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Southern Victory (also called Timeline-191 after General Robert E. Lee's special order #191) is a series of 11 books by Harry Turtledove, with an alternate history starting in 1862 during the American Civil War, where the South (CSA) wins the War of Secession after allying itself with Great Britain and France, and ending in 1945 following a war similar to World War II.

Volumes[]

Series[]

Timeline[]

The War of Secession[]

series: How Few Remain

The Uneasy Peace[]

series: How Few Remain
  • late 1860s: Russia attempts to sell Alaska to the United States. However, a $7 million price tag is too much money.
  • 1870s: Cuba is bought by the Confederate States from Spain.
  • 1871: Germany unified into a single sovereign state after the Franco-Prussian War which ended in a Prussian/German victory.

The Second Mexican War[]

series: How Few Remain
  • 1881-1882 : The CSA finalize the purchase Sonora and Chihuahua from the Mexican Empire for $3,000,000. The USA use the purchase as a pretext for declaring war upon the Confederacy. James Longstreet enters the CSA into an alliance with Britain and France. This results in a victory for the Confederacy once more. Part of northern Maine is annexed into the Canadian providence of New Brunswick. The only major victory for the U.S in the war was in Montana, where forces under Theodore Roosevelt and George Armstrong Custer were able to repel the British and Canadian invaders, albeit after the official end of the war. The USA creates an alliance with the German Empire. As part of its negotiations with France and Britain, the Confederacy phases out slavery, although heavy segregation remains. The day of the Armistice (April 22) becomes Remembrance Day in the USA. It is treated as a somber commemoration holiday.
  • In the aftermath of the war, the Republican party suffers a three way split, with the left-wing Socialist Party forming under leadership of former President Abraham Lincoln, his followers, and liberal Republicans. The Democrats are pushed to the right by conservative Republicans merging into the party with the help of Benjamin Butler and become an ongoing majority party. The Republicans survive, but as a centralist third party with very little power outside the Midwestern US.
  • The Confederate States keep their new Mexican states and makes plans to build railway from Texas to the Gulf of California / Pacific Ocean.
  • The United States accepts overtures from the German Empire to establish an alliance. This eventually leads to the creation of the Quadruple Alliance.

Before the Great War[]

series: none
  • 1882: Former President Abraham Lincoln splits Republican Party, forming a new Socialist Party.
  • CSA builds railway connecting Texas with port city of Guaymas, Sonora, on the Pacific coast.
  • 1884: President Blaine loses the 1884 Presidential Election to the Democratic candidate in a landslide.
  • c. 1894: The CSA attempts to build a canal crossing through Central America (specifically Nicaragua), but this plan is shelved after US President Alfred Thayer Mahan threatens war. Panama remains a part of Colombia.

The Great War[]

series: The Great War

1914[]

  • Summer:
  • 28th June: Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. Pro-Serbian terrorists hit Franz Ferdinand’s car with a bomb.
  • Late July: Mobilization of the USA and Germany.
  • August: The Austro-Hungarian Empire accuses Serbia of backing the assassination; this leads to war between the two. The Alliance system means that Russia, France and Britain side with Serbia and Germany with Austro-Hungary. The United States declare war on the Confederate States and Canada (Britain), and launch an invasion of both countries.
  • Fall:
  • In the CSA, Kentucky and western Virginia are attacked.
  • The Confederates launch a counter-invasion through Maryland and Pennsylvania, and succeed in occupying Washington, DC.
  • In the Pacific Ocean, the USA captures the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) from Great Britain.
  • As presaged by the attempted invasion of Kentucky by the USA in 1882, trench warfare soon develops on most fronts in North America. The series concentrates on the deadlock on the Maryland / Pennsylvania border, the Kentucky front, the Roanoke Valley front, and skirmishes in Sequoyah (Oklahoma).
  • Winter:
  • 25th December: The armies on the North American continent are slowed down by the cold. In both Europe and North America Christmas truces bring the fighting to a tantalizingly temporary halt.

1915[]

  • Winter:
  • Confederate cavalry raids into Kansas sought to destroy railroad lines and telegraph cables; though some of these raids succeeded, Confederate horsemen suffered heavier than expected losses battling armored cars that carried machine guns.
  • Early Spring:
  • 4th April Easter: The Mormon population in Utah attempts to secede from the USA in Rebellion. US Army troops are sent to quash the rebellion.
  • 22nd April: On Remembrance Day a riot breaks out in New York. It is unknown whether the this was started by Fanatic-Socialist or Mormon-Sympathizers, However the majority of rioting was perpetuated by the Socialists therefore they were given most of the blame.
  • 7th May: U.S. forces on the Roanoke Front begin using poison gas however this merely causes increased misery for infantrymen.
  • Fall:
  • Red Rebellion of the black population of the Confederacy. Communist cells pop up throughout the South, particularly in areas with a high black population.
  • Gabriel Semmes is easily elected President of the Confederate States over Radical Liberal Party candidate Doroteo Arango in the 1915 Presidential Election.

The war remains stalemated, with USA forces unable to break through to Guaymas, Nashville, Washington, DC, Winnipeg, Montreal, or Quebec City.

1916[]

  • Winter:
  • Stalemate remained the rule on all fronts. The only progress took place in the West, where the Mormons were crushed and US forces made progress in Texas and Sequoyah.
  • Red Revolutionaries in South Carolina establish the Congaree Socialist Republic. The Confederacy is forced to divert military resources to take on the Red forces rampaging throughout many parts of the South.
  • The Battle of the Three Navies breaks out in the Pacific Ocean to the South and West of the Sandwich Islands. The U.S. Pacific fleet engaged with the British Royal Navy and the Navy of Imperial Japan.
  • Spring:
  • The Congaree Socialist Republic is scattered by Confederate forces, the remaining Reds flee into the swamps and continue a resistance of guerilla warfare.
  • 7th April: On the European Front, the City of Verdun falls to German Forces after six weeks of intense battle. This German victory at the Battle of Verdun is felt across the world and signals to many on both sides of that the probability of France’s ultimate defeat in the Great War.
  • Summer:
  • August: A new USA invention, the Barrel (OTL Tank), is able to grant U.S. forces an advantage but did not live up to expectations due to poor tactical deployment.
  • Fall:
  • September: CS President Gabriel Semmes introduces a Bill to conscript and arm Black Troops.
  • November: US President Theodore Roosevelt is easily re-elected over Socialist candidate Eugene V. Debs.

1917[]

  • Spring:
  • March: On the European Front, a Russian Uprising in Petrograd leads to a full blown Revolution.
  • 15th April: La République de Québec is established and garners recognition from the United States, the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, Chile, the Kingdom of Bulgaria, the government of the Republic of Liberia and the government-in-exile of the Republic of Haiti in Philadelphia.
  • 23rd April: U.S. troops breakthrough into Nashville with the new strategy of deploying Barrels in a concentrated strike, a Barrel Roll Offensive.
  • May: Edward C.L. Wiggins secretly approaches Socialist Congresswoman Flora Hamburger about a possible peace deal. Hamburger presents the offer to President Roosevelt, who, determined to teach the CSA a lesson, dismisses the proposal.
  • Late Spring:
  • U.S. forces finally take the Canadian city of Winnipeg.
  • The Western part of Confederate State of Texas is seized by the U.S. and is designated the United State of Houston named after Sam Houston.
  • Summer:
  • The Empire of Brazil enters the war on the side of the Central Powers, closing off ports to the United Kingdom and opening them to the United States.
  • With a growing ant-war sentiment among the populace and numerous military mutinies, the Republic of France asks Germany for an armistice.
  • July: The CSA requests a ceasefire on the Tennessee Front.
  • Quebec City is taken by the U.S. forces and becomes a part of La République de Québec.
  • August: After U.S. infantry make a final push into the Rappahannock County, the CSA officially asks for an armistice on all fronts.
  • Fall:
  • September: The Dominion of Canada asks the USA for an armistice.

Interwar Period[]

series: American Empire

Just as in our own time-line, the initial euphoria after the Great War soon ends.

  • 1918/1919:
  • USA imposes disarmament and crippling reparations upon the CSA in revenge for the humiliation of previous two lost wars, leading to hyperinflation in the CSA.
  • USA annexes Kentucky, northern Virginia into West Virginia, Sequoia (OTL Oklahoma) and Houston (west Texas)
  • Under these and similar conditions in Europe, nascent reactionary/revanchist/authoritarian movements develop. In the CSA, the Freedom Party led by the ceaselessly bitter Jake Featherston rises, fueled by economic chaos and racial animosity over the Red Negro uprisings of 1915/16.
  • 1920: For the first time the Socialist ticket of Upton Sinclair & VP Hosea Blackford wins the Presidency of the USA.
  • 1921: in the CSA Presidential election, Whig Wade Hampton V narrowly wins victory over the Freedom Party's Featherston.
  • Shortly after his inauguration, President Hampton is assassinated by a Freedom Party fanatic; Presidency is assumed by VP Burton Mitchel.
  • President Sinclair ends reparations in the pursuit of improved relations.
  • The normalization of the CSA's economic situation and intense backlash against the Freedom Party after the assassination force the Freedom Party into the background.
  • Long, bitter Communist revolutionary fight in Russia led by the "Man of Steel."
  • General military disinvestment by the USA due to belief that the spectre of war with the CSA is ended
  • Preference of Socialist administration for butter over guns; The Roaring Twenties begin.
  • In France, the reactionary Action Francaise reinstalls the monarchy under King Charles XI.
  • 1928: Hosea Blackford/Hiram Johnson win a 3rd successive Socialist administration in the USA.
  • 1929: Rumors of banking problems erupt into financial panic and world economy collapses into a Great Depression.
  • Japan declares war on USA, bombs Los Angeles
  • 1932: Democrat Herbert Hoover elected over Hosea Blackford
  • Return of economic malaise reinvigorates reactionary movements, including Freedom Party
  • 1934: Featherston elected President of the CSA
  • Under Featherston, CSA embarks on a program of rearmament, mechanization of farming and large public works projects
  • Situation for Blacks in CSA degenerates rapidly; Open state-sponsored pogroms, and further tightening of movement restrictions
  • USA war with Japan ultimately peters out as Japan "walks away" and US has no desire to pursue war across 9000 miles of ocean
  • 1936: Socialist Al Smith elected President in USA after Hoover's failure to ameliorate economic problems
  • 1940: Featherston manipulates Smith into approving of voter referenda in Houston, Sequoia and Kentucky about remaining in the USA after sponsoring violent insurrections there; Houston and Kentucky returned to CSA
  • 21 June, 1941: Featherston initiates "blackbeard," a mechanized lightning war against USA

Second Great War[]

series: Settling Accounts
  • 1941:
  • CSA's "lightning war" attack on Ohio succeeds in striking north and cutting USA in half
  • Mass roundups and deportations of Blacks begins in CSA. Concentration camp soldiers begin "population reductions" killing negro victims with guns
  • Mormon uprising in Utah with encouragement by Freedom Party
  • Bombing raid on Philadelphia kills President Al Smith
  • 1942:
  • CSA attempts to push east from Ohio and capture Pittsburgh to cripple US war effort and force surrender
  • Freedom Party officer Jefferson Pinkard implements idea of asphixiation trucks to make the "population reduction" killings more efficient
  • Battle of Pittsburgh results in catastrophic casualties for both sides, but CS forces are ultimately encircled and lost, a blow the CS never recovers from
  • 1943:
  • USA super-bomb program underway using atomic reactors at Hanford
  • CSA super-bomb program initiated using diffusion enrichment at University of Louisville
  • Pinkard supervises construction of Freedom Party's largest extermination camp in the "middle of nowhere" in western Texas
  • On the western front, General Abner Dowling is not content to simply hold the line and succeeds (unknowingly) at pushing towards the camp
  • CS forces are ultimately forced back the way they came across the Ohio river
  • 1944:
  • US forces begin breaking through southward towards Richmond in Virginia, through Tennessee towards Atlanta and eastward through Texas
  • CSA begins deploying long-range Vengeance rockets tipped with high explosives
  • US forces capture Atlanta and drive to the sea, cutting the CSA in half
  • 1945:
  • Multiple uses of atomic bombs: Germany against Russia, CSA special forces drive atomic bomb into western Philadelphia, British device explodes but not at intended target, US forces nuke Charleston, NC and Newport News, VA
  • Texas sees the writing on the wall and declares its independence from the CSA; Full exposure of the murder camps
  • CSA leadership forced to flee as USA captures Richmond
  • Featherston is shot dead by Cassius, a Black auxiliary, outside Madison, Georgia

Turtledove's influences[]

Turtledove has specifically acknowledged MacKinlay Kantor's If the South Had Won the Civil War (1960) as the source of some ideas incorporated into Southern Victory. Similarities between the two works include abolition of Southern slavery occurring in the 1880s under President James Longstreet, Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson being simultaneous Presidents of the USA and CSA respectively, Cuba annexed and incorporated into the Confederacy, Alaska not purchased and remaining part of Russia, and Texas becoming an independent Republic for the second time.

See also[]

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