How Few Remain
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The cover of How Few Remain, the first book in the Timeline-191 series |
How Few Remain is a
1997 alternate history novel by
Harry Turtledove. It is the first part of the
timeline-191 saga. The book received the
Sidewise Award for Alternate History in 1997.
The
point of divergence is
September 10,
1862, during the
American Civil War. In our timeline, a
Confederate messenger lost General
Robert E. Lee's
Special Order 191, which detailed Lee's plans for the
Battle of Antietam. The orders were soon found by
Union soldiers, and using them
George McClellan was able to defeat the
Army of Northern Virginia.
In
How Few Remain, the orders are instead recovered by a trailing Confederate soldier. McClellan is caught by surprise, enabling Lee to lead the Army of Northern Virginia towards
Philadelphia. Lee forces McClellan into battle on the banks of the
Susquehanna River in
Pennsylvania and destroys the
Army of the Potomac in the
Battle of Camp Hill on
October 1. Lee goes on to capture Philadelphia, earning the
Confederate States of America diplomatic recognition from both
Great Britain and
France, thus winning the war (which is known as the War of Secession in the alternate timeline) and independence from the United States.
Kentucky, having been conquered by Confederate forces shortly after the Battle of Camp Hill, joins the eleven original Confederate states after the war's conclusion, and the Confederacy is also given
Indian Territory (our timeline's state of
Oklahoma, later the Timeline-191 state of
Sequoyah). The Spanish island of
Cuba is purchased by the Confederate States in the 1870s, thus also becoming a Confederate territory.
In
1881,
Republican James G. Blaine has ridden a hard-line platform of anti-Confederatism into the
White House, having defeated
Democratic incumbent
Samuel J. Tilden in the
1880 presidential election. Both American nations have been sanctioning Indian raids into each other's territory. The international tension between the United States and the Confederate States peaks when Confederate President
James Longstreet, desiring a
Pacific coast, purchases the provinces of
Sonora and
Chihuahua from the financially-strapped
Mexican Empire (which is still ruled by
Maximillian) for CS $3,000,000. Blaine uses the "coerced" purchase as a
casus belli, leading to the commencement of what will later become known as the
Second Mexican War.
The novel is narrated from the point of view of several historical figures.
*
Thomas J. Jackson, old "Stonewall," General-in-Chief of the Confederate Army, is ready and eager to strike at the Yankees once more.
*General
J.E.B. Stuart defends the new Confederate territories from the Yankees and the
Apaches.
*Colonel
George A. Custer, a frustrated Yankee
cavalryman, serves on the
Great Plains.
*
Theodore Roosevelt is a wealthy, patriotic young
Montana rancher.
*
Frederick Douglass, a former
slave and a fiery
orator, observes the Union forces at war.
*Colonel
Alfred von Schlieffen serves as the
German military
attaché to the U.S.
*
Samuel Clemens is a sharp-witted newspaper editor in
San Francisco.
*Former President
Abraham Lincoln, influenced by the writings of
Karl Marx, has become an orator struggling to keep the Republican Party united in the cause of the working man, against the Democratic Party and
Big Business; if the Republicans are unable to meet his challenge, he'll find someone who can.
In April 1882, the Confederates once again defeat the United States, which allows the purchase of Sonora and Chihuahua to stand. Along with losing the war, the U.S. loses, in fighting with
Great Britain, the northern part of
Maine to the Canadian province of
New Brunswick.
Following a series of speeches in
Utah,
Montana, and
Illinois, Abraham Lincoln leads a group of left-wing Republicans into the
Socialist Party; this action leads to the sharp decline of the Republican Party, allowing the Socialists to eventually become the primary opposition to the Democrats.
After U.S. defeat in the Second Mexican War, President Blaine declares
April 22 of every succeeding year to be
Remembrance Day, to remember the humiliation of defeat, and vow revenge. The holiday parades will be somber, with the U.S. flag being flown upside down as a sign of distress, signifying the two losses to the Confederate States.
In effect, while conceding defeat in this war, Blaine was setting the stage for the next one, instilling in US citizens an ever-present desire and expectation of revenge upon the Confederacy (and upon Canada) while embarking on an intensive program of systematic militarization on the German model, with the vision of making the US a kind of second
Prussia. Turtledove's model in our history was evidently the French desire for revenge on Germany following their defeat in the 1871
Franco-Prussian War and the loss of
Alsace and
Lorraine.
Meanwhile, the United States will move centers of administration from Washington, DC, to Philadelphia due to the
District of Columbia bordering the Confederate state of
Virginia (which is making governing increasingly difficult and impractical for the U.S.). The Powell House will become a secondary
White House whenever tensions between the CSA and USA are high.
In order to continue to receive assistance from both Great Britain and France, Confederate President Longstreet had to propose a constitutional
amendment calling for the
manumission of all the country's slaves; however, the free blacks will not have any of the same rights that whites have.
After losing two wars within twenty years, the United States begins an alliance with the strengthening
German Empire (formed in
1871), and will eventually start to reform itself along
Prussian lines.
How Few Remain is followed in the Southern Victory series by the
Great War and
American Empire trilogies, and the
Settling Accounts tetralogy.
