Lee died around the same time as OTL, if anything old moss Robert was more devastated ITTL than OTL. He lived out the rest of his days avoiding public eye. Though he did testify for the Confederates in the Union v Confederate cases in 1866. He died during the Grant presidency generally avoiding politics like the plague.
Triple Calamity: What if the Three Most Important Men in the Executive Branch Died in One Night?
- Thread starter Mr.Q
- Start date
Speaking of which, who were the ones executed aside from the Big Three of Davis, Breckinridge, and Stevens? I imagine quite a few of them were fire-eaters who were punished for being perceived as the architects of secession, but aside from that?
Maybe Lee wrote some letters that clearly showcase his increased despair for the people of the South (of all stripes)? Lost Causers try to use as a symbol of Northern Oppression while everyone else rejects such an idea, would help if the South draws different conclusions on Lee's legacy. Is a man who fought primarily to defend the South? Is he a conflicted person whose loyalties couldn't clearly be defined? Or was he a broken man who felt like each choice would bring nothing but pain and suffering? Interesting things to think about TTL IMO. I could see him portrayed as a deeply tragic figure.
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The whole confederate cabinet and around a quarter of the confederate congress. Judah P. Benjamin was eventually turned over by the British. The rest of the Confederate Congress was arrested and either let go or served some jail time.
Oh yes, Jubal Early portrays Moss Robert as a messiah esque tragic figure in all of his writings.
And yeah, I assume the 1/4ths of Congress who got executed were disproportionately comprised of people who were fire-eaters in their political views before the war (so people like Toombs and Wigfall get the proverbial axe (and literal rope))?
Yeah if they were given the rope then it was because they were a champion of succession and found guilty of causing the war. Toombs and Wigfall are very much not alive.
In terms of military leadership only Breckinridge and a couple of the more warcrimey guys out west got the rope. Important to note the Forrest did not. He still goes on to be in white leagues
Also basically every Confederate Governor served jail time. None were executed.
Chapter 22: Here be Riches
"Of the three Custer brothers George and Thomas were both Democrats and had ingratiated themselves by 1886 into the Liberal Party. However Boston Custer, the youngest of the three had been within the Liberal establishment for nearly a decade and a half. When President Sheridan was choosing who would head the Interior Department, one of the most vital jobs towards Sheridan's western focused policy plans. He thought of all three Custer's for the job, afterall all three were famed for their service in the Dakota territory. In the end he nominated Boston seeing the other two Custers as far too Democratic.
Sheridan wanted to launch a full blown war against the natives on the plains and then quickly send them to Sequoyah for "civilizing". He even proposed making another Indian state near Wyoming. This quickly fell through and the five civilized tribes frankly had zero interest in taking in refugees of entirely different cultures. Sheridan and Custer were quite annoyed by the tribes and by the soon to be admitted state of Sequoyah, after congress finally passed the Sequoyah Statehood bill in January of 1886, Sheridan vetoed it, asking Congress to wait until the pacification of the west was completed.
Congressional leaders understood that Sheridan wanted to keep Sequoyah a territory to force them to accept native refugees, and Liberal leaders were strongly opposed to Sheridan's plan. Seeing the chaos in the south as enough sectional division, they certainly didn't want to have to deal with native insurgency near the Mississippi River. The Liberals with slight Democratic support had the veto overturned. Sequoyah would be admitted on July 4th 1886 and Sheridan would have to postpone the war plans until he had a more friendly congress."
-from INDIAN WARS: Sheridan's Fight Against the Natives
by Tommy Lee Douglas, published 2013
"The Panhandle, stripped from Texas originally over the Missouri Compromise, the panhandle remained had unincorporated ever since, this unincorporation meant in was spared much of the Two State Plan. Especially after Texas reclaimed it and refused entry of Freedmen settlers. This reclamation back in 1878 was technically illegal and unpopular back in DC, but generally no one did anything and kicked the can down the road. By 1884 the issue of the panhandle had grown. Texas claimed and occupied it, Lincoln claimed it and had sent it's national guard to awkwardly stare at the Texans. And Kansas of all states, had also claimed the land and occupied the northern half. Kansas said that the panhandle was taken from Texas for a reason, and it's lack of freedmen settlers meant that Lincoln shouldn't get it either. Seen as they were the only white state who could, they now also wanted it.
This petty and somewhat childish land dispute once again arrived to DC by 1885. Congress opened a long-winded special committee to decide what to do, the choice came down to authorizing a referendum scheduled for the 1886 midterms. Their choices were 1. Join Texas. 2. Join Lincoln or 3. Join Kansas. There was also a special option to bring the panhandle into the New Mexico territory.
Almost as soon as the plebiscite was announced, Texan, Kansans and Lincolnian settlers flooded the region. Just like Bleeding Kansas decades prior things turned violent, again contributing to the tensions between the north and south. Unlike bleeding Kansas though President Sheridan sent Federal troops to the panhandle to keep order until the referendum, this was a huge success, very well saving lives and keeping order."
-from NO MAN'S LAND? That Weird Extension of *******
by Henrietta Lens, published 1988
"The story of America in the Troubled 80s is as much of the Politicians as it is the Industrial Giants. The Grant and Seward administrations had encouraged many businesses to move south after the war, in hopes that the reconstructing south could gain some level of industry. Many successful reconstruction states embraced the modernization, which is why states like Tennessee and Florida still have larger populations than states like Mississippi or South Carolina.
A byproduct of the economic interweaving of the reconstruction states was the birth of many new southern ran companies. Former plantation owners in states like Alabama, Virginia and Texas simply changed their mode of 'business'. Many of the so called successful reconstruction states, still had heavy planter class input, and a majority black working class. Other planters ran companies based in Dominica or abroad, keeping their plantations afloat through government subsidized latin american business. These former cotton lords quickly transformed into sugar and coffee lords. These new aristocrats would soon start using their influence to get many caribbean nations and colonies closer to the US. Business in Dominica was so easy and profitable, if they could get more of these lands ripe with cash into the US, perhaps all the profits lost during the war, could come back tenfold.
In 1859 oil was discovered near Salina, in the Indian territory. The true nature of how much oil in what would later be Lincoln was not truly identified until it had just become a state. The Standard Oil company was booming in the north, now that Lincoln was no longer entangled in the Federal web, they planned to move in and poach an economy right under the noses of the freedmen. John D. Rockefeller personally went to Douglass to talk with Governor Cincinnatus about drilling rights. Rockefeller made a quick and frankly bad deal to Cincinnatus. He underestimated the man's intelligence.
Governor Cincinnatus agreed to continue talks more officially. Then he quickly moved to tell black homesteaders to dig and dig fast. If they found any oil on their property the State would compensate them with all haste. Cincinnatus then wrote to the richest black men in the nation, he asked them to set up Oil companies in Lincoln. Finally he wrote to his Republican friends in Congress and asked them to help him block Standard Oil from Lincoln, after all the amount of black gold that was about to surface from the state was more than enough to fill their own pocketbooks.
Cincinnatus' double crossing of Rockefeller made national headlines. While some were upset with the Governor, other called him a hero and champion of competition. Rockefeller for his part quickly tried to force Standard Oil into Lincoln by buying out smaller black owned companies, he was caught by lines of red tape from Congress and the Lincoln Legislature. By 1884, Standard Oil was forced to concede in Lincoln and the new Black Gold Company owned by black man Jackson Freedman had a near totally monopoly over the nation's biggest oil well. Governor Cincinnatus was now rolling in money and worked hand in hand with Freedmen to start to turn State of Lincoln into an oil run paradise. The funny thing was... black gold was still yet to reach its height...
Rockefeller was bitter at his loss in Oklahoma. Especially to freedmen. He knew that in order to keep Standard Oil stronger than it's new black run competitor it needed to find a pipeline just as large as Lincoln. If only there was another territory, that wasn't quite a state with a strong government, maybe a territory that just had a lot of red lines erased, maybe a territory right next to Lincoln...
The Federal Government by ending the tribal system in Sequoyah and dragging their feet on admitting it into the Union, had perhaps ruined what could've been a state just a prospering as it's neighbor. A war was about to begin. A war that would consume every businessman, monopoly and oil baron in the nation. THE GREAT STANDARD OIL-BLACK GOLD WAR was about to begin. The frontline would be Sequoyah...
-from THE GREAT WAR: How Men Died, Governments Fell, and Fortunes were Lost in Sequoyah
by Kenzie Goldman, published 2015
Sheridan wanted to launch a full blown war against the natives on the plains and then quickly send them to Sequoyah for "civilizing". He even proposed making another Indian state near Wyoming. This quickly fell through and the five civilized tribes frankly had zero interest in taking in refugees of entirely different cultures. Sheridan and Custer were quite annoyed by the tribes and by the soon to be admitted state of Sequoyah, after congress finally passed the Sequoyah Statehood bill in January of 1886, Sheridan vetoed it, asking Congress to wait until the pacification of the west was completed.
Congressional leaders understood that Sheridan wanted to keep Sequoyah a territory to force them to accept native refugees, and Liberal leaders were strongly opposed to Sheridan's plan. Seeing the chaos in the south as enough sectional division, they certainly didn't want to have to deal with native insurgency near the Mississippi River. The Liberals with slight Democratic support had the veto overturned. Sequoyah would be admitted on July 4th 1886 and Sheridan would have to postpone the war plans until he had a more friendly congress."
-from INDIAN WARS: Sheridan's Fight Against the Natives
by Tommy Lee Douglas, published 2013
"The Panhandle, stripped from Texas originally over the Missouri Compromise, the panhandle remained had unincorporated ever since, this unincorporation meant in was spared much of the Two State Plan. Especially after Texas reclaimed it and refused entry of Freedmen settlers. This reclamation back in 1878 was technically illegal and unpopular back in DC, but generally no one did anything and kicked the can down the road. By 1884 the issue of the panhandle had grown. Texas claimed and occupied it, Lincoln claimed it and had sent it's national guard to awkwardly stare at the Texans. And Kansas of all states, had also claimed the land and occupied the northern half. Kansas said that the panhandle was taken from Texas for a reason, and it's lack of freedmen settlers meant that Lincoln shouldn't get it either. Seen as they were the only white state who could, they now also wanted it.
This petty and somewhat childish land dispute once again arrived to DC by 1885. Congress opened a long-winded special committee to decide what to do, the choice came down to authorizing a referendum scheduled for the 1886 midterms. Their choices were 1. Join Texas. 2. Join Lincoln or 3. Join Kansas. There was also a special option to bring the panhandle into the New Mexico territory.
Almost as soon as the plebiscite was announced, Texan, Kansans and Lincolnian settlers flooded the region. Just like Bleeding Kansas decades prior things turned violent, again contributing to the tensions between the north and south. Unlike bleeding Kansas though President Sheridan sent Federal troops to the panhandle to keep order until the referendum, this was a huge success, very well saving lives and keeping order."
-from NO MAN'S LAND? That Weird Extension of *******
by Henrietta Lens, published 1988
"The story of America in the Troubled 80s is as much of the Politicians as it is the Industrial Giants. The Grant and Seward administrations had encouraged many businesses to move south after the war, in hopes that the reconstructing south could gain some level of industry. Many successful reconstruction states embraced the modernization, which is why states like Tennessee and Florida still have larger populations than states like Mississippi or South Carolina.
A byproduct of the economic interweaving of the reconstruction states was the birth of many new southern ran companies. Former plantation owners in states like Alabama, Virginia and Texas simply changed their mode of 'business'. Many of the so called successful reconstruction states, still had heavy planter class input, and a majority black working class. Other planters ran companies based in Dominica or abroad, keeping their plantations afloat through government subsidized latin american business. These former cotton lords quickly transformed into sugar and coffee lords. These new aristocrats would soon start using their influence to get many caribbean nations and colonies closer to the US. Business in Dominica was so easy and profitable, if they could get more of these lands ripe with cash into the US, perhaps all the profits lost during the war, could come back tenfold.
In 1859 oil was discovered near Salina, in the Indian territory. The true nature of how much oil in what would later be Lincoln was not truly identified until it had just become a state. The Standard Oil company was booming in the north, now that Lincoln was no longer entangled in the Federal web, they planned to move in and poach an economy right under the noses of the freedmen. John D. Rockefeller personally went to Douglass to talk with Governor Cincinnatus about drilling rights. Rockefeller made a quick and frankly bad deal to Cincinnatus. He underestimated the man's intelligence.
Governor Cincinnatus agreed to continue talks more officially. Then he quickly moved to tell black homesteaders to dig and dig fast. If they found any oil on their property the State would compensate them with all haste. Cincinnatus then wrote to the richest black men in the nation, he asked them to set up Oil companies in Lincoln. Finally he wrote to his Republican friends in Congress and asked them to help him block Standard Oil from Lincoln, after all the amount of black gold that was about to surface from the state was more than enough to fill their own pocketbooks.
Cincinnatus' double crossing of Rockefeller made national headlines. While some were upset with the Governor, other called him a hero and champion of competition. Rockefeller for his part quickly tried to force Standard Oil into Lincoln by buying out smaller black owned companies, he was caught by lines of red tape from Congress and the Lincoln Legislature. By 1884, Standard Oil was forced to concede in Lincoln and the new Black Gold Company owned by black man Jackson Freedman had a near totally monopoly over the nation's biggest oil well. Governor Cincinnatus was now rolling in money and worked hand in hand with Freedmen to start to turn State of Lincoln into an oil run paradise. The funny thing was... black gold was still yet to reach its height...
Rockefeller was bitter at his loss in Oklahoma. Especially to freedmen. He knew that in order to keep Standard Oil stronger than it's new black run competitor it needed to find a pipeline just as large as Lincoln. If only there was another territory, that wasn't quite a state with a strong government, maybe a territory that just had a lot of red lines erased, maybe a territory right next to Lincoln...
The Federal Government by ending the tribal system in Sequoyah and dragging their feet on admitting it into the Union, had perhaps ruined what could've been a state just a prospering as it's neighbor. A war was about to begin. A war that would consume every businessman, monopoly and oil baron in the nation. THE GREAT STANDARD OIL-BLACK GOLD WAR was about to begin. The frontline would be Sequoyah...
-from THE GREAT WAR: How Men Died, Governments Fell, and Fortunes were Lost in Sequoyah
by Kenzie Goldman, published 2015
-
Another Chapter done. hope to get the midterms to you all today as well! Get excited for the Standard Oil vs Black Gold Company War. It's gonna be a fued lasting the remainder of the TL. As you may guess, it will also invite lot's of prejudice and racial tension considering the ethnic makeup of both corporations...
Another Chapter done. hope to get the midterms to you all today as well! Get excited for the Standard Oil vs Black Gold Company War. It's gonna be a fued lasting the remainder of the TL. As you may guess, it will also invite lot's of prejudice and racial tension considering the ethnic makeup of both corporations...
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Nice chapter, I love all the politics with Lincoln finding all that oil. The Panhandle better be taken by the Freedmen 😤😤😤.
Keep up the great work 👍👍👍
Either we end up with a poor Sequoyah, annexation by Lincoln through unsavory methods (proving African Americans to just as ruthless towards natives like Whites), or a partition of Sequoyah by the nearby states. I actually support a convoluted partition, I want to see all the politicians/businessmen/etc. have a bunch of backroom deals in taking their slice of Sequoyah.
Keep up the great work 👍👍👍
I'd honestly just call the whole thing The Oil Wars IMO, much more simpler to understand.
Sequoyah won’t be partitioned, just poor and stepped over. The natives are going to form their own minor political party in time for the midterms and they’ll start looking for allies.
I know we've seen electoral maps, but for the visual thinkers here, can we get a map of the US at this point, Sequoyah, Lincoln, and Dominca all listed?
For the record the 1886 midterms are between
The Republicans: Strongest in the Midwest and plains. Asking for a mandate on Sheridan and conquest of the plains.
The Democrats: Strongest in the South. They are running on racial tensions and southern resentment
The Liberals: Strongest in the mid Atlantic and east. Running on moderation and sensibility
The Freedmen: Strongest in Lincoln and the successful reconstruction states. Running on freedmen rights and support for the Black Gold company.
The Indian People’s Party: Strongest in Sequoyah but marginally, they are fighting against the mostly Democratic and Liberal white settlers. They are pushing for recognition.
Important players running in each party.
Republicans: James Garfield, Rutherford Hayes, Ben Harrison, a young Labor leader named Eugene Debs is running for congress with them. As is one Robert La Follette of Wisconsin
Democrats: Wade Hampton is running for senate, Benjamin Tillman is running for Governor.
Liberals: Grover Cleveland is running for re election as Governor. George Armstrong Custer is running for senate. George Hearst for congress.
Freedmen: Governor Cincinnatus will run for Lincoln senator. A young black man named Booker T. Washington sets his sights on an Alabama House seat.
Indian: Former Seminole chief John Brown running for Sequoyah Governor. All the former tribal chiefs are running for some office.
Just a quick overview before the chapter
The Republicans: Strongest in the Midwest and plains. Asking for a mandate on Sheridan and conquest of the plains.
The Democrats: Strongest in the South. They are running on racial tensions and southern resentment
The Liberals: Strongest in the mid Atlantic and east. Running on moderation and sensibility
The Freedmen: Strongest in Lincoln and the successful reconstruction states. Running on freedmen rights and support for the Black Gold company.
The Indian People’s Party: Strongest in Sequoyah but marginally, they are fighting against the mostly Democratic and Liberal white settlers. They are pushing for recognition.
Important players running in each party.
Republicans: James Garfield, Rutherford Hayes, Ben Harrison, a young Labor leader named Eugene Debs is running for congress with them. As is one Robert La Follette of Wisconsin
Democrats: Wade Hampton is running for senate, Benjamin Tillman is running for Governor.
Liberals: Grover Cleveland is running for re election as Governor. George Armstrong Custer is running for senate. George Hearst for congress.
Freedmen: Governor Cincinnatus will run for Lincoln senator. A young black man named Booker T. Washington sets his sights on an Alabama House seat.
Indian: Former Seminole chief John Brown running for Sequoyah Governor. All the former tribal chiefs are running for some office.
Just a quick overview before the chapter
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1886 Midterms
NOTABLE RACES
Ohio Senator Pendleton retired, the Ohio Legislature elects George Armstrong Custer to replace him after heavy lobbying from the LNC and Custer's wife in the Ohio Legislature. Custer's brother Thomas is elected to the House.
Little known Unionist Eugene Debs loses to a Liberal in his seat.
Democrats make major gains in southern Liberal seats. At this point Texas, Louisiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina have a combined three Liberal representatives.
Luckily the Liberals made up for those loses by making huge gains in the Northeast. Bourbon seats flipping faster than pancakes. The Libs actually almost get a house majority. (Outright)
Grover Cleveland wins a second term as New York Governor even after switching Parties to the Liberals.
Freedmen finally get Senators, both from Lincoln. (A special election had to be held as the class three senator died.) The Freedmen have huge majorities in the Lincoln Legislature. One of those two is now former Governor Cincinnatus.
Freedmen also win two Alabama House seats.
The natives win the Sequoyah House seat, but the Democrats holding a slim majority in the legislature elect two Democrats to fill the seats for Sequoyah in the senate. (This makes up for Democrats losing two Senate seats in Texas and Indiana.)
John Brown (Seminole Chief) wins the Sequoyah Governor's race with the Indian Coalition Party.
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I planned to write a Chapter on the midterms but it was repetitive and uninteresting. Sorry! Here are the highlights, the effects and some of the races will be explored in detail next chapter.
FEEL FREE TO ASK ABOUT ANY SPECIFIC GOVERNOR RACES! I didn't make a wikibox so I'd figure I'd just tell you who's who if you want to know in the comments.
I planned to write a Chapter on the midterms but it was repetitive and uninteresting. Sorry! Here are the highlights, the effects and some of the races will be explored in detail next chapter.
FEEL FREE TO ASK ABOUT ANY SPECIFIC GOVERNOR RACES! I didn't make a wikibox so I'd figure I'd just tell you who's who if you want to know in the comments.
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