Confederate States

Confederate States of America


Country
Continent:	North America
Capital:	Montgomery, Alabama (until May 29, 1861) Richmond, Virginia (until April 3, 1865) Danville, Virginia (April 3-10, 1865)
National Language:	English
Government:	Federal/Confederal presidential non-partisan herrenvolk republic
Status in OTL:	Inactive

800px-Confederate National Flag since Mar 4 1865.svg — Third and Final flag of the CSA

The Confederate States of America (also called the Confederacy, the Confederate States, the CSA, the CS, the South and Dixie) was the government set up from 1861 to 1865 by eleven Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S. The CSA's de facto control over its claimed territory varied during the course of the American Civil War, depending on the success of its military in battle.

Each state declared its secession from the United States, which became known as the Union during the ensuing civil war, following the November 1860 election of Republican Party candidate Abraham Lincoln to the U.S. presidency on a platform which opposed the expansion of slavery into the western territories. Before Lincoln took office in March 1861, a new Confederate government was established in February. States volunteered militia units and the new government hastened to form its own Confederate States Army from scratch. After the American Civil War began in earnest in April, four slave states of the Upper South — Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina — also declared their secession and joined the Confederacy. The Confederacy later accepted Missouri and Kentucky as members, although neither officially declared secession nor were they ever largely controlled by Confederate forces; Confederate shadow governments attempted to control the two states but were later exiled from them.

The United States government rejected secession and considered the Confederacy illegal. The actual fighting began with the 1861 Confederate attack upon Fort Sumter, a fort in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina which was claimed by both sides. No foreign government officially recognized the Confederacy as an independent country, although the United Kingdom and France (both of which gained by a distracted U.S.) granted it belligerent status, which allowed Confederate agents to contract with private concerns for arms and other supplies. The South's insistence on the preservation and expansion of slavery as its primary reason for secession prevented any other country from extending recognition. Lincoln's issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation and the CS military's inability to secure a convincing military victory further stymied official recognition. By 1865, after very heavy fighting largely on Confederate soil, CSA forces were defeated and the Confederacy collapsed.

Confederate States in Crosstime Traffic[]

Crosstime Traffic was aware of several alternates in which the Confederate States had won the American Civil War and survived into the late 21st century. Footage of a race riot which took place in one of these alternates was shown to Jeremy Solters and his fellow students in US history class.

Confederate States in The Guns of the South[]

CSA The Guns of the South — Confederate States in 1868

The Confederate States was on the verge of collapse in 1864, until members of the racist, neo-Nazi white supremacist White South African group Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging travelled through time from the 21st century. Their leader, Andries Rhoodie, and his group provided Confederate general Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and General Joseph Johnston's Army of Tennessee with large numbers of AK-47s and small amounts of other supplies. The advanced rifles made up for the CSA's lack of manpower and industry.

After a critical Battle of Bealeton, Virginia, where Union troops were overwhelmed and defeated by the new weapons, Lee led his troops to Washington City, captured the city, and President Abraham Lincoln. Thus ended the Second American Revolution, as Lincoln was forced to concede defeat and Britain and France soon after extended diplomatic recognition to the CSA.

After the war, the new government began the process of building itself into a functional country. Certain people, including Robert E. Lee, had learned the truth about the time-traveling Rivington men. Although they told him that slavery had to be preserved for the safety of the white man, Lee grew to distrust them.

Possession of two slave states, Missouri and Kentucky, was disputed by the U.S. and the C.S. after the Second American Revolution. Eventually, the decision was made to hold a plebiscite in both states to resolve the issue. Despite interference from partisans of both sides- and the Rivington men, who attempted to ship AK-47s into those states to help rig the voting centers- Missouri ultimately voted to remain in the United States, while Kentucky voted to secede and joined the Confederate States.

When Rhoodie attempted to dictate how Lee would conduct his presidency upon his election in 1867, Lee broke with them altogether, and began pushing for manumission of the slaves. The Rivington men attacked Lee at his inauguration on March 4, 1868, but failed to kill him. The Confederacy retaliated by attacking their offices in Richmond, and the town of Rivington, North Carolina. Though both efforts were costly and the latter took months, the Confederate States' superior numbers inevitably ground the Rivington men down to total defeat.

The Confederate States began production of its own reverse-engineered AK-47s as Lee settled into his six-year term, and stayed neutral as the United States went to war with the British Empire and invaded Canada. The capturing of such weapons and items as "torpedoes" (land mines), "endless repeaters" (belt-fed machine guns), barbed wire, computers, gasoline-powered generators, electrical systems, and mortar launchers from 2014- as well as the fact that surviving Rivington men had begun cooperating with the Confederate government to help them understand the captured weapons and technology to earn their eventual freedom- guaranteed the CSA would hold a substantial technological edge over all other nations for many years to come. Repulsed by the Rivington men and startled by books from the future that Lee showed them in which slavery and racism were increasingly reviled by generations hence, the Confederate Congress passed Lee's proposed bill to slowly but steadily abolish slavery in the Confederacy.

Confederate States in "The Last Reunion"[]

The Confederate States was defeated during the Civil War. The veterans who survived the war began a series of reunions to commemorate the defeated South.

The men who died during the war continued to re-enact the battles which cost them their lives, although in a far more congenial way than they had in life, reflecting Valhalla. They were in camps, in their old companies and woke to reveille and followed the usual routine of roll-call and breakfast. They then heard the drum-call to battle and re-enacted one that they had previously fought, some dying, others being wounded. After the fight was over, win or lose, the dead came to life and the wounds healed. They then fraternized with the Federal soldiers, who had died in life, as though a truce had been called, trading and talking without a care.

As survivors of the war died, through accident, illness or old age, they rejoined their fallen comrades in their old units. Such was the fate of John Houston Thorpe when he died in 1932 while attending a reunion of veterans in Richmond, Virginia.

Confederate States in "Lee at the Alamo"[]

The Confederate States started out as an agreement between seven states which seceded from the Union at the turn of 1860-1861, in protest of the controversial election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency. Tension built between the seceded states and those still loyal, until February 1861, when Confederate forces in Texas attacked the United States Army garrison at the Alamo. Soon after this, four more states seceded and joined the Confederacy. Civil war had begun.

Confederate States in "Must and Shall"[]

The Confederate States were brought back into line after President Abraham Lincoln was killed on July 12, 1864 while inspecting the redoubts around Washington City. His successor, Hannibal Hamlin, managed to push back the Confederates and crush the Great Rebellion. The peace forced upon the Confederacy included a harsh period of occupation and the promotion of Blacks to important offices, leading to long-term animosity between the inhabitants of the South and the North, as well as racial tensions throughout the former Confederate States.

During World War II, Nazi Germany smuggled weapons into the South to stir up revolt and distract the U.S. government.

Confederate States in Southern Victory[]

Confederate States

Country Southern Victory POD: September 10, 1862
Continent:	North America
Capital:	Richmond
National Language:	English (de facto), Spanish (regional)
Government:	Confederated presidential herrenvolk republic
Status in Southern Victory:	Defunct in 1944

The Confederate States of America were a republic in North America that existed from 1861 to 1944. The CSA were originally several southern slave-holding states of the United States of America that seceded from the U.S. in response to the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, whom they believed would force emancipation. With the help of the United Kingdom and Empire of France, the Confederate States became an independent country in 1862, and remained the dominant power on the continent until the 1890s. However, the CSA's defeat in the Great War (1914-1917) and its institutionalized racism facilitated the rise of the authoritarian Freedom Party and the dictator Jake Featherston, who in turn led the country to complete defeat in Second Great War (1941-1944) and its subsequent dismantling.

The War of Secession and Political Dominance: 1861-1881[]

Over the course of 1860 and 1861, eleven slave-holding Southern states (South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas, and Tennessee) announced their secession from the United States and the formation of the Confederate States of America. U.S. President Abraham Lincoln sought to keep the states part of the Union. Tensions escalated to civil war on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces attacked a Federal military installation at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. A year and a half what came to be called the War of Secession followed.

In September 1862 the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia under Robert E. Lee defeated and destroyed US General George McClellan's Army of the Potomac at Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, then advanced on Philadelphia. The United Kingdom and the Empire of France immediately recognized the Confederate States based on this victory, and signaled to the U.S. their willingness to intercede in the war unless the U.S. also recognized the C.S. President Lincoln, realizing how hopeless the situation was, signed a treaty recognizing the CSA's sovereignty. In addition to the original eleven seceding states, the C.S. was also able to seize Kentucky early in the war, and kept it as part of the peace. The C.S. also gained Indian Territory (the future state of Sequoyah) some years later. Conversely, West Virginia broke away from the state of Virginia, and remained part of the U.S.

Over the next twenty years, the C.S. maintained ties with Britain and France, while taking full advantage of the USA's series of Democratic presidents. The Democrats, who before the war had favored Southern interests in the Federal government, took a soft line against the CS, and for the first twenty years the Confederates States--and its ability to threaten the US--grew. It purchased Cuba from Spain in the 1870s. The C.S. also became the protector/patron of the Empire of Mexico after Prussia defeated the Empire of France. The only true advantage the U.S. was able to develop in this period was the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, an advantage the C.S. sought to blunt. In 1880, Confederate President James Longstreet arranged to purchase the Mexican provinces of Chihuahua and Sonora in order to build a continental railroad to the Gulf of California.

The Second Mexican War, Manumission, and the Racial Hierarchy[]

In 1880, U.S. voters finally tired of the Democrats' soft line towards the Confederacy and elected Republican James G. Blaine president over Samuel J. Tilden. As Blaine entered office in 1881, the C.S. was completing the final terms of purchase of Sonora and Chihuahua, despite Blaine's protests and open threats of war. Longstreet knew that a quick, decisive war along with intervention from Britain and France was the CSA's only hope for victory, as he knew that a protracted war with the USA would end only in defeat for the Confederate States. Britain and France, on the other hand, refused to assist the CSA unless they agreed to manumit their slaves; France also refused to act without England. Longstreet agreed to their demands, as he felt that slavery would likely inhibit the Confederacy's economy in the 20th century, and pledged that all slaves within the CSA would be manumitted one year after the end of hostilities. With backing from both countries, Longstreet went ahead with the purchase of the two Mexican provinces.

On the 14th of June, C.S. forces moved into the newly purchased provinces and Blaine issued an ultimatum: withdraw all Confederate forces from the Mexican territories within ten days or face war. The CSA refused to do this and when the deadline passed, the USA declared war.

The United States Army was disorganized and woefully under prepared for the war. The C.S. Army, on the other hand, benefited from the oversight of Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, as well as support from Britain and France. The C.S. easily defeated the U.S. after about a year of fighting. The CS graciously offered the US status quo antebellum in everything but recognition of the Confederate claim to the two Mexican provinces. The United Kingdom, however, took the northern half of the state of Maine as a territorial concession and annexed it into the Canadian province of New Brunswick.

The Confederacy experienced an "era of good feelings" after the war. Having beaten their much larger Northern foe twice in short order within a generation had left many Confederates with an overall sense of superiority over the United States. Two new territories had been admitted to the Confederacy, and now their borders stretched from the waters of the Atlantic westward to the Gulf of California. True to his word, Longstreet immediately began laying the foundation for manumission, which required an amendment to the C.S. Constitution. Naturally, there was outrage; C.S. Senator Wade Hampton III even began preliminary efforts to launch a violent opposition. However, the more politically savvy Longstreet learned of Hampton's plans quickly, and outmaneuvered opposition.

Part of his compromise to maintain support was to create a rigid system of racial hierarchy that essentially left the freed people de facto slaves. They were not full citizens of the C.S., but residents only. They were segregated, had to carry passbooks, could not vote, had limited employment options, and were not even allowed surnames. Conversely, the Hispanics of the new territories and the Native Americans of the Indian Territory still had full citizenship and the attendant access to basic civil rights. Blacks were keenly aware of their status as the bottom wrung, and resentment festered over the years as many blacks turned to the revolutionary and social ideas of Karl Marx and Abraham Lincoln, plotting to one day overthrow the government of the Confederacy.

Despite their second military victory in a generation, the C.S. found itself less dominant than they were before 1881. As European allies had proved crucial to C.S. victory, the U.S. accepted overtures from the German Empire, creating an alliance that eventually included Austria-Hungary and Italy. Domestically, the U.S. adopted the Remembrance ideology, which reorganized both the military and civilian life were fine-tuned to be able to support a war effort against the C.S.

For their part, the CSA reorganized their military along the French model, but did not reorganize their civil society to the level the U.S. did. The C.S. developed its own two-party political system, though the conservative Whig Party dominated the country at the national level, whereas the center-left Radical Liberal Party were successful in some state governments. The Whigs emphasized the importance of tradition, class, and status. Consequently, scions of prominent families often attained important political or military positions irrespective of their actual competence. Most importantly, the C.S. refused to allow Blacks to join the military, blocking about one-third of the country's male population from the battlefield. In response to the Quadruple Alliance, the C.S. joined Britain, France, and Russia in forming the Quadruple Entente. Even so, the CSA quietly grasped that their position wasn't as strong as it once was. In the 1890s, the C.S. contemplated building a canal in Central America. The U.S. immediately threatened war, and the C.S. gave up its plans. When the U.S. made the provocative decision to enter into a mutual defense pact with Haiti, the C.S. did not respond.

The Great War: 1914-1917[]

In 1914, Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo. His death triggered the the alliance systems, and the Great War began.

Unlike their two previous two wars, the C.S. was not able to make early gains against the U.S., vigorously contesting the Confederate advance through Washington DC, Maryland and Pennsylvania. The US invaded both the CS and the Dominion of Canada and held the line against both through several years of hard fighting on stationary fronts, also mounting a naval conquest of the British Sandwich Islands in the opening weeks of the war. The C.S. lagged behind in innovation, as U.S. scientists and engineers, cooperating with their German counterparts, produced many new weapons and innovations, including poison gas and barrels, though they were able reverse engineer. The short war the C.S. was used to was plainly out of reach.

In 1915, Confederate Black socialists launched what came to be called the Red Rebellion. While the Confederate Army was able to put the Rebellion down, it cost precious human resources. In 1916, C.S. inferiority in numbers and resources began to tell and the U.S. began making significant inroads into Canada and the C.S. In mid-1916, the U.S. officially readmitted the state of Kentucky to the Union. Desperate, the C.S. began to allow Black men into the army, but it was far too late. In 1917 the C.S. fell to defeat. In Tennessee, General George Armstrong Custer ordered the Barrel Roll Offensive. After that, Confederate armies collapsed throughout the country and soon British and Canadian armies did, too. The U.S. had at long last achieved its great victory, and the C.S. tasted shattering defeat.

The Interwar Years: 1917-1941[]

CSAmap — Map of the C.S.A. from 1917-1941

In addition to losing Kentucky, the C.S. lost substantial territory from Virginia, Arkansas, and Sonora. The U.S. also occupied Sequoyah and created the state of Houston from Texas.

Unused to defeat, the CSA was shaken to its core. In addition to its lost territory, the C.S. was faced with a Black population that had attempted to gain equality through revolution, and then seemed to be on the cusp of achieving it through military service. The C.S. model of promoting the elite to positions of power irrespective of talent had failed the country. The U.S. imposed war reparations on the C.S. that caused extraordinary inflation well into the early 1920s. They also placed harsh restrictions on C.S. armaments, and even inspected C.S. facilities to ensure compliance. This roiling anger engendered reaction from the ruling whites in the form of Jake Featherson and the [[Freedom Party].

Featherson was a veteran of the Great War whose career had been stymied by the actions of General Jeb Stuart Jr.. Featherston also blamed the Black rebels for stabbing the country in the back. After joining the new Freedom Party, Featherston discovered his skill for oration, whipping crowds in anger by denouncing Black people, elites, and the U.S. In the 1921 presidential election, Featherston did better than the Radical Liberal candidate, Ainsworth Layne, but still lost to Wade Hampton V. Featherston's plans for the future seemed dashed when a Freedomite named Grady Calkins assassinated President Hampton in 1922. Out of sympathy, U.S. President Upton Sinclair eased indemnities and stopped inspections. With the economy improving dramatically, tensions in the C.S. seemed to ease.

Nonetheless, Featherson and the C.S. maintained their hopes. Wars began to break out in Latin America, and Freedom Party mercenaries joined reactionary factions for combat experience. Thanks to C.S. intervention in the Mexican Civil War, the forces of Maximilian III maintained control over the Empire of Mexico. When Featherston sought the presidency in 1927, he lost to incumbent Burton Mitchel, who, thanks to Hampton's death, was the first C.S. president to serve more than six years. It was one more slight to motivate Featherston.

Featherston's big chance came in 1929, economic crises in Europe triggered waves of panic throughout the world, including the CSA. When the credit bubble in the US finally burst, the stock market crashed and the CS economy crashed with it. Soon, an economic depression ravaged the world, the C.S. included. The Mitchel administration found itself unable to address the depression, and Featherston's populism found new outlets. Unemployment spiraled, and populations grew restive and disenchanted with the status quo. Featherston forced himself back into the public eye, once again seizing political momentum. The Freedom Party's use of violent tactics to quell its opponents ensured the path to power would be a smooth one. In 1933, Featherston was elected President of the Confederate States of America.

In short order, Featherston established dictatorial control over the Confederacy. He abolished the Confederate Supreme Court. He ordered the assassination of Louisiana Governor Huey Long (who had dictatorial aspirations of his own) in 1937. In May 1938, he oversaw the formally democratic amendment of the Constitution to permit him to run again. Handily re-elected in 1939, Featherston effectively became president-for-life.

This last act was too much for his Vice President Willy Knight. In December 1938, Knight convinced certain stalwarts to attack Featherston's car as it drove through the streets of Richmond. Although Featherston's driver Virgil Joyner was killed, Featherston survived. Knight's role in the plot was discovered, and he was impeached, forced to resign, and was imprisoned in Camp Dependable. In late 1941, Knight was executed on Ferdinand Koenig's orders.

Featherston's foreign policy had two goals: revenge against the United States and Confederate supremacy in North America. To that end, Featherston strengthened ties with his country's traditional allies, France and Britain. He encouraged anti-U.S. violence in Kentucky, Sequoyah, and Houston, the states that the C.S. had lost to the U.S. at the end of the Great War. United States President Al Smith pursued an accord, which led to the Richmond Agreement, granting plebiscites to the three states. Kentucky and Houston voted to return to the C.S.; Sequoyah, with a substantial population of U.S. transplants, remained in the U.S.

However, Featherston had entered into the Agreement in bad faith, making an empty promise that he would not pursue any more territory formerly belonging to the U.S. When he broke his promise by publicly demanding the remaining territory, he was met with firm resistance from Smith. In the meantime, war was brewing in Europe, and, in 1941, the CS joined the Entente in declaring war on Germany. It soon became clear to Featherston that Smith was not going to back down and return the territory. It was also clear that the U.S. was not going to immediately stand with Germany as it had in 1914. Thus, he initiated Operation Blackbeard, the invasion of the U.S. without a formal declaration of war.

The Second Great War and the Aftermath: 1941-1945[]

The US was unprepared for the Confederate invasion and was driven back quickly in the first months of the war. Confederate forces took Sandusky, Ohio, on Lake Erie and neatly bisected the US, cutting every transcontinental supply line not involving Canada. The front stabilized when the Confederates reached Sandusky, and the US launched a counterattack in Virginia; however, the Confederates very effectively ground this assault to a halt north of Fredericksburg. US commander Daniel MacArthur launched two ill-advised assaults on that city known as the Battles of Fredericksburg. After the second such assault, the Virginia front essentially became a stalemate.

Early in 1942 President Smith was killed in an air raid on Philadelphia. Charles W. La Follette became President. Before he died, Smith ordered the production of a new weapon in Hanford, Washington. This weapon, which came to be called the "superbomb", was based on the nuclear fission of radioactive materials. A Confederate physicist, Henderson V. FitzBelmont, noticed changes in scientific journals, with articles on the subject vanishing. He brought this to Featherston's attention, who initially balked at the proposal.

The US sent supporting columns to open secondary fronts all along the border to counteract the Confederate advantage of interior lines of communication. This was effective in severely taxing CS Army personnel, but the Confederate column in Ohio launched Operation Coalscuttle into Pennsylvania late in 1942. The army pushed the US back into Pittsburgh, where it was destroyed in an enormous months-long battle.

Following the destruction of the CS Army of Kentucky, US General Irving Morrell followed up with a campaign to liberate Ohio and push through Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia, with his ultimate objective being Atlanta. By the fall of 1943, his forces had nearly reached that city. Their fighter-bombers had gained air superiority over the Confederates, their paratroopers were threatening the flanks and rears of Confederate positions, and their barrels were superior to the enemy's. However, Philadelphia came under fire from Confederate rockets that fall.

Also in that year, the US Eleventh Army under General Abner Dowling retook Houston and took Camp Determination in Texas. The U.S. Navy won a decisive victory over the British in the Battle of the North Atlantic and retook Bermuda. Japan disengaged from US forces and attacked Britain's Asian colonies.

The US supported guerrilla fighters within the CS recruited from among the Black population, which was the target of a genocide by the racist Featherston. The CS supported yet another Mormon rebellion in Utah. Despite the U.S. military gains that plunged deep into the Confederacy, the CS was able to deploy the new superbomb first, destroying a sizable portion of downtown Philadelphia. In response, the US destroyed Newport News in a failed attempt to kill Jake Featherston. In addition, the US destroyed Charleston, South Carolina.

Featherston fled further into the CS, but was ultimately killed by a US auxiliary sentry. With his death, his successor Don Partridge surrendered, and the CSA was effectively dissolved and the country was divided into occupation zones: the Atlantic Military District, the Mid-South Military District, and the Gulf Coast Military District.