for shanty towns built by homeless people during the Great Depression. They were named after the President of the United States at the time, Herbert Hoover, because he allegedly let the nation slide into depression...
s"). Millions lose their jobs, and in Utah, occupied since 1916, Mormon
Mormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...
fanatics gun down Governor-General John Pershing. When Japan and the USA go to war in 1932 after Japan is caught smuggling weapons to the occupied Canadian province of British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
by the USS Remembrance, and Japanese bombers attack Los Angeles, Blackford is easily turned out of office by the Democratic ticket of Calvin Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge
John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. was the 30th President of the United States . A Republican lawyer from Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of that state...
and Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States . Hoover was originally a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business...
. On January 5, 1933, Coolidge dies before he could take office (Coolidge died on the same date in our timeline). Hoover assumes the presidency, practicing Coolidge's campaign policy of government non-intervention in the economy.
At the same time in the CSA, whole cities are echoing to the boot-steps of marching Freedom Party stalwarts, their ranks flowing once more with the angry and the wrathful, preparing for Election Day 1933. Jake Featherston attacks the Mitchel Administration with the most vulgar venom and hate, blaming Mitchel for the crash, and condemning his ineffectual response to the (historical) floods that devastated the Mississippi River valley in 1927
Great Mississippi Flood of 1927
The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 was the most destructive river flood in the history of the United States.-Events:The flood began when heavy rains pounded the central basin of the Mississippi in the summer of 1926. By September, the Mississippi's tributaries in Kansas and Iowa were swollen to...
. Millions of Confederates lap it up and shout for more, which Featherston provided. On taking the oath of office on March 4, 1934, the world holds its breath: "Freedom" is on the march.
In Europe, the storm clouds are also beginning to gather. The final vestiges of the Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
revolution were crushed by 1927; among the last holdouts was the Volga town of Tsaritsyn
Volgograd
Volgograd , formerly called Tsaritsyn and Stalingrad is an important industrial city and the administrative center of Volgograd Oblast, Russia. It is long, north to south, situated on the western bank of the Volga River...
under the "Man of Steel" (Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
) and his second in command "The Hammer" (Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov was a Soviet politician and diplomat, an Old Bolshevik and a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a protégé of Joseph Stalin, to 1957, when he was dismissed from the Presidium of the Central Committee by Nikita Khrushchev...
). Under Tsar Michael
Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia
Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia was the youngest son of Emperor Alexander III of Russia.At the time of his birth, his paternal grandfather was still the reigning Emperor of All the Russias. Michael was fourth-in-line to the throne following his father and elder brothers Nicholas and...
, Russia remains a primarily agricultural, backward country. Frequent anti-Semitic pogrom
Pogrom
A pogrom is a form of violent riot, a mob attack directed against a minority group, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centres...
s and foreign loans manage to deflect further restlessness but the latter were a contributing factor in the 1929 crash when Austria-Hungary demanded the repayment of a loan that Russia was unable to fulfill.
Austria-Hungary itself remains a united empire but only the Austrians
Austrians
Austrians are a nation and ethnic group, consisting of the population of the Republic of Austria and its historical predecessor states who share a common Austrian culture and Austrian descent....
and Hungarians feel any loyalty to the Habsburg monarchs. In fact, the multi-ethnic federation seems to be held together only by German aid and bayonets. The Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
also appears to be in the same boat, undertaking the genocide
Armenian Genocide
The Armenian Genocide—also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime—refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...
of its Armenian
Armenians
Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....
population. Despite strong censure from the United States, and more lukewarm protests from Berlin, the Turks continue the genocide
Armenian Genocide
The Armenian Genocide—also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime—refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...
until the Ottoman Empire is mostly devoid of Armenians. (In our timeline, the genocide occurred during World War I, ending shortly after the war.)
Kaiser Wilhelm II rules a strong Germany and his troops continue to occupy Belgium, the Ukraine, and the puppet Kingdom of Poland but post-war relations with the U.S. have soured to the point that many people on both sides of the Atlantic believed that Germany and the United States will someday be engaged in a full-fledged war. The Business Collapse puts an end to that, however, and the old allies reassert themselves once more.
After the Collapse, France finds itself under Action Française
Action Française
The Action Française , founded in 1898, is a French Monarchist counter-revolutionary movement and periodical founded by Maurice Pujo and Henri Vaugeois and whose principal ideologist was Charles Maurras...
and its king Charles XI
Charles Maurras
Charles-Marie-Photius Maurras was a French author, poet, and critic. He was a leader and principal thinker of Action Française, a political movement that was monarchist, anti-parliamentarist, and counter-revolutionary. Maurras' ideas greatly influenced National Catholicism and "nationalisme...
, who begins talking about the return of Alsace-Lorraine
Alsace-Lorraine
The Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine was a territory created by the German Empire in 1871 after it annexed most of Alsace and the Moselle region of Lorraine following its victory in the Franco-Prussian War. The Alsatian part lay in the Rhine Valley on the west bank of the Rhine River and east...
to French rule. In Britain, the Silver Shirts under Oswald Mosley
Oswald Mosley
Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet, of Ancoats, was an English politician, known principally as the founder of the British Union of Fascists...
hold similar views, and support Action Française, though they never become more than a minority in Parliament. Italy never comes under Mussolini's rule but, other than this, little information is provided about its history in this timeline.
In the Pacific, Japan is far from quiet. Prior to the Pacific War with the United States, Japan pressured both France and Holland to cede Indochina
Indochina
The Indochinese peninsula, is a region in Southeast Asia. It lies roughly southwest of China, and east of India. The name has its origins in the French, Indochine, as a combination of the names of "China" and "India", and was adopted when French colonizers in Vietnam began expanding their territory...
and the East Indies
East Indies
East Indies is a term used by Europeans from the 16th century onwards to identify what is now known as Indian subcontinent or South Asia, Southeastern Asia, and the islands of Oceania, including the Malay Archipelago and the Philippines...
respectively, with proper compensation. Great Britain fears that its Pacific colonies of Hong Kong, Malaya
British Malaya
British Malaya loosely described a set of states on the Malay Peninsula and the Island of Singapore that were brought under British control between the 18th and the 20th centuries...
, Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
and possibly India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
will also be annexed by Japan; however, Japan shows no interest in doing so. Japan also gains much influence in China during this period and seems to have established a puppet state of Manchukuo
Manchukuo
Manchukuo or Manshū-koku was a puppet state in Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia, governed under a form of constitutional monarchy. The region was the historical homeland of the Manchus, who founded the Qing Empire in China...
as well. This empire is in addition to Japan's possessions in the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
which it "liberated" from Spain in the early years of the 20th century.
1934–1941: The Victorious Opposition
The Depression lingers on in the USA and Occupied Canada through 1934 and 1935, with millions of men out of work and productivity down. President Hoover's only highlight during this time is ending the war with Japan but many people continue to question why it was fought in the first place. In Congress, Flora Hamburger Blackford questions why Hoover and the Democrats are allowing the Confederate States to enlarge its army in violation of the peace treaty. At the same time, Congress has to deal with several Freedom Party congressmen from the former Confederate states of Kentucky and Houston (formerly part of Texas), who disrupt Congressional sessions with calls for a plebiscite in their home states. When Socialist Al SmithAl Smith
Alfred Emanuel Smith. , known in private and public life as Al Smith, was an American statesman who was elected the 42nd Governor of New York three times, and was the Democratic U.S. presidential candidate in 1928...
is elected over Hoover in 1936
United States presidential election, 1936
The United States presidential election of 1936 was the most lopsided presidential election in the history of the United States in terms of electoral votes. In terms of the popular vote, it was the third biggest victory since the election of 1820, which was not seriously contested.The election took...
, the Freedom Party's shouts start to be heeded.
The Freedom Party in the Confederate States has begun to turn the country into a one-party state, with the Confederate Congress passing laws proposed by President Jake Featherston. He faces no opposition from the Confederate Supreme Court, having maneuvered the high court into making its position vulnerable, whereupon he merely extended executive power and abolished the judicial branch. Forced elections in 1935 and 1937 solidify and confirm Freedom Party control of the House and Senate, with state legislatures and governorships captured as well. The Army is purged in 1936 and conscription recommences in 1938. The troublesome Vice President Willy Knight is removed from office after his attempt on Featherston's life later that year and soon imprisoned. The police force is slowly padded with stalwarts and soon, with a nod from the national administration and Attorney General Ferdinand Koenig, the states are installing correctional camps for "riotous" and "unruly" Whigs and Radical Liberals.
Radical Liberal Louisiana is toppled by Freedom stalwarts, with Governor Huey Long
Huey Long
Huey Pierce Long, Jr. , nicknamed The Kingfish, served as the 40th Governor of Louisiana from 1928–1932 and as a U.S. Senator from 1932 to 1935. A Democrat, he was noted for his radical populist policies. Though a backer of Franklin D...
assassinated in 1938, his regime being replaced by an administration more compliant with Featherston's interests. With black rebellions flaring up all over the CSA, Featherston has begun looking for quiet and suitable places to exact revenge for real or imagined (mostly imagined) wrongs that the blacks have committed. Louisiana is the perfect place to begin "reducing population."
In late 1940, Al Smith finally agrees to hear Jake Featherston's demands for the former Confederate states of Houston, Kentucky and Sequoyah. In the resulting plebiscites of January 7, 1941, Kentucky and west Texas (Houston) vote to return to the CSA. Featherston promises not to remilitarize them, or to ask for Sequoyah (which votes pro-USA) or other former CSA territory such as the annexed areas of Virginia, Arkansas and Sonora. Within weeks, Featherston breaks his promise and plants his modernized and expanded Confederate Army on the Ohio River, convincing Smith that the time to face Featherston down has finally come.
Tensions rise in Europe when Germany's longtime ruler dies. The new Kaiser Friedrich Wilhelm V
Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany
Frederick William Victor Augustus Ernest of the House of Hohenzollern was the last Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Prussia and the German Empire. He was colloquially known as William or Wilhelm throughout Europe....
refuses to return the former French territory of Alsace-Lorraine that France's ruling party had demanded. Britain, France and the CSA soon declare war on Germany, with Russia joining in days later.
With war breaking out in Europe, Jake Featherston feels it is time to have his revenge against his greatest enemy: the United States of America. On the first day of summer in 1941, he orders Operation Blackbeard to begin. The next day — June 22, 1941 — the Confederate States of America bring the war to North America with a surprise attack on Philadelphia and southern Ohio.
(The Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union—in our timeline—occurred on the same day. The name of the German invasion plan was Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
, named after a well-known German Emperor in the Middle Ages who had according to legend, 'a great red beard', thus the CSA's operation's name.)
Settling Accounts
- The Settling Accounts TetralogySettling Accounts (Harry Turtledove)The Settling Accounts tetralogy is an alternate history setting of World War II by Harry Turtledove in North America, presupposing that the Confederate States of America won the U.S. Civil War. It is part of the Southern Victory Series, following How Few Remain and trilogies Great War and...
- Return EngagementSettling Accounts: Return EngagementReturn Engagement is the first book of Harry Turtledove's Settling Accounts series of alternate history novels. It is an analogy of World War II being waged on American soil between the United States and the Confederate States....
(2004) - Drive to the EastSettling Accounts: Drive to the EastDrive to the East is the second book in Harry Turtledove's Settling Accounts series of alternate history novels. It is set in an analog of World War II in North America, fought between the United States and Confederate States. It was released in August 2005. It follows Return Engagement and...
(2005) - The GrappleSettling Accounts: The GrappleSettling Accounts: The Grapple by Harry Turtledove is the third book in the Settling Accounts tetralogy, an alternate history setting of World War II in North America. It is part of the Southern Victory Series, which supposes that the Confederate States of America won the American Civil War. It...
(2006) - In at the DeathSettling Accounts: In at the DeathSettling Accounts: In at the Death is the last novel of the Settling Accounts tetralogy that presents an alternate history of World War II that was released July 27, 2007. It brings to a conclusion the multi-series compilation by author Harry Turtledove, a series sometimes referred to as Southern...
(2007)
- Return Engagement
1941–1942: Return Engagement
At 3:30 am on June 22, 1941 (the same time that Nazi Germany invaded the USSR in our real timeline), the North American war kicks off with massive bombing raids on Philadelphia and military installations all over southern Ohio. In an immediate joint session of Congress, President Smith calls for — and receives — a unanimous declaration of war against the Confederate States. Soon afterwards, Winston ChurchillWinston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
and the rest of the Entente announce hostilities against the USA.
Philadelphia expects Featherston to strike in the east, following the pattern of the last war. Brigadier General Abner Dowling and Colonel Irving Morrell know better and have prepared for the coming strike as best they could, but U.S. forces in Ohio simply do not have the equipment or manpower needed to halt the Confederate army under George Patton.
Within two months, Sandusky
Sandusky, Ohio
Sandusky is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Erie County. It is located in northern Ohio and is situated on the shores of Lake Erie, almost exactly half-way between Toledo to the west and Cleveland to the east....
on Lake Erie
Lake Erie
Lake Erie is the fourth largest lake of the five Great Lakes in North America, and the tenth largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has the shortest average water residence time. It is bounded on the north by the...
falls to Confederate soldiers, preventing raw materials in the west from reaching the factories of the east. Just before Sandusky fell, radical Mormons armed with Confederate weapons begin a new drive for independence in Utah, capturing the settlement belt
Wasatch Front
The Wasatch Front is a metropolitan region in the north-central part of the U.S. state of Utah. It consists of a chain of cities and towns stretched along the Wasatch Range from approximately Santaquin in the south to Brigham City in the north...
from Ogden in the north to Provo in the south; see Utah Troubles.
At sea, the U.S. fares little better although neither side wins control of the sea lanes. In July, the Royal Navy lures the carriers USS Remembrance and Sandwich Islands away from Bermuda
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...
. The island, a strategically valuable submarine and air base, falls to a joint Anglo-Confederate task force as a result. The Bahamas are next to fall, the U.S. Marines being forced to fight island by island before surrendering.
Stalemate characterizes the war in the Pacific throughout most of 1941. The first major clash between Japan and the U.S. comes at the Battle of Midway
Midway Atoll
Midway Atoll is a atoll in the North Pacific Ocean, near the northwestern end of the Hawaiian archipelago, about one-third of the way between Honolulu, Hawaii, and Tokyo, Japan. Unique among the Hawaiian islands, Midway observes UTC-11 , eleven hours behind Coordinated Universal Time and one hour...
(which takes place on a Sunday morning two and a half weeks before Christmas: December 7, 1941, the date of the attack on Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
in reality). During the battle the USS Remembrance, transferred to the Pacific after the loss of Bermuda, is sunk and the island itself taken. Although Japan suffers one carrier sunk and another damaged, the U.S. Pacific Fleet is now left devoid of aircraft carriers and reliant upon land-based air cover.
The war in Europe spawns early triumphs for the Entente. In Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, the local soldiers and population welcome the arriving Russians as liberators, ensuring that most of the German satellite is lost. Elsewhere the manpower-swarming tactics of the Russians, unchanged from the last war, ensure that they suffer heavy losses for small gains. The Kaiser's army, particularly its panzer
Panzer
A Panzer is a German language word that, when used as a noun, means "tank". When it is used as an adjective, it means either tank or "armoured" .- Etymology :...
s and 88mm flak cannon
Anti-aircraft warfare
NATO defines air defence as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action." They include ground and air based weapon systems, associated sensor systems, command and control arrangements and passive measures. It may be to protect naval, ground and air forces...
s, prove instrumental in preventing the loss of East Prussia
East Prussia
East Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...
and Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
.
In South America, a tense peace is maintained between Argentina and Chile, who both decide that they have had enough fighting in the Great War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. All of South America's nations are apparently neutral in the new conflict.
In the West, the French Army swiftly recaptures Alsace-Lorraine (and possibly captures the Rhineland
Rhineland
Historically, the Rhinelands refers to a loosely-defined region embracing the land on either bank of the River Rhine in central Europe....
) and stands on the Rhine. Ireland is overrun by the British, while the Anglo-French thrust through the Low Countries succeeds beyond all expectations. The Belgians welcome the Entente as liberators. The Dutch, though more pro-German, are brushed aside, and some of the North German Plain was overrun.
Yet victory does not follow. A British end-run through Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, made for unclear reasons — possibly for either Swedish iron ore through Narvik
Narvik
is the third largest city and municipality in Nordland county, Norway by population. Narvik is located on the shores of the Narvik Fjord . The municipality is part of the Ofoten traditional region of North Norway, inside the arctic circle...
or Norwegian naval bases (or both) — fails spectacularly. Churchill's bright idea does nothing more than drive the furious Norwegians into the Central Powers' camp. France proves unable to cross the Rhine and the Germans on that front soon rally. Austria-Hungary, despite its clear weakness, remains united, and though Bulgaria wavers as a German ally she never abandons Berlin entirely. Only the Low Countries campaign still shows promise for the Entente by the end of 1941, but Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
still remains unconquered. By February 1942, the German Army feels confident enough to launch counter-offensives against the British outside Hamburg and the Russians in the Ukraine.
In North America, the post-Blackbeard season proves uninspiring for both sides. Shortly after Sandusky fell, Jake Featherston declares that he will make peace with the U.S. if his 'reasonable' demands are met. All the 'unredeemed territory' is to be handed back, the post-Great War reparations that destroyed the C.S. economy are to be repaid and the Northern (but not Southern) side of the border is to be demilitarized. Smith replies that night with the heaviest air raid on Richmond yet, but not before announcing on the wireless "I have not yet begun to fight!"
Yet despite Smith's bravado, the situation for the U.S. seemed bleak into February 1942. A counter-attack in northern Virginia under Daniel MacArthur soon bogs down. With too many men sandwiched between the Appalachians and the Atlantic, the U.S. Army crosses the Rappahannock River but is held at the Rapidan line. A subsequent Confederate counterattack under Patton fails to dislodge the U.S., and both sides settle in for the winter.
After the stalling of the Virginia front, Featherston realizes that another knock-out blow is needed, and begins planning for a drive eastwards in the spring of 1942. Ohio remains quiet, with nothing more than local offensives. The revolt in Utah shows no signs of ending; by Christmas 1941 U.S. forces are stalled within Provo
Provo, Utah
Provo is the third largest city in the U.S. state of Utah, located about south of Salt Lake City along the Wasatch Front. Provo is the county seat of Utah County and lies between the cities of Orem to the north and Springville to the south...
.
Neither side achieves a decisive advantage in the air war, which is characterized by Clarence Potter as a "duel with machine guns at a pace and a half." Both air forces soon resort to only night attacks on the east coast, as flak and fighters make daylight raids too costly. Farther west, daytime raids continue. On a tactical level, dive bombers prove effective at hitting ground targets but vulnerable to fighters and flak; Confederate "Asskickers" suffer enormously from both. Neither U.S. Wright-27s nor Confederate "Hound Dog" fighters have any great advantage over the other.
It is during this time that the "population reductions" in the South begin in earnest. Any black man whose passbook is out of order is immediately arrested and shipped out to a camp; in the cities Negroes are used as war plant labor while suffering reprisals for black car bomb
Car bomb
A car bomb, or truck bomb also known as a Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device , is an improvised explosive device placed in a car or other vehicle and then detonated. It is commonly used as a weapon of assassination, terrorism, or guerrilla warfare, to kill the occupants of the vehicle,...
s and other terrorist acts.
In the Louisiana camps, the slaughter begins with submachine gun
Submachine gun
A submachine gun is an automatic carbine, designed to fire pistol cartridges. It combines the automatic fire of a machine gun with the cartridge of a pistol. The submachine gun was invented during World War I , but the apex of its use was during World War II when millions of the weapon type were...
s, a method that proved inefficient. The camps simmer at the edge of rebellion, while most guards cannot stomach the job and some commit suicide. Soon poison gas is found to be superior for the guards' minds and is more efficient. Sealed trucks are ostensibly used to transfer blacks between camps; in practice the fumes would leave them dead and ready for disposal in mass grave
Mass grave
A mass grave is a grave containing multiple number of human corpses, which may or may not be identified prior to burial. There is no strict definition of the minimum number of bodies required to constitute a mass grave, although the United Nations defines a mass grave as a burial site which...
s.
Despite the Freedom Party's best efforts, news of the killings reached Philadelphia. Congresswoman Flora Blackford announces the Confederacy's crimes to the world, only to receive scathing comparisons with Utah from the Entente and sympathetic but indifferent reactions from U.S. citizens.
In February 1942, Confederate bombers, which have been bombarding Philadelphia since the war's beginning, manage to hit the Powel House, destroying the building and its underground bunker. Al Smith is in the bunker during the bombing and is killed. His vice president Charles La Follette is sworn in as president shortly afterward. In his first speech as president, La Follette vows to continue the war and win it for the United States.
1942–1943: Drive to the East
The U.S. determination to keep fighting, even though it is now separated into two pieces of territory after the Ohio campaign, is a major setback to Confederate plans; the CSA are relying on a short war and quick victory. The Confederates decide to concentrate troops in Ohio for an attack into western Pennsylvania to capture Pittsburgh, a major industrial center for the United States. In order to have enough troops, the CSA is forced to pull troops from other fronts and bring in under-equipped allied forces from the Empire of Mexico.The campaign succeeds in reaching Pittsburgh but is unable to fully occupy the city. General Nathan Bedford Forrest III
Nathan Bedford Forrest III
Nathan Bedford Forrest III was a Brigadier General of the United States Army Air Forces, and a great-grandson of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest....
, the head of the Confederate military, advises that the fighting in Pittsburgh has achieved its strategic aim of destroying the city's industrial capacity and recommends pulling the Confederate troops out. However, President Featherston refuses to allow any withdrawal. U.S. forces under Brigadier General Morrell next attack and surround Pittsburgh, destroying the light Mexican screening force. Still, Featherston refuses to allow the encircled forces to attempt a breakout. The Confederate Army is whittled down to a few ragged survivors by determined U.S. resistance and brutal house-to-house fighting. On February 2, 1943, the Confederates still inside Pittsburgh are forced to surrender. As a result of this defeat, General Forrest begins to discuss with Clarence Potter the possibility of overthrowing Featherston. (This is likely a reference to the Battle of Stalingrad
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in southwestern Russia. The battle took place between 23 August 1942 and 2 February 1943...
in our own timeline.)
In other plotlines, Flora Blackford becomes more hawkish on the war, opposing the administration's attempt to negotiate a settlement in Utah, where the Mormon uprising continues. She finds herself frequently agreeing with Robert Taft, the Democratic Senator from Ohio.
In Utah, the Mormon rebels have realized that they cannot achieve a conventional military victory and so resort to a series of suicide bombings throughout the United States, first with car bombs and then with suicide "people bombs." Blacks in the CSA soon begin imitating these attacks.
The extermination campaign against the CSA's black population continues and is expanded, with Jefferson Pinkard remaining a pivotal figure. Cyclone poison gas, originally used for pest extermination, is brought into the camps. (analogous to the gas chambers in Nazi concentration camps). However, the Confederates are worried when a diversionary attack, launched at the same time as the Pittsburgh campaign and led by Major General Dowling, threatens to capture the main extermination camp in Texas and expose its operations to the world.
The naval war remains inconclusive. The U.S. beats off a Japanese attack against the Sandwich Islands
Hawaiian Islands
The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll...
and achieves an advantage in the Pacific. In the Atlantic, the main activity is preventing British convoys from bringing supplies to the Canadian underground. The Royal Navy and the German High Seas Fleet meet in battle late in 1942, with both sides claiming victory.
Britain and France are still bogged down in western Germany, while Confederate newspapers report that the Russians are driving on Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
. Partisan resistance is a large problem for both sides: Britain contends with Irish rebellion, Russia fights Jews, Finns, Chechens
Chechnya
The Chechen Republic , commonly referred to as Chechnya , also spelled Chechnia or Chechenia, sometimes referred to as Ichkeria , is a federal subject of Russia . It is located in the southeastern part of Europe in the Northern Caucasus mountains. The capital of the republic is the city of Grozny...
and Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
is, while Austria-Hungary bleeds from (amongst others) Serb, Bosnian, and Romanian rebels, with people bombs killing several prominent military leaders.
By 1943 both the United States and the Confederacy, along with other countries, have initiated programs to develop atomic weapons. While no power has developed a weapon yet, it appears that the United States and German programs are ahead of the Confederate one, with Germany the closest to completion. Around the turn of the New Year in 1943, the U.S. achieves its first sustaining chain reaction at its plant in Hanford, Washington. The British and the French are also rumored to be working on atomic weapons.
1943–1944: The Grapple
Following the defeat of the Confederate Army at Pittsburgh, the Confederate forces find themselves on the defensive in Ohio. Neither the U.S. nor the Confederate forces have adequate supplies for a major push; however, the U.S. position is getting stronger daily. After sufficient buildup, a massive invasion from Indiana crosses the Ohio River and enters Kentucky. General Morrell employs blitzkrieg-like tactics, surrounding and bypassing any center of Confederate resistance.Meanwhile, the Mormon rebellion in Utah is finally suppressed. Mormons outside of the ruins of Salt Lake City surrender to occupying U.S. troops. Plans are put forth in Congress to expel the rebels from Utah, possibly to the Sandwich Islands. These same soldiers are sent to put down the flames of revolt in Canada. In mid-1943, Winnipeg is surrounded and under siege by the U.S. and Québécois armies.
Mexican Army forces begin to be deployed to provide internal security in the Confederacy, replacing white Confederate soldiers sent to the front lines. Their efficiency against experienced guerrilla bands is limited, and the guerrillas' hit-and-run attacks become more and more brash.
To the surprise of the U.S. Navy, an assault on Midway Island reveals the Japanese have completely abandoned their garrison there. Many suspect that the Japanese are concentrating their resources for an assault on British-held Malaya
British Malaya
British Malaya loosely described a set of states on the Malay Peninsula and the Island of Singapore that were brought under British control between the 18th and the 20th centuries...
and Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
. An amphibious assault on Wake Island
Wake Island
Wake Island is a coral atoll having a coastline of in the North Pacific Ocean, located about two-thirds of the way from Honolulu west to Guam east. It is an unorganized, unincorporated territory of the United States, administered by the Office of Insular Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior...
some months later regains U.S. control of the island but also finds no signs of the Japanese.
C.S.A. President Featherston demands more progress from the Confederate nuclear program, fearing that the U.S. will develop the weapon first. In an attempt to slow down the U.S. nuclear program, C.S. bombers fly a long-range mission to bomb the "uranium
Uranium
Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...
works" in Hanford, Washington. No serious damage is incurred, and the program continues under heightened security. A later U.S. bombing raid on the Confederate atomic program in Lexington, Virginia, kills several prominent Confederate nuclear physicists.
The U.S. conquest of Baja California
Baja California Peninsula
The Baja California peninsula , is a peninsula in northwestern Mexico. Its land mass separates the Pacific Ocean from the Gulf of California. The Peninsula extends from Mexicali, Baja California in the north to Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur in the south.The total area of the Baja California...
takes place soon after the beginning of the lull in Pacific operations. Marines land midway down the peninsula and take Cabo San Lucas
Cabo San Lucas
Cabo San Lucas , commonly called Cabo, is a city at the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula, in the municipality of Los Cabos in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur. As of the 2010 census, the population was 68,463 people...
on the southern tip, while the U.S. Army pushes from San Diego deep into the territory, seizing control of the remainder of Baja. Harassment operations soon begin against the Confederate forces in Guaymas and the Sonoran coast.
A seaborne operation led by the U.S. to re-recapture Bermuda from British and C.S. forces succeeds. The United States begins running guns to Irish rebels fighting against the British occupiers. As these operations continue, the U.S. also sends arms to anti-Freedom Party rebels in Confederate Cuba.
General Dowling's Eleventh Army continues to put pressure on Lubbock, Texas, the linchpin of Confederate defenses in the west. After Lubbock is captured, and the state of Houston subsequently revived, Brigade Leader Jefferson Pinkard destroys records and gas chambers at Camp Determination before the Yankees break through. Freedom Party Guard Units are deployed to slow down the U.S. advance, delaying the capture of Camp Determination for a time. Pinkard is put in charge of Camp Humble, not far from Houston, Texas, to continue population reductions. The United States use the mass graves at Camp Determination as a propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
theme.
In Europe, the German Army drive British forces out of their territory and over the Dutch border. Subsequent operations are undertaken to free the Netherlands and "liberate" Belgium from Franco-British forces. In the east, German armored units deal a decisive blow to Russian forces outside of Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
, tightening German control in the area. Another thrust is aimed at the capital of Petrograd
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
, which the Russians unsuccessfully try to turn back. Russia is no longer able to mount offensive operations, now trying to defend their Motherland with a battered and wounded army. Austria-Hungary is wracked by terrorist attacks but continues reprisals against the Serbians.
Facing off against Confederate General Patton, Morrell grinds down through Tennessee to capture the railroad junction of Chattanooga. In August 1943, United States airborne forces seize Lookout Mountain
Lookout Mountain
thumb|right|See seven statesLookout Mountain is located at the northwest corner of the U.S. state of Georgia, the northeast corner of Alabama, and along the southern border of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Lookout Mountain, along with Sand Mountain to the northwest, makes up a large portion of the...
and Missionary Ridge
Missionary Ridge
Missionary Ridge is a geographic feature in Chattanooga, Tennessee, site of the Battle of Missionary Ridge, a battle in the American Civil War, fought on November 25, 1863. Union forces under Maj. Gens. Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman, and George H...
, overlooking Chattanooga, Tennessee
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Chattanooga is the fourth-largest city in the US state of Tennessee , with a population of 169,887. It is the seat of Hamilton County...
, forcing the collapse of the Confederate defenses of the city; General Patton plans to treat the city as a second Pittsburgh, forcing a bloody attrition battle on the U.S. Instead, Confederate forces are forced to retreat to northwest Georgia. After several more counterattacks by the ill-equipped Confederate forces, the United States is poised to capture Atlanta, the last major transportation hub still linking both halves of the Confederacy.
As the U.S. Army moves through Tennessee (and even when that state is not even halfway occupied by the U.S.), plans are put forth in Congress to return Kentucky and Tennessee to the United States (under martial law
Martial law
Martial law is the imposition of military rule by military authorities over designated regions on an emergency basis— only temporary—when the civilian government or civilian authorities fail to function effectively , when there are extensive riots and protests, or when the disobedience of the law...
), along with a revived Houston.
With the surprising success in its war effort, U.S. President La Follette, in a speech to U.S. Congress in fall 1943, demands that Confederate President Featherston surrender unconditionally, with him and his inner circle being banished to a distant island. Paralleling Al Smith's refusal of a similar demand in 1941, Featherston refuses this latest demand, responding to it by ordering two rockets to be fired into Philadelphia, proving to the United States that he is unwilling to give up so easily.
1944: In at the Death
U.S. forces continue to advance on all fronts into 1944. Major General Irving Morrell tries to surround Atlanta, forcing Patton's Confederate army there to escape to the south and west. Mechanized elements of the U.S. Army penetrate deep into eastern Georgia and South Carolina, eventually reaching the sea and cutting the Confederacy in half. Major General Abner Dowling is recalled to Philadelphia from the newly re-created state of Houston to assist in the new thrust on Richmond being planned by General MacArthur.The world is shocked when Germany uses the first superbomb to destroy Petrograd (St. Petersburg), Russia. The Confederates aren't far behind and Featherston sends Potter with a jury-rigged plutonium (Jovium to Confederate scientists) truck bomb to infiltrate and attack Philadelphia. The carnage is fearsome, but critical government buildings are spared atomic destruction. Soon after, Featherston is forced to flee Richmond, while Patton pulls back to Alabama -- desperately defending the Confederate munitions works at Huntsville and Birmingham. U.S. planes drop a uranium bomb on Newport News, Virginia
Newport News, Virginia
Newport News is an independent city located in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia. It is at the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula, on the north shore of the James River extending southeast from Skiffe's Creek along many miles of waterfront to the river's mouth at Newport News...
, narrowly missing the Confederate President, who is giving a speech in nearby Hampton Roads. The U.S. drop a second superbomb, this time on Charleston, in apparent revenge for South Carolina being the first state to secede from the Union back in 1860.
Germany uses its next superbomb against Paris, while Britain strikes Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
with its own superbomb. Germany retaliates with three superbombs on English cities nearly simultaneously, London is the most prominent, along with Norwich
Norwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...
and Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
. Winston Churchill promises a swift response, but a German turbo airplane shoots down the British bomber containing the second British bomb in Belgium "somewhere between Bruges and Ghent", sparing Germany.
In the wake of German atomic attacks, Russia, France and Britain, after a change of government, request armistices; the U.S. continues to gain territory and further squeeze the Confederacy. The U.S. recognizes an independent Republic of Texas, which splits the Confederacy yet again, cutting off Sonora and Chihuahua from the rest of the C.S. The new President of Texas (in reciprocity for the U.S. diplomatic move) arranges for U.S. forces to liberate the death camps in his state. Jefferson Pinkard is arrested for crimes against humanity.
Patton's army surrenders in Alabama under threat of atomic attack, while Featherston is shot attempting to escape to what remains of the Confederacy by the black guerrilla Cassius (the son of Scipio/Xerxes, and sole survivor of his family). Confederate Vice President Donald Partridge thus becomes President long enough to sign a statement of unconditional surrender, which is accepted by General Morrell on behalf of the United States. With this, the Confederate States, after 83 years of independence, ceases to exist.
U.S. troops move in for the long occupation, shooting tens or hundreds of Confederate civilians for every attack against U.S. forces. (There is mention of 1,500 random hostages being shot at Miami on a single day). The final dispensation of the defeated warring powers' territory is unclear, though the U.S. makes it clear that it plans to eventually absorb the entire Confederacy into the Union. The U.S. also holds criminal trials to punish crimes against humanity in a similar manner to the Nuremberg Trials
Nuremberg Trials
The Nuremberg Trials were a series of military tribunals, held by the victorious Allied forces of World War II, most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of the defeated Nazi Germany....
of our timeline, executing the deposed Attorney General and Director of Communications, as well as numerous camp guards. In Canada, the simmering rebellion is put down after the US agrees to treat captured Canadians as POWs, and also threatening to superbomb Saskatoon
Saskatoon
Saskatoon is a city in central Saskatchewan, Canada, on the South Saskatchewan River. Residents of the city of Saskatoon are called Saskatonians. The city is surrounded by the Rural Municipality of Corman Park No. 344....
.
See also
- Fictional characters in the Southern Victory Series
- Historical characters in the Southern Victory Series
- Institutions in the Southern Victory Series
- Second Mexican War
- American Civil War alternate historiesAmerican Civil War alternate historiesAmerican Civil War alternate histories are texts wherein events during the American Civil War occurred differently from those in history. The most common variant of these detail the victory and survival of the Confederate States of America...
External links
- Southern Victory on the Harry Turtledove wiki
- The Great War page an official website