The Lost Cause ChronicleHistory, 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 couldn’t 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 Territory’s 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 Union’s 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.

1881–1882: 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 Chihuahua—which 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 state’s territory to Britain’s 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 Union’s two defeats by the Confederate States.

Union President Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865)

(Lincoln had his “second act”—following what is widely considered to be a disastrous Presidency—as 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 Canada—Britain 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 Columbia’s 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: Cuba—Renewed Hostilities

The Statue of Remembrance, Bedloe’s 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 critics—including Confederate President Bobby Lee—for 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 Lee’s successor, Woodrow Wilson, though an advocate of peace, has made it clear he will not permit further Union interference in the Caribbean, citing the Confederacy’s “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.