The
United States and
Confederate States are locked in a
stalemate as both of their offensives have stalled; the U.S. in
Kentucky pushing south, the C.S.A. in
Maryland pushing north. The Confederacy must also deal with their
black population rising up in rebellion driven by
Marxist doctrine, and a change in administration as
President Woodrow Wilson's term ends. In the Confederate States Presidential Election of 1915, Whig
Vice President Gabriel Semmes (apparently a fictitious relative of real life
Confederate Navy officer
Raphael Semmes) is elected President by a wide margin over Radical Liberal candidate
Doroteo Arango of
Chihuahua to succeed Wilson. The war begins to turn in the favor of the U.S. as the Kentucky offensive, led by
George Armstrong Custer, manages to conquer enough of Kentucky to readmit it into the Union after 54 years as a member of the Confederacy. He uses the new invention known as "
barrels" (tanks) to break through. The Confederacy, conversely, has begun to lose its gains in southern
Pennsylvania, and to be pushed back into Maryland.
Washington, D.C., in Confederate hands since 1914, is still in their possession, but as their hold on Maryland weakens, the C.S. is faced with the possibility of losing the old U.S. capital as well. Meanwhile, Flora Hamburger, a
Socialist from
New York, gains a nomination from her party, installing her as one of the first women in the
House of Representatives in this alternate timeline. Faced with a shortage of eligible white men, the Confederacy is forced to consider a bill that would allow blacks to serve in the
C.S. Army, even though a number of them had
rebelled against the same government that is now offering citizenship to volunteers. The novel ends at the end of the
1916 presidential election where incumbent
Democratic President Theodore Roosevelt and
Vice President Walter McKenna are re-elected over
Socialist Party candidate
Eugene V. Debs by a wide margin with the
U.S. Army moving further into Confederate territory. ==Reception==