#timeline-191

The decisive Confederate victory at the Battle of Antietam had swung the War of Secession into the South’s favor. Soon after, the Confederate States of America won diplomatic recognition from the United Kingdom and France, who forced the US into mediation. United States President Abraham Lincoln was forced to concede defeat, ending the war less than two years after it had begun, and kicking off 83 years of hostilities between the two sovereign nations.

After a second War Between the States convinced the US that they could never defeat the Confederacy without a strong foreign backing. The CSA had the favor of Britain and France. So the USA sought an alliance with the newly unified German Empire, adopting many of their military and economic policies. During the Great War following Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s assassination in 1914, the US, aligned with Austria-Hungary, again declared war on the CS, aligned with Serbia. During the war, in 1915, the Mormons attempted to secede from the Union, believing them to be too distracted by the war, but President Theodore Roosevelt crushed the rebellion, placing Utah under military rule. Meanwhile, in the Confederacy, a “Red Revolution” began among the black population, fueled by the words of Abraham Lincoln and Karl Marx, massacring whites and seeking justice against their former masters. Confederate President Woodrow Wilson put down the revolution violently, but began to consider the military potential of using black soldiers. Though the US won the war, the economic repercussions were harsh, and the humiliating terms of surrender the Union imposed on the Confederacy stoked their anger. The situation was similarly hostile in Europe. The stage was set for a second Great War.

In June of 1941, the Confederacy began a massive bombing of Philadelphia and southern Ohio, and the Union quickly declared war. Winston Churchill immediately declared war on the US in defense of his Confederate allies, and the world soon plunged into violence again. Though forces allied with the Confederacy (the Entente) seemed to take an early advantage, their opposition refused to fall. By 1942, the German Empire felt confident enough to take on Great Britain and Russia. Confederate President Jake Featherston issued a promise of peace if his “reasonable demands” would be met, which included atonement for many of the concessions from the previous Great War, prompting Union President Alfred E. Smith to reply, “I have not yet begun to fight!” Heavy air raids on Richmond, Virginia, the CSA’s capital, commenced.

The war dragged on for a few more years with neither side gaining a decisive advantage. The Mormons rebelled again, but suppressed. Both sides of the war worked feverishly to develop nuclear weapons. The US and Germany won that race, and shocked the world when Germany launched the first “superbomb” against Petrograd. The Confederates, however, weren’t too far behind, sending their primitive first atomic bomb on a truck to Philadelphia; they missed their target, however, with the truck exploding outside the city, sparing most government buildings, though the carnage was fierce. The US dropped a uranium bomb on Newport News, Virginia, as President Featherston was giving a speech in nearby Hampton Roads, but missed him. They then nuked Charleston, South Carolina. Germany superbombed Paris, Britain superbombed Hamburg, Germany superbombed London, Brighton, and Norwich simultaneously, and Britain’s next superbomb was shot down over Belgium. In the wake of all this atomic activity, many European nations ousted their hawkish governments and requested armistice. The US continued to press into the Confederacy, taking more territory, and recognizing the Republic of Texas as an independent nation, further splitting the CSA. The President of Texas arranged for the US to liberate the Death Camps that the CS had set up in their territory.

With Alabama under threat of nuclear attack, Confederate President Featherston attempted to flee, but his plane was shot down. Surviving, he continued on foot, but was caught by black guerrillas and shot dead. On July 14, 1944, Vice President Donald Partridge became President of the Confederacy long enough to sign an unconditional surrender to the United States, ending 83 years of southern independence, and beginning the reintegration of America.

``There's this limey writer, or I guess maybe he's an Irishman. Anyway, his name's C. S. O'Brian. He writes about fighting Napoleon like you're there.'' - Settling Accounts: In at the Death