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Armstrong Grimes
Fictional Character
Southern Victory
POD: September 10, 1862
Appearance(s): Blood and Iron
through
In at the Death
Type of Appearance: Direct (POV, The Victorious Opposition onward)
Nationality: United States
Date of Birth: 1922
Occupation: Student, Soldier
Parents: Merle and Edna Grimes
Relatives: Annie Grimes (sister)
Nellie Semphroch (maternal grandmother)
Clara Jacobs (aunt)
Military Branch: United States Army
(Second Great War)

Armstrong Grimes (b. 1922) was the son of Merle Grimes and Edna Semphroch. He grew up in Washington, DC.

Grimes was a poor student who barely completed high school, which he spent smoking cigarettes, playing football, and trying to pick up girls rather than studying. He would most likely have dropped out had it not been for pressure from his father, with whom Armstrong had a difficult relationship. After his graduation he found it difficult to find steady work.

In 1941 Grimes was conscripted into the United States Army. He was training in Ohio when Confederate President Jake Featherston launched Operation Blackbeard on June 22, 1941. That morning, Grimes participated in the savage beating-death of a downed Confederate bomber pilot by enraged U.S. soldiers.[1] Grimes, without finishing basic training, was put in the line and took part in General Abner Dowling's failed attempt to defend the state against the Confederate invaders.[2]

After Ohio fell, Grimes and his platoon, which included Yossel Reisen Jr., were transferred to Utah to put down the Mormon uprising.[3] In Utah, Grimes made sergeant and found himself commanding his platoon despite his youth. Hyrum Rush passed through Grimes' platoon's line on his visit to Philadelphia. As the U.S. advanced on Salt Lake City, a Mormon Major also was passed through the lines at Grimes' location. He submitted the Major to the indignity of a strip search to make sure he was not concealing a people bomb.

After the Mormons surrendered in 1943, Grimes was transferred to Canada to deal with the Canadian rebellion. He was disappointed that he would not be fighting the Confederates. Grimes's platoon destroyed Pomeroy's Diner in Rosenfeld, Manitoba which retreating Canadian rebels were using as a stronghold. Afterward, Grimes bandaged the wounded hand of Alec Pomeroy, the only survivor of the diner, and gave him a chocolate bar. Young Pomeroy was polite but ungrateful.

Grimes was wounded in Canada. While he was recuperating, his parents came to visit him. The younger Grimes realized that he and his father had much more in common as wounded veterans. After several weeks in a US Army hospital in upstate New York, Grimes was sent to Tennessee, where he took part in General Irving Morrell's campaign against Atlanta, Georgia. He followed the offensive and the collapsing Confederacy into Alabama. When the war ended, Grimes and his squad mate Squidface wound up in Hugo.

Hugo was a restive town. Grimes frequently participated in firing squads executing hostages. In early 1944, Grimes helped keep a lynch mob from murdering a Negro accused of rape. The following year, he played in the ill-fated Peace Bowl.

References[]

  1. Return Engagement, pgs. 8-13, hc.
  2. Ibid., pgs. 109-114.
  3. Ibid., pgs. 285-288.
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