Southern Victory Series is a fan name given to a series of Harry Turtledove alternate history novels.
The Southern Victory Series includes the novel How Few Remain, and the Great War, American Empire, and Settling Accounts series. They detail events in four major eras between 1862 and 1944.
It is named after Robert E. Lee's Special Order 191, detailing the Army of Northern Virginia's invasion of the Union in September 1862 during the American Civil War. In reality the orders were lost and recovered by a Union soldier, allowing General George B. McClellan to surprise Lee and force the Battle of Antietam. In this fictional timeline, Lee defeated the Army of the Potomac in a comprehensive victory outside of Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, and then occupied Philadelphia.
In 1882, after the Confederacy purchased the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora President James Blaine of the United States declared war. With the help of British and French forces, the Confederate States again defeat the United States in the Second Mexican War, forcing the latter to cede territory in Maine to Canada. After this defeat, the United States turned to Germany for military assistance and training, and the national mood of the U.S. changed to desire of revenge against the enemies that surrounded the U.S.—Canada, from where Britain invaded the U.S., and the Confederacy.
In 1914, following the assassination of Austro-Hungarian Archduke Francis Ferdinand, the Confederacy declared war on Germany and Austria-Hungary, and the United States then declared war on the Confederacy. The Great War lasted for three years on the American continent, during which there were an estimated 1,500,000 men were killed on the US side alone. All the nations, save Mexico, suffered gruesome casualties. When it was over, the U.S. occupied all of Canada save Québec, and had seized large portions of Confederate land.
The defeated Confederate States were wracked by political and economic turmoil. The Freedom Party, under Jake Featherston, gained power in 1934 and the Confederacy began to rearm to take on the U.S. In 1941, Featherston ordered an invasion of the U.S. and the Second Great War began.
"Flabble" developed as a verb and a noun, meaning "to raise a fuss." "Don't flabble about it" would be a typical statement; so would "The damnyankees can raise a flabble about what we do."
The Freedom Party's campaign against blacks led to the euphemism "population reduction", which was used instead of "genocide." "I'll reduce your population!" became a Confederate saying; this was parodied in the United States.
Also, certain modern weapons have different names. What in our reality are called "tanks" received the name "barrels" in TL-191; "radar" became "Y-range (short for "wireless ranging")."
Note: The lists of Presidents of both the U.S. and C.S. are based on information Harry Turtledove has provided in the novels alone.
There were three political parties usually represented in Congress. The Democrats was the most right-wing party; the Socialists the left-wing party; and the Republicans a centrist third party which has some representation in the House of Representatives, but had not won the presidency since James G. Blaine was held responsible for the loss during the Second Mexican War. Assistant Secretary of War Franklin Roosevelt referred to the Republicans as "neither cold nor hot", quoting the Book of Revelation. However, the Republicans could win electoral votes in the Midwest, especially when the Democrats and Socialists ran close-contested elections.
1. Founded the Socialist Party after his Presidency
2. Killed in office
At the beginning of the Great War, there were 33 states in the Union. The State of Dakota covered the lands which in our timeline are the states of North Dakota and South Dakota, and the State of New Mexico covered the lands which in our timeline are the states of Arizona and New Mexico. No explanation has been given for the difference; however, it is possible that the population of these territories did not grow sufficiently to be made into two states each. Another possible explanation is that in our reality the Dakotas and the Southwest territory were strongly Republican, giving a Republican-controlled government strong incentive to split both of the territories into two states, in order to get more representation in the Senate and more electoral votes to the Republican nominee for President. In the alternate reality the Republicans lost power after the War of Secession.
At the conclusion of the Great War, the United States grew by two. A pro-United States legislature in Kentucky voted to rejoin the Union in 1916 and West Texas became the West Virginia-esque State of Houston, with its capital at Lubbock, in 1917. In addition, portions of Virginia, Sonora, and Arkansas which were occupied by U.S. forces at the time of the Armistice were incorporated into West Virginia, New Mexico, and Missouri respectively. The Confederate state of Sequoyah was also occupied (Statehood in the United States was not granted). The territory lost by Maine to Canada was rejoined to the state. The Sandwich Islands became a U.S. territory, while Canada, Newfoundland, the Bahamas, and Bermuda were occupied by U.S. forces.
The Mormons of Utah attempted during the Great War to secede and form the Nation of Deseret, but were suppressed in 1916. They tried again in 1941, and were again suppressed in 1943. Plans were considered to send the rebels to the Sandwich Islands.
Following the Richmond Agreement of 1940 between Presidents Al Smith of the U.S. and Jake Featherston of the Confederacy, plebiscites were held in Kentucky, Houston, and Sequoyah; the former two states voted to rejoin the Confederacy. Sequoyah, possibly due to a large number of settlers from the USA, decided to remain in the Union. However, the statement was possibly just for propaganda purposes, though later books indicate surviving Native Americans in the state wage a constant and brutal war of resistance and survival against United States soldiers and settlers.
In 1943, the U.S. announced plans to revive Houston, as well as readmitting Kentucky and Tennessee to the Union (under martial law) following the advances towards Georgia and east Texas. After the Second Great War ends in 1944, the United States divides the defeated Confederacy into a number of Military Administrative Zones and announces that all former Confederate States will eventually be returned to the USA.
Washington, D.C., remained the de jure capital of the United States, but its proximity to the Confederate States made governing impractical from there. Philadelphia is the functional capital of the United States. Powel House is the home of the President. A side-effect is that Washingtonians are still denied, under the Constitution, having a representative of their own in Congress – without having (as they do in our timeline) the compensation of being at the center of the national decision-making.
During the period of U.S. occupation in the Great War to when Kentucky was returned to the Confederacy in 1941, the Kentucky State Police were, in effect, the state's secret police force, aimed at suppressing both black Marxists and pro-Confederate sympathizers. It was headed by Luther Bliss.
The Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War was formed by the United States in the early 1940s in response to several setbacks in the early stages of the war with the CSA and the Freedom Party. They also attempted to formulate a resolution to the Utah Troubles.
The most notable members of the committee are Senator Robert Taft (D-OH), and Congresswoman Flora Hamburger Blackford (S-NY).
For most of the Confederate States history, the conservative Whigs were the dominant political party, with the liberal-egalitarian Radical Liberals attracting support from the more ethnically diverse outer states (Sonora, Chihuahua, Cuba, and Louisiana). The Freedom Party, a nationalist, totalitarian party, rose following the Confederacy's defeat in the Great War and obtained power in the Presidential election of 1933, though Featherston didn't become president until March 4, 1934, as the Confederate Constitution required.
Featherston and the Freedom Party suppressed the Whigs and Radical Liberals; with a firm control on the Congress and the Gray House, the Constitution was amended to allow a President to serve more than one term.
A fourth political group, the Socialists, existed, though this party (while never illegal), had little white support and was frowned upon in the Confederate States. The Socialists won four seats in the House of Representatives in 1920, from Chihuahua, Cuba, and New Orleans, but did not make further inroads in Confederate political life. Most Socialists were black (following the extreme version of the ideology, Marxism), and thus barred from political life. During the Great War, these Marxists led the Red Rebellion of 1915-16, and there were apparently a very small number of white Reds.
The original eleven states of the Confederacy were joined by Kentucky in 1862, and Sequoyah (formerly Indian Territory) at a later date. The Confederacy purchased the Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua in the 1880s, which served as the casus belli of the Second Mexican War. The Confederacy also purchased Cuba from Spain in the 1870s; little is known of Cuba however except that, at least before Freedom Party dominance, it voted Radical Liberal.
The traditional residence of the Confederate President was the Gray House in Richmond.
As in the United States, elections were held on the first Tuesday in November, and the term of the President began the following March. Until 1939, the Confederate Constitution prevented a person from serving more than one six-year term.
The list of presidents is based on information from the Turtledove novels, and is also based on the term of the Confederate President beginning with the Provisional President in 1861. Official elections resulted in Jefferson Davis becoming official president in 1862, hence Confederate inaugurations being in even-number years:
1. Assassinated.
2. Served as President following Wade Hampton's death; was allowed to run officially in '27.
3. Only president elected to serve more than one term.
4. Surrendered unconditionally to the US, dissolving the CS government.
Note: In American Empire: The Center Cannot Hold, Jake Featherston identified a President "Lee" as among the country's good presidents. Most have assumed this to be General Robert E. Lee. General Lee is referenced throughout the series before and after this volume, but he is never described as having been president. Thus, the identity of President Lee is open to debate, with at least one camp favoring the General's nephew Fitzhugh Lee, who was a skilled politician in real history.
1861: None
1867: unknown
1873: unknown
1879: unknown
1885: unknown
1891: unknown
1897: unknown
1903: unknown
1909: unknown
1915: Doroteo Arango (Radical Liberal)
1921: Jake Featherston (Freedom), Ainsworth Layne (Radical Liberal)
1927: Jake Featherston (Freedom)
1933: Samuel Longstreet (Whig), Cordell Hull (Radical Liberal)
1939: none
The Confederate Constitution was modeled on that of the United States, allowing for an independent judiciary - a Supreme Court and various subordinate courts, and in addition each state had its own judicial system. Prior to the advent of Featherston, the judiciary was independent and on occasion made rulings displeasing to members of the legislative and executive branches - though discrimination of Blacks, first as slaves and later as non-citizen "residents", was a basic ingredient of the system which the courts consistently upheld (and which was, in fact, never challenged by any significant force among white Confederates)
The Supreme Court was abolished under the Freedom Party rule in the 1930s, Featherston going to the extent of personally threatening the Chief Justice with murder should he voice any protest. Thereupon, lower courts were swiftly brought under effective party control, with "inconvenient" judges forced to resign "for reasons of health". Soon, all pretence at an independent judiciary disappeared and Koenig, Featherston's hatchet-man, had a free hand to create concentration camps for political dissidents and later embark on the mass murder of Blacks.
Turtledove's description of the process is based on the historical experience of the Nazi takeover, adapted to the conditions of an American-type constitutional system quite different from that of Weimar Germany which the Nazis dismantled.
In 1944 in the last days of the Second Great War, with U.S. dominating the C.S., Texas Governor Wright Patman declared his state's independence from the CSA, declared himself the President of the new Republic of Texas, and made a separate peace with the USA. The USA recognized Texas, and agreed to the peaces, with the condition the commandants and guards of the state's death camps were transferred into US custody.
As of the end of Settling Accounts: In at the Death, Texas is occupied by the U.S., but whether the U.S. will allow Texas its independence or not was undecided.
Canada served as a springboard for British invasions and raids during the Second Mexican War; reduction of Canada became a priority for the U.S. during the Great War. Portions of Canada which were occupied by U.S. forces were placed under martial law. After the war ended, the Canadian government was dissolved and the area remained under U.S. military law (see Occupied Canada). There was some due process in criminal trials, however, verdicts were harsh, especially if the case involved resistance to the United States.
Between the wars, there was a general rebellion against U.S. rule in 1925, which was suppressed. A second rebellion began in 1942, bringing about new troubles for the US war effort, including the first use of technicals which other rebellions later imitated.
The Second Mexican Empire, established by France in 1862 remained in power, thanks to support from the Confederacy and a presumed lack of Union support for the government of Mexico as occurred in real history. To earn money to service its debts, Mexico sold the provinces of Sonora and Chihuahua to the Confederacy in 1880, which gave the Confederacy a Pacific port. U.S. President James G. Blaine used this as a pretext to declare war on the Confederacy, resulting in the Second Mexican War.
The Mexican Empire joined the Entente in the Great War. Combat between the United States and Mexico took place in Baja California, American troops surprised by the fierce resistance of the Mexicans whom they had regarded with contempt. There were no border adjustments following peace in 1917, but there seems to be heavy reparations forced upon the Empire, perhaps on Teddy Roosevelt's part to foster a civil war (which did happen) down there to gain another ally and to threaten the Confederacy’s southern flank.
In the 1920s, republican rebels, supported by the United States, attempted to overthrow the Empire (roughly parallel to the Mexican Revolution of our timeline). With the help of Confederate veterans and armor and air support, the republicans were defeated (a parallel to the Spanish Civil War). This gave the Confederates the possibility of developing the heavy weapons forbidden them at the end of the war (in our timeline, the Soviet Union for a time provided such possibilities to Germany). The Mexican war also provided Freedom Party stalwarts with the possibility of gaining combat experience (and also some experience in running prison camps).
Emperor Francisco José joined the Second Great War against the United States, and provided three divisions of infantry, including the Veracruz Division, to support the Confederate invasion of Ohio. The Mexican forces were short of armor, machine guns, transport, and artillery, and the U.S. barrel forces under General Morrell cut through the Mexicans as part of the encirclement of Pittsburgh. After that, Mexican forces, in the form of five more infantry divisions, were used instead as internal security to suppress black guerrillas in the rural areas of the Confederacy.
In The Grapple, comments by Jake Featherston suggest that the republican movement in Mexico has never been completely suppressed, and that if the Empire didn't support the Confederacy, the Confederates might support the republican rebels.
Although its origins are never mentioned, it is likely that the mentioned Kingdom of Poland, a vassal state of German Empire, has the same origins as our original timeline Kingdom of Poland. It seems that the German Empire created the Kingdom of Poland out of land taken from the Russian Empire, and Poland serves in a similar way as the Republic of Quebec does to the United States. For the most part, it is really only a puppet to Germany, its King being presumably a junior member of the House of Hohenzollern. (Somewhat similar to the "Duchy of Grelz" created in Turtledove's "Darkness" series by Algarve, Germany's analogue in the series). Evidently, this Poland, unlike the one in our timeline, is completely land-locked with the Baltic shore retained in German hands. (In our timeline, giving Poland access to the sea via the Polish Corridor was a greatly resented concession extorted from Germany by the victorious allies.)
The Republic of Québec was formed on April 15, 1917, from the territory of the former Canadian province, under the protection of the United States. Québec stayed directly out of the tensions between the United States and the Confederate States in the 1930s, and was officially neutral during the Second World War; however, Québécois soldiers released their US counterparts from occupation duty in Canada. The government of Quebec was seen as an American puppet by other Canadians and the British, used to help the United States occupy Anglophone Canada.
The Congaree Socialist Republic that established itself around the Pee Dee River in South Carolina was one of the many Marxist-organized governments formed during the Red Rebellion of 1915. (Another such republic was the Black Belt Socialist Republic, noted for all but wiping out the white population in the Georgia "Black Belt.") These republics collapsed after Confederate regular forces were diverted from the fronts. In South Carolina, the Congaree Socialist Republic's surviving leaders attempted to escape and wage a war from the swamps, but all of them were eventually killed by 1917. Scipio, a leading member and orator of the Republic, escaped the 1917 collapse, only to die in Camp Determination many years later. The flag most often associated with the Confederacy's Black Marxists was red, with a set of slave-chains in black in the centre.
The Mormons of Utah attempted to break away from the United States during the Second Mexican War, which was crushed and the LDS Church outlawed, and polygamy declared a felony. Another uprising occurred during the Great War. This rebellion lasted until 1916, when remaining rebel forces surrendered. Utah remained under military occupation until the Sinclair Administration. Another rebellion began during the Second Great War; it was suppressed in 1943. See Utah Troubles.
Just like in our timeline, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania became independent from the Russian Empire. They all stayed officially neutral during the Second Great War.
The German and Austro-Hungarian Empires, both members of the Quadruple Alliance, continued to exist after the Great War. Germany annexed Lorraine from France and Luxembourg, while continuing the military occupation of Belgium. In addition, the Belgian Congo became a German colony, and Poland, Ukraine, the Baltic states and the Netherlands became puppet states under German influence. Austria-Hungary annexed the Kingdom of Serbia, while Albania and Romania became its satellite states.
The Russian Empire, a member of the Entente, lost Congress Poland, Ukraine and the Baltic States at the end of the Great War. A ten-year civil war followed, with the Red Army ultimately being defeated, and Michael Alexandrovich succeeding to the throne as Emperor Michael II.
The United States was allied to the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Italy before the Great War. In the Great War, Haiti, the Ottoman Empire (1914), Paraguay, Chile, Bulgaria (1915), Liberia (1916) and Brazil (1917) joined this alliance. They were called the Central Powers, although the four largest (USA, Ottomans, Austro-Hungarians, and Germans) were termed the Quadruple Alliance. Italy remained neutral in the Great War.
The reaction to this was an alliance consisting of the Confederate States, the British Empire, France, and Russia. Japan, Argentina, China, Romania, Portugal, and Mexico later joined. These were the nations of the Entente, sometimes known as the Quadruple Entente (CSA, Britain, France, Russia).
There were few neutrals in the Great War. One of them, Spain, served as the broker for prisoner exchanges between the Confederacy and the United States.
By the outbreak of the Second Great War, the Central Powers consisted of: the United States, the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, Chile, Poland, Bulgaria, China, Ukraine, the Netherlands and Paraguay. Norway joined later in the war. The Entente Powers by 1941 were: the Confederate States, France, Britain, Russia, Japan, Argentina, and Mexico. The Entente and the Central Powers battled each other across the globe.
In this timeline, there were conventions similar to the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 which dealt with the resolutions of international conflict and the conduct of war. An international court sat at The Hague, in the Netherlands. Practically, however, because of the distance between the Netherlands and North America, and far more importantly, as in our timeline, because the tribunal lacked any coercive power, the conduct of war and the treatment of captives was tempered only by the lex talionis and fear of retaliation.
The United States adopted the German tactic of hostage execution in occupied lands. (In our timeline, this was not covered by the 1907 Hague Convention.) If a U.S. soldier was killed by a civilian, at least 10 civilians were shot in retaliation. This law was even more harsh in Utah, with the penalty being 50 civilian executions for every U.S. troop murdered.
This practice continued during the Second Great War. Civilian snipers were executed on the spot. Confederates occupying the United States treated civilians harshly, and U.S. soldiers occupying the Confederacy executed hostages in areas where U.S. soldiers were killed by civilians. This led to a proclamation by the Freedom Party that U.S. soldiers who executed hostages would not be treated as prisoners of war, which caused consternation among the regular Confederate armed forces, who held the position that regular foreign enemies would be treated as POWs, but blacks in rebellion had no protection under international conventions.
After the occupation of Canada and Newfoundland, the existing government was abolished and the U.S. military governed. The Occupation Administrative Code served as the basic law of the land. It provided for military courts-martial for civilians, and allowed the use of confidential informants to provide evidence, but also allowed for defense counsel of the defendant's choosing, and in many cases charges could be dropped or penalties reduces based on exculpatory evidence.
During the occupation of the former Confederate States following the unconditional surrender of July 1944, the Confederate national government was abolished, but state and local governments remained in place to carry out directives from U.S. military governors.
Hospitals tended to be respected by all belligerents in the Great War; in the Second Great War, the Confederates in some cases used ambulances to transport President Featherston and assumed that similar abuses went on behind U.S. lines.
Prisoners of war were treated relatively well in the Great War, and U.S. POWs were treated well by the Confederacy in the Second Great War. As per the 1907 Hague Convention in this timeline, there were conventions both sides followed. Attempted escape could be punished by the captors; however, prisoners who escaped and reached their own lines could not be punished for the escape. Officers were paid a salary equivalent to their rank in the other side's forces. The Geneva Convention was generally followed by the U.S., as U.S. soldiers state, "We follow the Geneva Convention. We play fair with prisoners." Privileges of POWs included the ability to write home on occasion. Mormon soldiers were treated as prisoners of war by the United States. However, US troops also occasionally executed captured soldiers on whim, in anger, for suspected slights, out of convenience, or for personal pleasure. The United States, however, provided more amenities, such as wireless sets, to Confederate prisoners than the minimal amenities provided in Confederate POW camps such as Andersonville, Georgia.
Civilian prisoners were exchanged between the U.S. and the Confederacy in both the Great War and the Second Great War.
One institution the Confederate States and the United States shared was conscription. The United States began conscription after the Second Mexican War. Although the Confederate States dropped conscription after the Great War, it was resumed under the Featherston Administration from 1933 on. Canada also had conscription from the Second Mexican War to the time of its conquest in 1917.
In the United States, the Soldiers' Circles (q.v.) served as a political and social group for released conscripts. The influence of the Circles diminished after the U.S. victory in the Great War.
After the Great War, veterans in the Confederacy formed several organizations, which in some cases were related to nationalist politics. The Tin Hats were politically neutral, though many Tin Hats were also Freedom Party members. Willy Knight led the Redemption League with its strength in Texas, and many Freedom Party stalwarts were veterans.
Under the Featherston Administration, youth were encouraged to join a Freedom-Party-related youth organization: the Freedom Party Youth Corps, which provided paramilitary training and shortened the effective period of conscription. The Youth Corps also provided political indoctrination.
The United States had some form of rationing from sometime after the Second Mexican War until the victory in the Great War. During the Great War, kerosene, food and coal was rationed; this extended to the Occupied Territories of Canada.
Despite the official hostility between the United States and the Confederate States, however, trade between the two nations continued. U.S. manufactured goods and automobiles, such as the Ford Model T, were sold in the Confederate States, and Confederate agricultural goods, such as cattle, cottonseed oil cakes, and tobacco, were sold in the U.S. During the hyper-inflation of the early 1920s, U.S. currency was itself a commodity to be sold to the south. The Confederates attempted to maintain their own automobile industry, selling the Birmingham and Vauxhall models, but these brands did not sell north of the border.
During the Great War and the Second Great War, informal trading between the two armies went on despite official efforts to stop it. Confederate tobacco products were traded for U.S. Army rations. United States canned deviled ham was the most popular item Yankees traded; Duke cigarettes and coffee were traded in return.
Abolitionist books such as Uncle Tom's Cabin were banned in the Confederacy from its independence. Both sides censored the radio and press during the Great War and the Second Great War; however, the Confederate Featherston administration also censored incoming material from the United States, including Superman comics. To provide for the need for similar material, the Confederates developed "Hyperman" comics.
Astute readers learned to infer the general shape of the war from what was said and shown—and not said or shown—in both U.S. and Confederate newspapers, radio broadcasts, and newsreels.
This holiday, on April 22, commemorated the day the Armistice was forced on the United States by the Confederacy, Britain, and France in the Second Mexican War in 1882. From 1882 to the U.S. victory in the Great War, this was a somber commemoration. Parades were held, led by the U.S. flag being flown upside down as a symbol of distress, followed by military reviews and march-pasts of the Soldiers' Circles. These parades mirror the May Day parades of the Soviets, or the military parades of the Nazis in our timeline.
The 1915 Remembrance Day parade in New York City was marred by violence when Soldier's Circles members clashed with Socialist demonstrators who were against the war and the occupation of Utah.
Following the Great War, the holiday became more celebratory. From 1918 onwards, the U.S. flag was flown with the union up to show that the defeats in both the War of Secession and the Second Mexican War were avenged, and that the U.S. was a dominant world power. However in 1941, with tensions between the U.S. and C.S. high after the January plebiscites, the flag was flown upside down again in the New York City parade.
This day, held on May 1, commemorated the solidarity of the working classes throughout the world, and served as a Socialist counterpart to the nationalist overtones of Remembrance Day. In New York City, May Day was as big a celebration as Remembrance Day.
This statue, in New York City's harbor, occupies the place of our timeline's Statue of Liberty. Instead of the lamp of liberty, she holds in her hand the raised sword of vengeance. It was a gift from Germany, rather than from France as in our timeline. A miniature of the Statue of Remembrance was located in Put-in-Bay, Ohio, north of Toledo, Ohio (which again parallels our timeline).
These groups existed from the Second Mexican War to the Great War. They were composed of men who had served in the Army in the same conscription class. The political views of the Soldiers' Circles tended to pro-war, anti-immigrant, and anti-Socialist. Their insignia was a silver circle, with a sword slantwise across it. At times, they served as an informal militia to support the government.
With the constant chaos of war with the CSA, characters frequently muse that the Bill of Rights is less effective and the Supreme Court an extension of executive will. After Mormon disruption during the Second Mexican War, the government banned religious services above a certain size and forbade polygamy (as in our timeline) as a qualifier for statehood. With the possible exception of wartime censorship common in our timeline as well, examples of civil rights abuses have just been vague afterthoughts of US citizens and a binary for comparison to CS citizens. Despite the unnamed restrictions on civil liberties the United States retain a representative republican form of government, and in both the Confederacy (until the Freedom Party took power) and the United States, due process of law was followed.
Both the 19th and 20th amendments to the U.S. Constitution were passed in this timeline, as in ours, but with some notable differences.
The Nineteenth Amendment gave women the right to vote, as it did in this timeline, but it wasn't passed until 1928 (before then, some states gave limited suffrage to women).
The Twentieth Amendment was passed prior to the 1932 presidential election, and called for the president to be inaugurated on February 1. It also described the process of choosing a president if the president-elect died before taking office. This happened as Calvin Coolidge died on January 5, 1933, as he did in our timeline, but in this instance, as the Democratic president-elect. Herbert Hoover, as the vice-president elect, became the president-elect (because the Electoral College had met January 4, which made the election results official) and was inaugurated on February 1, 1933. (In our timeline, the Twentieth Amendment was ratified shortly after the 1932 election, and set the inauguration date as January 20.)
There does not seem to ever have been constitutionalized prohibition of alcohol, though a number of states and localities, north and south, are dry. In addition, there was an amendment to the U.S. Constitution passed sometime before the Great War that allowed for Senators to be elected by popular vote (the Seventeenth Amendment of our timeline); this was never done in the Confederate States.
The "Stonewall" Five-Dollar Gold Coin was used from early in Confederate history until after the Great War, when hyperinflation resulted in the demonetization of Confederate currency. It carried the portrait of Stonewall Jackson. After the currency reforms of the 1920s, the five-dollar bill became known colloquially as a "Stonewall." During the Featherston Administration, the Stonewall was revived as a gold coin.
No black resident of the Confederate States was allowed to travel anywhere or to obtain employment without a passbook, which was to be provided to police (or later, to Freedom Party stalwarts) on demand (a system similar to the pass laws of apartheid-era South Africa in our history). A holder of a passbook had to report to the police within five days of changing work or residence. During the chaos following the Red Rebellion of 1915–16, many blacks took the opportunity to change identities by applying for new passbooks in new cities. Passbook restrictions were greater in the 1920s than before the Great War, and tightened again under Freedom Party rule.
Those black men who served in combat units of the Confederate Army in the Great War were granted citizenship and did not have to carry passbooks. They were given printed certificates of military service. The Featherston Administration revoked citizenship on as many pretexts as possible.
Blacks in the Confederacy were not given surnames, except in Cuba. It is not clear if this restriction was cultural or legal, although given the example of Cuba, it might have been an issue for the states. When Kentucky joined the United States following the Great War, blacks were allowed to choose surnames. When Kentucky rejoined the Confederacy, the Confederate government did not ban the practice within that state, but it did not spread beyond Kentucky's borders.
The United States and the Confederate States were both states in which the political power rested with the white Protestant population, though this was less prominent in the North. Nationalist sentiments following the U.S. defeat in the Second Mexican War, fostered by groups such as the Soldier's Circles, regarded immigrants, particularly from southern Europe, with distrust. However, the numbers of Jewish and immigrant voters and the rise of the Socialist Party as their outlet for voting prevented discrimination from being formalized.
In the Confederacy, the hierarchy between whites and blacks was enforced by law and that between Anglos and Latinos by custom. Although Sonorans, Chihuahans and Cubans had the franchise, the Radical Liberal Party they favored did not win the Presidency. A Latino in the Anglo states was seen as a "greaser." The Freedom Party did not make any official distinction between Anglo and Latino, reserving their opprobrium for blacks.
Both the United States and the Confederate States had minorities who were disaffected and ready to revolt, with the assistance of the other power. The black population of the Confederacy and the Mormon population of the United States both rebelled during the Great War and continued to pose trouble in the period between the wars. The Mormons of Utah rebelled during the Second Great War (see Utah Troubles). Only the mass sweeps and deportations to concentration camps in the Confederacy prevented a second rebellion in the Second Great War, and in the spring of 1943 the Richmond ghetto rebelled the day before the capital was to be made "free" of blacks, which would logically be Turtledove's analogue for the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of our WW2. This rebellion was sporadically supported by U.S. air power and required the efforts of War Department staff officers as well as front line forces to defeat.
The United States occupation of Canada also resulted in bombings against U.S. military forces and Canadians who were seen as "collaborators." Arthur MacGregor of Manitoba, and his daughter, Mary MacGregor Pomeroy received the most attention in the press; Arthur attempted to assassinate General George Armstrong Custer in 1925 and was killed by his own bomb.
In 1942, the Mormons developed terrorist tactics, which posed major problems in New York and Philadelphia as well as occupation forces in Utah itself: the car bomb and the suicide bomb—"people bombs", in the terminology of this timeline. Although the Confederate government suppressed news of this events, black suicide bombers became a problem for the Confederate government, which responded by deporting the entire black population in towns where attacks occurred.
Even before the War of Secession, white Southerners had a better history of dealing with non-black minorities, as they reserved all of their anger for blacks. Other minorities in the Confederacy were not suppressed because of their economic usefulness, as in the case of Mexicans, or because there were not enough of them to matter, as in the case of Jews. The sole exception to this seems to be the Mormons; in GW:AF, a loyal Mormon in the US suggested that what the Russians do to Jews, the CSA does to the Mormons.
The depression of the 1930s hit the Empire of Mexico hard and many workers began to cross into Sonora and Chihuahua to obtain work. As the black population of the Confederacy was "reduced", during the Second Great War, workers from Mexico replaced them in the low-status, low-paying, but steady jobs.
The United States had an aggressive history of dealing with Native Americans. Casting themselves as a friend of the Indian, the CSA narrowly gained the loyalty of the Five Civilized Tribes in exchange for Richmond maintaining their trust payments as Washington had done. This left the USA with a still populated Indian west which southern officers and politicians had advanced through wars and treaties. In our timeline, Indian Territory was opened to white settlement as punishment for the tribal support of the rebellion. In this timeline however, the state of Sequoyah (modern Oklahoma) was established for the Native Americans, with white and (naturally) black immigration being limited. But when Sequoyah fell to the US in the Great War, the US capitalized on the increasing importance of oil deposits throughout the state. Using figures from our timeline, Indian Territory possessed just under 100,000 residents during the Civil War and, with internal immigration restricted, would likely remain the least populous state in the CSA and thus easily overrun by floods of whites. By the time of the plebiscite of 1941 the Native Americans could not outvote the US immigrants, and Sequoyah stayed with the US. However, certain Native Americans continue to wage a guerrilla war against the US, even into the Second Great War.
Before the United States defeat in the Second Mexican War, military service was voluntary. Afterwards, it adopted Prussian methods of conscription in both peace and wartime. In addition, U.S. officers began attending German military academies to learn German military doctrine.
Sometime between the Second Mexican War and the Great War, U.S. military uniforms were changed from dark blue to green-gray (similar in color to the German feldgrau, though more green). The uniforms of the U.S., German, and Austro-Hungarian armies were similar in color, design, and cut, differing in rank insignia. Officer's rank insignia were unchanged from the War of Secession.
During the Great War, 'coalscuttle' helmets (similar to those in our world's German army of the World Wars (Stahlhelm) or the PASGT of today's army) were adopted, based on the recommendations of then-Colonel Irving Morrel. They were later adopted by the German Army, and during the Second Great War, the Confederate Army adopted a model very similar to them. (As said by Tom Colleton in Settling Accounts: Return Engagement)
Medals included the Purple Heart (for wounds), the Remembrance Cross, the Distinguished Service Medal, and the Medal of Honor. Civilians could receive the Order of Remembrance, First and Second Classes.
When the Second Great War erupted, the United States Army retained its policy of how to treat of civilians in occupied territory the First Great War. Executing hostages was a policy which had been in force since the Great War. Towards the end of the war, twenty-five civilian hostages from a nearby town would be shot for every U.S. soldier killed, and one hundred for each use of a car bomb.
During Morrell's drive to the sea several towns were wiped out, and their populaces murdered without warning, despite next to no Confederate resistance. This war of terror was waged with the goal of teaching the Confederate populace never to oppose the United States government again (although, in the case of the platoon under command of Lt. Boris Lavochkin, it could have been the acts of a sociopath). In the case of South Carolina, in particular, the U.S. forces, aware of its role in the War of Secession, had no sympathy at all for the state.
Blacks were not allowed to enlist in the U.S. Army, though they were allowed to volunteer for the Navy, until President LaFollette issued an executive order in December 1943 which desegregated the Army and Navy. The same order made blacks liable to conscription.
Confederate blacks who had been fighting as guerrillas during the War were recruited as auxiliary soldiers by the United States Army in occupied Confederate territory. They were issued captured Tredgar rifles, at wore at least U.S. Army boots and trousers, with an armband in red, white, and blue with the legend "USA". As the auxiliaries were better organized, they were issued helmets. In the rare cases when an auxiliary required a dress uniform, they wore the U.S. Army dress uniform in green-gray with unmarked brass buttons.
The presence of the auxiliaries was seen as provocative by many Confederates who were not used to the idea of armed black men with authority over whites. However, any complaints were met with stony indifference by U.S. Army officers, and violence by auxiliaries.
The Confederate Army's chief influence between the Second Mexican War and the Great War was the British Army. The Confederates adopted khaki field uniforms (calling them "butternut" for historical reasons). Officer's rank insignia were unchanged from the War of Secession. For the most part, Confederate troops were considered better trained, and sometimes better armed, than their US counterparts. A common CS complaint was that the US pool of manpower canceled out individual CS troop superiority.
Blacks served in the Confederate Army in the Great War as laborers, officer's servants, cooks, and other combat support tasks. They wore a butternut uniform of a coarser cut than that of white soldiers. Many of the Army laborers took part in the Red Rebellion of 1915, including Pompey, the servant of Jeb Stuart III, Jake Featherston's battery commander. Towards the end of the Great War, blacks were allowed to volunteer for combat and fight in all-black formations up to division size; the dispassionate assessment of both U.S. and the Confederate observers was they fought as well as new white units. Black veterans of these divisions were granted full citizenship in the Confederacy, but this status was revoked under the Featherston Administration.
Officers of the regular forces were trained at schools such as the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) and The Citadel in South Carolina. VMI was considered their equivalent of West Point. Naval officers were trained at the Confederate Naval Academy in Mobile, Alabama.
The Confederate Navy, unlike most navies in the world, wore a dark gray uniform instead of navy blue.
Decorations included the Confederate Cross, the highest military decoration, the Order of Lee and the Order of Albert Sidney Johnston for the Army and the Order of the Virginia for the Navy, the second-highest decoration.
The Creek Nation Army was a force raised by the Creek Indians of the Confederate state of Sequoyah to resist the U.S. invasion of the Great War. It was trained and officered by Confederate Army veterans. The Creek Nation Army was destroyed in attacks on U.S. positions in 1915. Other Indians of Sequoyah served as scouts and snipers during the Great War.
Faced with a more populous foe to the north during the Second Great War, President Jake Featherston founded the Confederate Veteran Brigades to free up younger men for service. These units acted as reserve troops, and garrisoned the interior against rebel attacks. They consist entirely of military veterans. Members of Veteran Brigades were Freedom Party members and held Party ranks, not Army ranks, and wore gray uniforms instead of Army Butternut. The guards at Confederate concentration camps were Veteran Brigade members.
Formed near the end of the Second Great War, this was a combination of the Confederacy's remaining manpower, essentially a federalization of the State Militias and Home Guards, much like the Volksturm of our timeline. It consisted primarily of boys too young for regular army service, trained in the Freedom Youth Corps, and old men too old even for the Veteran's Brigades. While possessing high motivation and devotion to their nation's defense, this bare-bones force was unable to halt or even slow Morrell's drive to the sea during the Georgia campaign. But the force itself bears true mark to both the indoctrination of the Freedom Party on the young, and the fierce nationalism still possessed by the old in the Confederacy.
The Québécois Army came into being when the Republic of Quebec was formed in April 1917, and took part in the U.S. assault on Québec City. The Army's uniform was similar in cut to the U.S. uniform, but blue-gray in color instead of green-gray. Quebcois soldiers later replaced American troops in US-occupied Canada during the Second Great War, but their poorly-equipped forces were insufficient to quell the Canadian uprising of 1942.
The Mexican Army wore a yellower shade of khaki than the Confederate butternut. The three divisions of Mexican soldiers taking part in the Second Great War attacks on Ohio and Pennsylvania were equipped with light infantry weapons, but lacked armor and anti-barrel guns. Following the defeat of the Confederate Army of Kentucky at the Battle of Pittsburgh, five Mexican divisions were sent to the interior of the Confederacy to counter Black guerrilla bands.
The proximity of the United States to the Confederate States, and the use of a common language, made intelligence gathering efforts easy for both sides. For example, in the Confederate occupation of Washington, D.C. during the Great War, the U.S. was able to develop a network of civilian agents that routinely reported intelligence back to Philadelphia. A Confederate operation in Covington, Kentucky, not only passed intelligence back to Richmond, but performed acts of sabotage. Between the wars, visits by U.S. warships to Confederate ports, commercial travel, and aviation became means of gathering detailed information. The Confederate intelligence service was offensively-oriented; General Clarence Potter emphasized counter-intelligence.
The Second Great War saw the development of special operations conducted by other than regular forces. The Confederates developed a unit of men who wore U.S. uniforms and spoke with 'Yankee' accents to disrupt U.S. defenses in Ohio. Confederate officers constantly expressed fear at the possibility of American soldiers doing the same. This occurred in the 1943 crossing of the Tennessee River, when the U.S. 133rd Special Reconnaissance Company, dressed in Confederate uniforms, caused sufficient confusion for General Morrell's army to seize a bridgehead. In 1944, the Confederates repeated the trick to deliver a superbomb to the western part of Philadelphia.
In addition to these special operations, the United States Marine Corps and Navy mounted special raids on the Confederate coastline.
As the war went on, camouflaging efforts by both sides became more extensive. For example, the Confederate supply depots run by Major (later Lt. Col.) Dover were well-camouflaged from the air; a dummy supply post, deliberately less well-camouflaged, was placed nearby. (This rivals Jasper Maskelyne's camouflaging efforts in North Africa in 1943). This worked against air strikes, but not when local blacks reported the real location to U.S. forces.
General Morrell used dummy tanks, smoke, false gas shells, and recordings of gunfire and troop movements to paralyze Confederate forces in Kentucky during the amphibious crossing of the Ohio River in 1943.
The Confederate Freedom Party Guards, unlike their Army counterparts, wore mottled brown camouflage uniforms (in a reference to the mottled grey uniforms worn by the Waffen SS in our WW2.
In one case, a United States destroyer escort, the USS Josephus Daniels, was made out to be a Confederate destroyer escort, the CSS Hot Springs, and used to delivered munitions to rebels in Cuba.
Although the airplane was invented in the United States, the need to produce other sorts of weapons prevented an indigenous U.S. design during the Great War. The principal U.S. scout/fighter was the Wright, a modified copy of the German Albatros fighter, with the Martin one-decker being used earlier in the war. British and Canadian forces used the same front-line fighters in Europe and North America, such as the Sopwith Camel and Sopwith Pup.
British planes were marked with the red-white-blue roundel used by the RAF in this timeline. Canadian AVRO aircraft had red roundels with a maple leaf inside of them on their wings. U.S. aircraft were marked with an eagle in front of two crossed swords, and Confederate aircraft were marked with the Confederate Battle flag.
Because of the short distances between major cities in the U.S. and the Confederacy, neither nation developed a long-range bomber between the wars. Instead, bomber development focused on increased bomb load and armament. This proved to be a disadvantage in the Pacific War and during the Second Great War with Japan. Philadelphia and Richmond were raided routinely in both the Great War and the Second Great War, incurring heavy damage. A Confederate air raid in 1942 killed President Al Smith; a retaliatory raid heavily damaged the Gray House, although President Featherston had moved to a heavily fortified underground bunker beneath Shockoe Hill. New York could be reached by bombers with more fuel and less payload, and was less damaged. In the West, U.S. bombers based in Clovis, New Mexico, caused significant damage to Dallas and Fort Worth in 1942 in daylight raids.
The Confederacy mounted a one-way raid on the United States nuclear facilities in Hanford, Washington, from air bases in Texas, Sonora, and Chihuahua; the planes, however, required a light bomb load, caused little damage, and had to be ditched in Vancouver, B.C. This is similar to real one-way bombing missions in World War II like the Doolittle Raid.
The United States tactical aircraft during the Second Great War included the Boeing-17, a dive bomber which saw action in 1942. It may be analogous to the P-47 Thunderbolt in this timeline, though there is no evidence to support this. Like the Confederate Mule (or Asskicker, which is an analogue to the German Stuka), it is no match for concentrated anti-aircraft fire and fighter squadrons.
The Wright-27, was the main US single seat fighter. Although as a fighter it was, by definition, better than Confederate dive bombers (Asskickers) and medium bombers (Razorbacks) , it was par with the Confederate Hound Dog fighters. Its design (and description in the book) indicates it resembles the P-40 Tomahawk of our timeline.
The Hound Dog was the main Confederate fighter plane. It is apparently a single-seat fighter. While equal in almost every way to the Wright 27, it had slightly superior firepower, derived from the cannon in its nose. Its design (and description in the book, especially the nose-cannon) indicate it resembled the P-39 Airacobra of our timeline, though possibly with a supercharger added to up its performance, in which case it would bear a closer resemblance to the P-63 Kingcobra of our timeline. It may also be added that the description in the would also fit that of an Me-109, which with the Mule-Stuka relationship would make more sense.
The Mule was a dive bomber developed by the Confederacy and occupies a role similar to the Ju-87 Stuka of our timeline. It made a terrifying whine as it swooped down to attack targets, and was effective during Operation Blackbeard, the invasion of Ohio; however, U.S. fighters and anti-aircraft guns showed the Mule's vulnerabilities. Both sides referred to them as "Asskickers."
The Boeing-37 was a United States Navy amphibious reconnaissance plane, often confused with its enemy Royal Navy counterpart.MOst likely resembles the PBY Catalina of our time.
In the third year of the Second Great War, the United States introduced fighter-bombers, fighter craft with attached bombs and rockets. These new planes largely supplanted earlier dive bombers, and provided brutally effective air support. They are described as being armed with a mix of several cannon and machine guns, so they may be analogous to the P-38 Lightning of our timeline, although they are not given a designation in the books.
From the first section of In at the Death it appears the primary Confederate transport of the war was called the Alligator, and is similar to the Junkers Ju-52 of our timeline. It is significant because it's mentioned as being of low-quality, due to the Confederate unwillingness for a long fight, and limited time and manpower to produce anything more than weapons in the 1930s.
In mid-1944, the United States began introducing jet-propelled fighters, known as "Turbos". The first of these models was the Boeing-71 (dubbed the Screaming Eagle) and topped prop-driven models by 50-80 mph. Based on descriptions by Turtledove these appear to resemble the German Me 262 jet fighter put into action towards the end of WW2 in our time line.
The code name for the development of a mobile armored vehicle by the U.S. during the Great War was "barrels;" the British terminology, "tank", was initially used by the Confederacy but did not stick.
The United States led the way in barrel development during the Great War. After the War, the Barrel Works were established at Topeka, Kansas, under the command of Colonel Irving Morrell. However, the Works were closed in 1923 under the Sinclair Administration.
The Confederacy did not openly develop barrels until the Featherston Administration. However, Confederate volunteers with the Mexican Imperial forces gained operational experience using barrels.
The US barrels of the Second Great War were the first to sport sloping armor. The Confederate Mark 3 barrel's heavier 50 mm gun was sufficient to destroy the US Custer barrel, despite its sloping armor. The Confederates used sloping armor in their new Mark 4 barrel, which was equipped with a heavy 75 mm cannon, making it the most powerful barrel yet deployed for a time. The US Mark II upgrade was an attempt to hold back superior Confederate barrel formations while a new, more powerful, barrel could be built. While both sides use different caliber rounds for their rifles, both sides' barrels have .50 caliber heavy machine guns, most likely on their turrets.
However, given the date the war started, there was an intentional linkage of the US with the Soviet Union of our timeline. The Mark III US tank resembles the Soviet T-34, said to be a major reason the Germans (CSA) developed the Tiger Tank.
This new development, implemented in 1943, started as a Confederate interim solution to hold back U.S. barrel formations. With limited industrial capacity, the Confederates could use excess chassis and guns to create barrel-killing self-propelled guns. While superb at killing barrels at long ranges and with single hits, they were less maneuverable, and lacked a turret or proper anti-infantry defense. It is speculated that the US will begin production of their own, to maximize armored presence on the battlefield.( Confederate model resembles the Jagdpanzer IV of our history.)
The U.S.-rifles are known as Springfields, the C.S. ones as Tredegars.
The Springfield rifle of the Great War seems to be the M1903 Springfield. Contrary to real history, it is still in use throughout Great War II, probably shortened as the German Karabiner 98k was in comparison to the Gewehr 98 or modernized as the Spanish FR-8.
In our timeline the M1 Garand replaced the U.S. Army Springfield's in Basic Training by 1940 with full replacement in all active units not occurring until late 1941, while the U.S. Marine Corps suffering through its own procurement system did not fully replace even front-line Pacific units until mid to late 1942 around the time of our timeline's battle on Guadalcanal.
In the Confederated States, the GWI-Tredegar rifle is a bolt-action rifle probably based on the British Lee Enfield rifles.
In the GWII, Turtledove describes the CS forces as wielding submachine guns - probably M2 Carbines (as Thompson submachine guns were mentioned as being in use by U.S. forces multiple times) and automatic rifles capable of fully automatic fire, which would mean the CSA skipped the M1 Garand and adopted a rifle much like the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) directly.
Confederate and U.S. rifle ammunition calibers do not match; this seems to point toward a Springfield 03 in .30-06 and a BAR in .308 Winchester. It is clearly stated that the Confederate as well as the United sidearm was a .45 calibre, i.e. a Colt M1911 or something along the lines. If submachine gun ammunition also does not match, this points to a M2 Carbine as Confederate submachine gun.
The unique nature of the Mississippi-Missouri-Ohio river system led to the development of specialized naval vessels to fight on these rivers. The United States river monitor carried two 6-inch (150 mm) guns and machine guns, which could be used to attack both other ships or enemy forts and ground positions. The Confederacy also had these vessels, though they used the term 'gunboat' rather than 'monitor'.
The Great Lakes provided both a defensive shield for Canada and the United States, but a chance to attack the other's industrial base. Rochester, New York, was burned by a British landing force in the Second Mexican War. On the Great Lakes, both the United States and Canada had Great Lake battleships, which were shorter-range armored cruisers. The Canadians used them in the defense of Toronto during the Great War; the US intended theirs to be war-winning weapons but mines and submarines quickly put that idea to rest.
The United States developed the first aircraft carrier, the USS Remembrance. This ship first sailed in 1920 and assisted the Irish government in suppressing a pro-British rebellion in Ulster. The Remembrance, for many years, was the only U.S. aircraft carrier. The Pacific War saw the first naval battles where the combatants engaged one another with planes instead of ships. During the Second Great War, several escort carriers were built from converted merchant ship hulls.
During the Great War, the two principal missions for navies were to project power overseas and to protect or disrupt enemy commerce. The United States attacked the British forts at Pearl Harbor in the Sandwich Islands in 1914 and held these islands subsequently. The battleship was the primary weapon of all belligerent navies, though battleship-to-battleship engagements were rare. The Battle of the Three Navies was the biggest battle in the War, and proved to be a draw.
Disruption of enemy commerce and protection of friendly merchant ships was the function of both the submarine and surface ships. Both the Quadruple Alliance and the Entente patrolled the Atlantic, which accelerated the development of convoys to protect merchantmen and specific anti-submarine tactics and weapons, such as Q-ships and depth charge projectors. However, with the oceans open to both sides, surface ships were able to disrupt enemy commerce. Confederate President Gabriel Semmes remarked that the difficulties of obtaining supplies from the Entente made defeat more possible. The entry of the Brazilian Empire on the side of the Quadruple Alliance led to the final disruption of Argentine food shipments to Great Britain, resulting in the armistice at sea in 1917.
A third mission of navies was to provide supplies to rebels and guerrilla forces fighting enemy nations. In the Great War, the U.S. supplied rifles and machine guns to Ireland; the Pacific War was triggered by the U.S. discovery of Japanese supplies to British Columbia; and in the Second Great War, the British did the same for Canada and Newfoundland.
New technologies were developed during the years between the Great War and the Pacific War. The aircraft carrier developed into a mature technology, and so did the "Y-range", the term used in this timeline for radar. All of the belligerent powers had Y-range equipment of one sort or another; a U.S. raid on the North Carolina coast in 1942 captured a working Confederate station, in an action similar to the British commando raid on Bruneval, France, in 1942. To fight the submarine, "Hydrophones" was the term used for sound equipment; it did not distinguish between passive listening and active sonar search and ranging of underwater sounds.
The North Atlantic was the site of a large-scale naval battle in 1943 between the United States and the Royal and French Navies, during which aircraft carriers were the principal weapons platform; the surface combatants never saw each other, as in this timeline's Battle of Coral Sea. The U.S. won the battle, enabling forces to land and recapture Bermuda from the British.
As in the War of Secession, the Confederate navy was small, and in the War of 1941 was primarily focused on coastal defense. By the time of the Second Great War, their heaviest ships were four battlecruisers, possibly secretly pocket battleships. The CSA made heavy use out of cruisers, commerce raiders, and submarines to damage US shipping and combat formations. Confederate coastal defenses were strong enough to ward off US raids, and so the US concentrated only on trying to raid the CSA's Atlantic coast.
During the Second Mexican War, the U.S. experimented with Gatling guns. A Gatling gun unit commanded by George Custer stopped the British invasion of Montana in 1882. Both the U.S. and the Confederacy used machine guns with great effect in the Great War. The U.S. used the Maxim, and later in the Great War deployed "light machine guns" that most likely were the Browning Automatic Rifles deployed as light machine guns by US forces in OTL's Great War.
The Springfield 1903 rifle remained the main infantry weapon of the U.S. Army in both the Great War and the Second Great war. Like its counterpart in our timeline, it is a bolt-action rifle with a 5-round clip. These bolt-action rifles were later supplemented by M1 Thompson submachine guns, "big, brutal, and Made in the USA" sometime in late 1943.
The Tredegar rifle was a bolt-action rifle (with either 1 ten-round clip, or 2 five-round clips) and was the standard infantry weapon of the Confederate Army during the Great War. Based on its description, it's likely that it resembles the Lee-Enfield rifle, specifically the SMLE Mark 3. It served as the weapon for home-defense and Confederate Veterans Corps units during the Second Great War. It was made by the Tredegar Iron Works of Richmond, Virginia.
A Tredegar automatic rifle, with a 20-round magazine, was the main weapon of the Confederate Army during the Second Great War. It most likely resembled the M14 of OTL, and was a popular weapon with US troops to capture, due to its overall superiority to bolt-action weapons.
Confederates also used submachine guns to supplement their automatic rifles. Their submachine guns also resemble the M3 Grease Gun, or alternatively, the PPSH, as these weapons also seem to be fitted with drum magazines. In our timeline the CSA's largest pistol manufacturer was the Griswold company, so the Submachine guns are likely produced by them. Thus, they can be termed Griswold SMG's.
The Second Great War also saw in use machine guns that closely resemble our timeline's equipment. The Confederate machine gun described as firing so fast it sounded like "a giant tearing a sail in half", most definitely points towards the Maschinengewehr 42. The USA appears to have been using .30 caliber air-cooled machine guns resembling the M1919 Browning machine gun. It is also stated that the USA and CSA are equipped with similar .50 caliber pieces that in our timeline can only be the Browning M2. This is odd in that this timeline's John Browning was a Mormon born in Ogden, Utah.
The U.S. and Confederate Armies used different caliber ammunition for their weapons; however, U.S. soldiers could carry Tredegar automatics, salvaging ammunition from the battlefield. When Confederate forces ran short of ammunition during the "kettle" phase of the Battle of Pittsburgh, they, in turn, salvaged Springfields and their ammunition. It also seems that both sides are armed with the M1911 pistol of our time line. Although no explanation is given for this, it is probably due to the similarities in both nation's militaries in almost every other aspect, and the fact that a .45 cal pistol can be manufactured looking the same by different companies.
The principal cannon of the Confederate Army during the Great War was a copy of the 75-mm howitzer used by the French Army; these were the guns Jake Featherston commanded. The principal Confederate artillery weapon in 1941 appeared to be a 4-inch (100 mm) howitzer. Infantry units started using 66mm mortars in the Great War. Both the U.S. and C.S. armies used 105 mm cannon and could fire each others' ammunition.
Both the U.S. and Confederacy used poison gas in both the Great War and the Second Great War, including blister agents, blood agents, and nerve agents, which required soldiers to get into clumsy and hot chemical protective suits.
A "Featherston Fizz" is composed of gasoline in a bottle, lit by a cloth wick, and thrown at armored vehicles from close range. In our timeline, they are called Molotov cocktails.
The U.S. is one of the first nations to introduce the portable flamethrower, first using it in 1915 against Mormon rebels. Though there are no descriptions of the weapon, it may resemble the German Flammenwerfer or other early WWI devices.
The German Empire was the first state suspected of having a program to develop fission bombs. Prominent scientists, such as Albert Einstein, disappeared from public view and papers on nuclear fission vanished after the equivalent of the Otto Hahn experiment on fission.
The United States' nuclear program was based at the Hanford site in Washington state (In Turtledove's WorldWar series, Hanford was proposed as an alternative site to the Denver one. The Denver program was commanded by Leslie Groves, who commanded the Manhattan Project, but he is not mentioned in this timeline). Although specifics were not published, its existence was known by both Congressional Representatives such as Flora Hamburger Blackford and journalists such as Ophelia Clemens. The program was supervised by the Assistant Secretary of War, Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The Confederate nuclear program began in 1942, when intelligence indicated the U.S. was developing the facilities to separate uranium-235 from -238. The Confederate program was able to start a self-sustaining nuclear reaction at the program at Washington University in Lexington, Virginia, in 1943. In addition to a uranium pile, the Confederates also succeeded in creating plutonium (called "jovium") and neptunium (called "saturnium"). When other nations learned of these elements, each came up with their own names for it; the United States called them by the same names as our timeline, while the British referred to them as "churchillium" and "mosleyium", respectively.
The Confederates, fearing that the U.S. program was far ahead of theirs, launched an airstrike on the U.S. facilities in Hanford in 1943, causing little damage. A counterstrike by the U.S. on the Confederate program in the summer of 1943 killed three scientists (Martin, Collins, & Dean) key to the program, and maimed another (Delancey).
By 1944, Germany, the United States, Great Britain, and the Confederate States all built nuclear weapons, termed superbombs. Germany used five in total, against the following locales: Petrograd, Paris, London, Norwich, and Brighton. The United States used two, against Newport News and Charleston. Britain used one against Hamburg, then had a second one intercepted and destroyed in Belgium. The Confederate States used their bomb against Philadelphia, although not in a place to harm any significant government buildings.
After the Confederate surrender, Confederate scientist Henderson FitzBelmont briefly discusses the possibility of hydrogen bombs (he calls them "sunbombs") with US General Abner Dowling, saying that he wouldn't be surprised if they were perfected within the next five years.
The Confederate States were the first state to consider rockets in war, based on a paper presented to President Featherston by the Huntsville Rocket Club. Confederate scientists invented the "antibarrel rocket" or "stovepipe rocket", analogous to our timeline's Bazooka or Panzerschreck. Rocket artillery, similar to our timeline's Katyusha or Nebelwerfer rockets, were also first used in southern Ohio by the C.S. Army. Finally, rockets similar to Nazi Germany's V-2 were used as Vengeance Weapons against U.S. cities. U.S. fighter-bombers mount rockets to attack barrels when in the antibarrel role, and C.S. Mules do the same.
In our timeline, the game of baseball was played by soldiers in both armies during the latter years of the Civil War, and became a national sport when those soldiers took it home with them after the war. Since the war ended in 1862, baseball never achieved the status of a national sport in this timeline. It was played as a regional sport in New England and New York.
In California, Chester Martin worked for a foreman named Mordecai who had three fingers on one hand. Presumably, this refers to Mordecai Brown who became a well-known pitcher, nicknamed "Three-Finger Brown", in our timeline.
Football is the dominant sport of both the Confederacy and the United States. It is played during Christmas between the two armies. The U.S. rules allowed the introduction of the forward pass before the Great War; the Confederacy adopted the forward pass after the war. A nation-wide professional league was formed in the U.S. in the 1920s; one key player was Lou Gehrig of the Philadelphia Barrels. Other famous U.S. players included Jimmie Foxx, Hank Greenberg, and Barrel Nagurski (likely an analog of our timeline's Bronko Nagurski).
Semi-pro and minor-league teams were common, such as the Toledo Mud Hens (which is the name of a minor-league baseball team in our timeline). California's league, which included teams such as the Los Angeles Dons (in our timeline, a member of the All-America Football Conference from 1946–49), the Portland Columbias, and the Seattle Sharks, was akin in status to our timeline's Pacific Coast League for baseball.
The United States tried, and failed, twice to host the Summer Games. In 1928, the U.S. attempted to have the Games in Los Angeles, but Berlin was selected instead. Los Angeles was also the base of the U.S. bid for the 1936 Games, but again, it lost, this time to Richmond. The Japanese raid on Los Angeles in 1932 may have had an impact on the final decision, which came in 1933.
The 1936 Olympics hosted many nations, including the Republic of Quebec. Jake Featherston attempted to prohibit athletes from Haiti and Liberia from participating, but was overruled by the International Olympic Committee. If Featherston would not allow black athletes to participate, the Games would have been moved elsewhere. Featherston obliged, but was visibly aggravated when a Haitian sprinter won a bronze medal (similar to the contempt supposedly shown by Hitler to African American participants in the 1936 Games of our timeline).
During the swim meet, a black frankfurter salesman attempted to assassinate the Confederate president, but was killed by Clarence Potter in self-defense; Potter had intended to assassinate Featherston himself, but the black assassin forced him to shoot to save his own life.
The wireless became a key cultural tie in the period between the two Great Wars. Broadcasting networks spanned North America. In Québec, the comedy program "Voyageurs" reached the cult status of this timeline's Amos 'n Andy.
Broadcasting was vital to creating support for Jake Featherston. After the 1925 assassination of President Wade Hampton V, regular broadcasts by Featherston broke the Freedom Party's decline and helped lead Featherston to the Presidency.
Radio stations in the Confederate States official broadcasting service have callsigns that begin with CS.
It can be inferred from "The Grapple" that U.S. and Confederate broadcasters use a channel separation of 10 kHz instead of the 9 kHz used in Europe and Asia. Once war began, both sides used jamming equipment to inhibit each other's broadcasts that could be heard in the other's territory.
In the Second Great War, in an incident paralleling a 1940 Adolf Hitler speech to the Reichstag offering peace to Great Britain, Featherston broadcast peace terms to the United States. President Al Smith turned down the terms. In a parallel gesture in 1944, President Charles La Follette offered peace terms by radio to the Confederate States and offered a jamming-free channel of 640 kHz for response. President Featherston rejected the U.S. terms and announced the launch of two long-range rockets on Philadelphia.
During the war the Confederate Government/Freedom Party used a woman for propaganda uses, known by her nickname "Confederate Connie" in a manner similar to this timeline's Tokyo Rose and Axis Sally broadcasts. Confederate Connie informed the world of the USA's crimes against Mormons and Canadians. The United States used broadcasts by Satchmo and the Rhythm Aces, who defected from the Confederacy in 1942, to let it be known of the systematic murder of blacks in the Confederacy. In addition, once the United States occupied Atlanta, U.S. Wireless Atlanta (USWA) came into being to broadcast to both U.S. military and Confederate civilians in the South. Eric Sevareid was a news reader for USWA.
Other famous reporters who appear on U.S. wireless were William Shirer and Walter Winchell.
Not all broadcasting involved propaganda for the war effort; sports, crime, and local news filled time at stations away from the front lines.
The official German station is "German Imperial Wireless", while the British Broadcasting Company also exists in this timeline. "Petrograd Wireless" was the official broadcasting station of the Russian Empire; it continued operations in Moscow after the destruction of Petrograd by nuclear weapons.
Movies were also a means of mass entertainment in this timeline. Confederate movie studios were concentrated in Florida, while United States movie studios were in Hollywood. Between the wars, the Featherston Administration produced movies with subtle propaganda themes showing blacks as a threat to whites and that the United States, particularly New York City, was a "cesspool" of vice.
The Broadway revue and Broadway musical also developed in this timeline. "O, Sequoyah!" was released in 1943 and became a hit musical.
An unnamed United States comic book (probably Superman) was popular in both countries, despite its official banning by the Featherston Administration. This unnamed hero fought Confederate spies and saboteurs. The Confederates were forced to produce Hyperman comics to counter the popularity of the U.S. character.