The Lost Cause Chronicle

History, 1861 to Present

Confederate Gen. (and future President) Robert E. Lee, right, with

Gen. Thomas Stonewall Jackson accepting the Union
surrender at the decisive Battle of Camp Hill, PA

The point of divergence is September 10, 1862, during the American Civil War. In actual history, a Confederate messenger lost
Gen. Robert E. Lee's Special Order 191, which detailed Lee's plans for the Invasion of the North. The orders were soon found by
Union soldiers, and using them, Gen. George McClellan was able to halt the Army of Northern Virginia at the Battle of Antietam,
after which it returned to Virginia.

In The Lost Cause Chronicle, the orders are instead recovered by a trailing Confederate soldier. McClellan is caught by
surprise, enabling Lee to lead the Army of Northern Virginia towards Philadelphia. Lee forces McClellan into 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. Lee
goes on to capture Philadelphia, earning the Confederate States of America diplomatic recognition from both the United
Kingdom and France, thus winning the war (which is known as the War of Secession in the alternate timeline) and independence
from the United States on November 4, 1862.

The War of Secession officially ended on November 4, 1862, with Union surrender and recognition of an independent
Confederacy. The maps were forever changed.

Kentucky, having been conquered by Confederate forces shortly after the Battle of Camp Hill, joined the 11 original
Confederate states after the war's conclusion, and the pro-Confederate Five Civilized Tribes of the Indian Territory
received territory of their own that, later became the (Confederate) State of Sequoyah. In 1878 the Confederate
States purchased the Caribbean island of Cuba from Spain for $3,000,000, and admitted it as the 14th Confederate
State.

The Democratic Party candidate, New York State Gov. Horatio Seymour, defeated incumbent Union President
Abraham Lincoln in the 1864 elections. No Republican would become president of the United States again until 1880.
The Republicans became the minority in Congress.

In 1867, Imperial Russia offered Alaska to the United States with a purchase price of US $7,000,000. Because the
Union was financially drained from the War of Secession and couldnt afford to purchase the territory, it continued
as a Russian colony.
 Union Col. George A. Custer, Hero of the Dakotas

The United States continued the conquest and settlement of the Great Plains. In reaction to the Sioux uprising of
1862, the US Army conducted a war of extermination under Col. George Armstrong Custer and his brother Thomas.
The Army swiftly pacified Dakota Territorys indigenous tribes, and in 1910, the Dakotas entered the Union as a single
state.

In 1880 voters, tired of the Democrats' soft line against the Confederate States, vote Republican candidates into the
US Congress as a majority.

The Unions victorious conclusion to the Indian Wars prior to the Presidential election of 1880 helped Republican
James G. Blaine of Maine defeat incumbent President Samuel J. Tilden, a New York Democrat. Blaine ran on a
hardline platform, which featured a belligerent stand against the Confederate States purchase of the Mexican State
of Chihuahua and the province/territory Sonora.

18811882: The Second War Between the States (Second Mexican War)

In 1881, Republican James G. Blaine rode a hawkish platform of anti-Confederatism into the White House. For several
years, both American nations had sanctioned Indian raids into each other's territory. The international tension
between the Union and the Confederacy peaked when Confederate President James Longstreet, desiring a Pacific
coast for the Confederacy so that the South could have a transcontinental railroad for itself, purchased the
northwestern provinces of Sonora and Chihuahua from the financially strapped Second Mexican Empire (ruled by
France's quasi-puppet Maximilian) for CS $3,000,000.

Blaine used the "coerced" purchase as a casus belli, leading to the commencement of what will later become known
as the "Second Mexican War". After the Confederate purchase of Sonora and Chihuahuawhich extended the CSA-
USA border and gave the Confederacy a Pacific port (Guaymas)the Union declared war.
 North America, 1881

Early on in the war, after successfully occupying the newly purchased provinces, Confederate troops under Gen. Jeb
Stuart captured a large quantity of gold and silver ore from a Union mining town. Meanwhile, a Union cavalry officer,
Col. George Armstrong Custer, employed Gatling guns against Kiowa Indians and Confederate cavalry in Kansas.

Soon, the United Kingdom and France, both Confederate allies, joined the war, blockading and bombarding Union
port cities, including those on the Great Lakes.

During the war, the Mormons in Utah Territory rebelled against Union occupation, severing transcontinental
communication, and disrupting transportation around Salt Lake City. Union Gen. John Pope was appointed military
governor, put down the revolt, and imposed martial law. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was
classified as a political organization and the Mormon leaders were executed, including Brigham Young.

The United States' attempt to invade Virginia was easily thrown back by Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson,
commander of Confederate forces, as the Union struggled to find a man his equal. Despite possessing an advantage
in numbers and resources, the Union military suffered from incompetent leadership. William Rosecrans, the
commander of the US Army, said at one point that there was no overall strategy for winning the war. This lack of
strategy left the German/Prussian military observer, Alfred von Schlieffen, aghast. (This purportedly influenced him
to develop his own invasion plans for use by Germany against its enemies.)

To drive the Confederates out of Kentucky, the Union launched an invasion of Louisville. Under Confederate Gen.
"Stonewall" Jackson, the Union campaign was brought to a standstill. Galled by orders to wage a purely defensive
war, Jackson pioneered tactics of full-scale trench warfare, which devastated Louisville. The campaign quickly
bogged down for the United States, resulting in a bloodbath with little territory gained.

The United Kingdom and France continued to shell the Great Lakes ports; France also shelled the small southern
California town of Los Angeles (and coastal San Pedro), while the British bombarded San Francisco and raided its
Mint.

Union morale was lifted when a young volunteer cavalry colonel, Theodore Roosevelt, and Col. George Armstrong
Custer (USA) routed a British division under Gen. Charles "Chinese" Gordon, which was attempting to invade
Montana from Canada's western province of Saskatchewan. However, the British invaded northern Maine in the
East and annexed it to the Canadian province of New Brunswick.

Finally, facing defeat on almost all fronts, Union President James G. Blaine was forced to capitulate. The U.S.A.
officially surrendered on April 22, 1882, ending the Second Mexican War.
 Confederate President James Longstreet (1880-1886)

Confederate President James Longstreet, in an attempt to appear the conciliator, offered generous terms to end
the war, requiring the US to officially recognize the Confederate acquisition of the two Mexican provinces. Most of
northern Maine was annexed to Canada: the price for British participation in the war.

Following the war, both American nations experienced major changes. In the United States, many Republicans were
voted out of Congress in the 1882 elections. Stung with the loss in the Second Mexican War, Blaine was ousted as
president two years later. The elections of 1882 and 1884 began Democratic control over Congress and the White
House, which lasted well into the 20th Century.

In return for the British and French governments' assistance, Confederate President James Longstreet proposed the
nominal manumission ("emancipation") of the country's slaves, which proceeded throughout the 1880s; however,
free Confederate blacks do not possess the same rights as whites.

The defeated United States, realizing the need for powerful allies to counter the Confederate alliances with Britain
and France, initiated an alliance with the newly-unified German Empire, adopting many of the military and economic
practices enacted by Chancellor Otto von Bismarck.
Following the collapse of the Republican Party, former President Abraham Lincoln, now an orator, allied with
American socialists to lead Liberal Republicans into the fledgling American Labor Party (ALP). The Democrats are
consequently driven to the right.

The Republicans faded into a party representing only the Midwest, failing to secure the presidency or another
Congressional majority. About one-third of Republicans went to the Democrats, and another third to Labor. Both
parties attracted many of the new European immigrants, who comprise much of the working class in Union
industrial cities.

President Blaine took U.S. defeat in the Second Mexican War hard (having lost most of his home states territory to
Britains Dominion of Canada. He declared April 22 Remembrance Day, to commemorate the humiliation of defeat,
and vow revenge.

The holiday parades are somber, with the U.S. flag being flown upside down as a sign of distress, signifying the
Unions two defeats by the Confederate States.
 Union President Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865)

(Lincoln had his second actfollowing what is widely considered to be a disastrous Presidencyas an orator, who, after his
1864 election defeat, allied himself with U.S. socialists, leading left-wing Republicans into the fledgling American Labor Party.
Although never recapturing the national stature he had once possessed when battling political opponents like Stephen Douglas
and Jefferson Davis [Sr.], Lincoln did reinvent himself politically, and lived to see American socialism mature into a legitimate
force, while bearing witness to his own morphing into a radical ideologue. He died in 1901, at age 92.)

While conceding defeat, Blaine was in effect setting the stage for the next war, instilling in U.S. citizens an ever-
present desire for revenge upon the Confederacy (and CanadaBritain and France, too), while embarking on an
program of systematic Union militarization on the German model. In New York City, Bedloe's Island stands host to
the grim and martial Statue of Remembrance, donated to the United States by Germany; in the words of Blaine, it
depicts "Remembrance, holding aloft her bared sword".

Because of the District of Columbias geographic proximity to the Confederate state of Virginia (which makes
governing both difficult and impractical for the Union), the United States moved its center of administration from
Washington, DC, to Philadelphia. The Powel House became a secondary White House whenever tensions between
the CSA and USA run high.

1904: CubaRenewed Hostilities

The Statue of Remembrance, Bedloes Island, NY

In 1904, the Spanish-Confederate War began between the CSA and Spain over Caribbean trade and international
waters issues. Although those nations were the principal belligerents, many Union Americans flocked to Puerto Rico
(the main battleground of the 18-month-long war) to join the International Regiments, which were officially loosely-
organized and ideologically-driven mercenary bands that fought on the side of Spain, but which many believe were
secretly funded by the U.S.

Union President William R. Hearst (1904-1913)

Union President Bill Hearst denied the allegations, and while he was attacked by criticsincluding Confederate
President Bobby Leefor technically violating U.S. neutrality by permitting the Union soldiers of fortune to travel to
the Caribbean, the existence of the International Regiments made the Union president wildly popular at home,
ensuring his electoral victory later that year and in 1908, despite a Confederate victory in the war against Spain
(which resulted in the CSA gaining Puerto Rico).

Confederate President Bobby Lees successor, Woodrow Wilson, though an advocate of peace, has made it clear he
will not permit further Union interference in the Caribbean, citing the Confederacys Hampton Doctrine, which
calls for CSA stewardship over the backward Carib states.

His Union counterpart, former New York governor, U.S. Vice President, and hero of the Second Mexican War,
Theodore Roosevelt, is far more enthusiastic about the prospects of a martial contest. By 1913, both American
nations are poised upon the brink of war

Union President Theodore Roosevelt (1913- )

Confederate President Woodrow Wilson (1910- )

Future Imperfect

The Austro-Hungarian Imperial Crown Prince Franz Ferdinand and his wife are both killed by a bomb while touring
the city of Sarajevo in June 1914. Learning that a Serb separatist group is involved, the Austrian government accuses
the government of nearby Serbia of colluding with terrorists. Tsar Nicholas II of Russia backs Serbia, while Kaiser
Wilhelm II of Germany backs Austria-Hungary. The major powers mobilize their militaries, effectively signifying their
intent to go to war. In August 1914, the Great War begins, pitting Great Britain, France, and Russia against Germany
and Austria-Hungary.

Across the Atlantic, Union 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 declares war on the Confederate States in early August 1914. Confederate President
Woodrow Wilson responds in kind, although he had hoped to avoid a war. His speech, given in a tightly-packed
public square of Richmond decorated with statues of southern war heroes George Washington and Albert Sidney
Johnston, inspires the men of the south to volunteer for military service.