When Virginia secedes from the Union, a slim majority of people in the western counties still hold pro-Union sentiments. They request that the Federal government send in troops to save them from their new Confederate overlords. The Federals heed their request and send an army of approximately 3,00 men into western Virginia. Everything continues as in our timeline until… ---June 2, 1861: Confederate Col. George A. Porterfield and his ill-trained 800 men are outnumbered more than 3 to 1 by the Federal forces. Realizing his green troops will not fair well unless he takes micromanages them, Porterfield monitors his troops constantly. He makes sure that they set up proper pickets (advanced sentries) and makes sure the troops maintain their defensive lines despite complaints of having to sit out in the rain. Porterfield further positions the 11th and 14thVirginia cavalry to hide in the hills on the two main approaches to the town and prepare an ambush. ---June 3, 1861: The Federal forces launch a predawn two-pronged attack on the town, but their advance is discovered by the Confederate pickets who sound the alarm. The Federal forces are shocked to find the Rebels entrenched with ramshackle barricades blocking their way. Fierce fighting continues until dawn, with the exposed Federals suffering many more casualties than the entrenched Confederates. Then Col. Porterfield gives the signal, and the Virginia calvary sweep out of the hills and fall upon the Federal supply wagons. The Federal troops panic. The troops the Union officers try to maintain command, but the companies quickly fall apart and begin to flee. With Rebel cavalry blocking the roads out of town, many Federal soldiers take to using the river as an escape route. The battle is henceforth referred to by the victorious Rebels as “the Philippi Swim Meet”. ---June – early July 1861: With the Confederate victory at Philippi, the sympathies of Virginia’s western counties begin to sway. Thousands of men flock to join Porterfield, and the Rebels continue to advance and retake the western counties. The Federal government fears that the swaying of opinions in western Virginia will leave Pittsburg open to invasion. Not wanting to lose the factories and mines in the area, many troops from Washington D.C. are redeployed to western Pennsylvania. ---July 21, 1861: Federal troops attempt to capture the town of Manassas, Virginia, and pave the way for the advance on Richmond. While they have much success early in the day, their attack stalls when the Confederates are reinforced by the First Virginia Brigade lead by one Thomas Jackson. (Due to the firmness of his defense, he will receive the nickname “Stonewall”.) With many of their forces already having been sent to defend Pittsburg, the Union army is defeated even more soundly than it was in our timeline. The few remaining Union forces barricade themselves inside Washington D.C. ---Late July – late October 1861: The Federal government considers recalling the troops from Pittsburg but decides against it when intelligence reveals a large Confederate force pushing into Kentucky to link up with Porterfield in western Virginia. With the victories at Philippi and Manassas, the sympathies of Kentuckians have swayed as well, and many of them bolster the Rebel ranks. Not wanting to lose another state to the Confederacy, the Federal forces in Pittsburg sweep down the mountains to meet the Confederates. The two sides battle up and down the Alleghany mountains, culminating in the Battle of Madison in Boone County, western Virginia. The battle lasts for several days, ending with a victorious Federal army. However, they fail to pursue the fleeing Rebels due to being constantly harassed by a cavalry unit under the command of one Nathan Bedford Forrest. Forrest harasses the Union troops for nearly a week, always seeming to slip from their grasp at the last second. His rapid movement distracts the Federal forces long enough for the Rebels to retreat across the mountains, earning him the nickname of “Flying Forrest”. Forrest was a bit of an eccentric. Even before the war, he expressed that he believed free men should be given the same rights, privileges, and pay regardless of their skin color. Thus, it was unsurprising that he allowed many of his slaves to join him in the fighting. Forrest would notice how well his black soldiers fought, sometimes outdoing even the white men under his command. This would greatly shape his later social policies. Elsewhere, the Copperhead movement (a political faction that wants to an end to the war, supports states’ rights, and has a strong white supremacist element) grows rapidly in popularity. ---October 31, 1861: Halloween celebrations in Washington D.C. are cut short Confederate Generals Beauregard and Johnston launch a full-scale attack on the city. Politicians and their families are evacuated to Philadelphia. President Lincoln is the last one to be evacuated, refusing to leave until the other politicians leave the city despite the Confederates slowly breaking the defensive line. ---November 1, 1861: The Confederates break through the Federal defenses just after dawn. The Federals retreat from the city and regroup at Philadelphia. As the Confederates celebrate the capture of the Federal capital, the free political prisoners that had been left in the city. Many of these prisoners were politicians from Maryland that had supported secession but had been illegally arrested by Lincoln before they could vote on secession. These Marylanders return to Baltimore with a Confederate escort and call for the vote on secession to finally be held. President Jefferson Davis declares the First of November to forever be celebrated as a day of Thanksgiving. ---November and December 1861: Maryland votes to secede from the Union and join the Confederacy. However, the vote was only passed because of the high population of Baltimore and the eastern counties. The western counties of Maryland respond by seceding from Maryland and joining and allowing themselves to be annexed by Pennsylvania. The lines in the East begin to stabilize. Beauregard and Johnston square off against Federal forces in Philadelphia and Delaware. General Stonewall Jackson guards the entrance to the Shenandoah Valley against encroachment from western Pennsylvania. General Forrest attempts to support pro-Confederate forces in Kentucky but is unable to push Union forces out of their static defenses around towns and mountains. In the west, the Confederacy sends ambassadors to the tribes in Indian Territory. The Chickasaw, Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, and Seminoles agree to join the Confederacy with the promise that any man that fights for the South will be eligible to hold a seat in the Confederate Congress. ---January – February 1862: With their victories the previous year, the Confederacy is able to convince Britain and France to intervene on the side of the Confederacy. While the European powers refuse to commit land forces to the conflict, they do use their massive navies to break the Union blockade of the South and institute a blockade of the North. With the war going badly for the Union, New York City and the state of Indiana vote to let the Federal government use their citizens as soldiers. Lincoln orders troops stationed in Fort Wayne to arrest the governor of Indiana as well as the state legislatures, and he orders Col. William T. Sherman to retake NYC. The people of NYC put up a brutal resistance. Infuriated, Sherman orders partial burning of the city. Lincoln is pleased with the put down of the insurrection and promotes Sherman to general. Riots erupt across the country in protest. ---March 1862: Individual counties and cities begin to recall their troops from the Union army. Lincoln orders the Federal forces still loyal to secure major industrial centers. The Confederate allied Indians push deep into Kansas. Confederate ambassadors begin wooing tribes of plains Indians. ---April 1862: Iowa and Minnesota recall all their troops to stop the advance of Confederate allied Indians into their states. Lincoln orders the Federal army to stop those troops from leaving. Most officers refuse to comply. Those that do spark mutinies with the boys from Iowa and Minnesota and those sympathetic to them. Desperate for more men, Lincoln begins heavily recruiting recent immigrants, flooding the ranks of the Federal army with soldiers that do not share culture or language with the American born troops. Lincoln also uses his connections from his days as a railroad lawyer to bring in the Pinkertons and other private law enforcement groups to bolster loyalist ranks. ---May 1862: Kentucky holds a second vote on secession, this time leading the state to join the Confederacy. Troops from Iowa, Minnesota, and Kansas stop the Confederate advance on their western borders. These troops then turn to stop a new Confederate advance into Missouri. Although they lose southern Missouri, they manage to hold onto the northern counties. Meanwhile, throughout the Union, clashes between loyalists and state forces intensify. ---June 1862: With their economy straining from the war with the Confederacy, the war with the loyalists, and the European blockade, the states of New England secede and form their own country. Long Island and the remnants of New York City join them. The Republic of New England seeks a separate peace with Britain and France. Furious, Lincoln orders General Sherman to advance into New England and to “leave not a leaf, a blade of grass, or an ear of corn unkindled by the flame”. Battles between state and loyalist forces consume the Union. The southern counties of Illinois (a heavily democrat area) vote to secede and join the Confederacy. ---July 1862: on the 4th of July, a disgruntled carriage repairman named George Atzerodt assassinated President Lincoln. Before he can be caught, Atzerodt’s friends whisk him off to Confederate Maryland where Atzerodt is hailed as a hero. Andrew Johnson is sworn in as the new president of the United States. His first act in office is to sue for peace with the Confederacy. In the final peace agreement, The United States recognizes the C.S.A. as a sovereign state and relinquishes all claims to its territory, including Kentucky, eastern Maryland, southern Illinois, and southern Missouri. Furthermore, the Union relinquishes all claims on the lands of the Indian tribes that supported the Confederacy as well as the Confederacy sympathizing territories of New Mexico and Arizona. The C.S.A. allows the few hold out counties in western Virginia to be annexed into Ohio. The European fleets end their blockade of the American coast. Once peace is made with the Confederacy, Johnson orders the loyalists to stop their attacks, grants amnesty to anyone who sided against the federal government and tries to convince New England to rejoin the Union. New England refuses. ---August – December 1862: The Indian tribes that had sided with the Confederacy hold elections and send representatives to Congress. These Indian congressmen introduce a bill that would make Indians full citizens within the Confederacy. While the other Confederate congressmen recognize how significant a role the Indians played in the defeat of the Union, they are hesitant to give them full citizenship straight away. A compromise is reached, in which the Indians in Confederate territory will be given full citizenship in 1872. Meanwhile in the Union, Pres. Johnson struggles to hold the remaining states together. He is eventually impeached and removed from office. In the resulting emergency elections, Clement Vallandingham of the new Copperhead Party is elected President. Vallandingham begins enacting reforms to give more governmental power to the states but forging a more united national culture. He also imposes laws that greatly restrict the rights of immigrants and people of color. Meanwhile, two residents of New York City, Theodore Roosevelt Sr. and his wife Martha, divorce over their loyalties during the war. Martha goes to live with her family in the Confederacy and takes most of their children with her. However, Theodore Sr. gains custody of Theodore Junior, and the two leave New England to move to Senior’s country estate in the union state of Hiawatha (formerly upstate New York). ---Late 1860s: Alexander Stephens is elected the second President of the Confederacy. Stonewall Jackson is elected governor or Virginia while Gen. Forrest is elected governor of Tennessee. Jackson, who had long despised the institution of slavery, helps pass a bill that will gradually abolition of slavery, with full emancipation coming into effect on January 1, 1880. There is some outcry from the other states, but the Confederate government allows the bill to pass since the Constitution doesn’t allow the Confederate government from ending slavery but says nothing about the individual states doing so. Forrest proposes a bill that would grant civil rights to all freemen in Tennessee. The bill is hotly debated but is eventually passed alongside another bill that will give women the right to vote (in the hopes that the votes of white women will offset the votes of the new black citizens). The Confederate Indians help Texas put down the Comanches and Apaches who refused to join the Confederacy. South Carolina declares all its coastal cities to be free ports, resulting in an economic boom. The rest of the Confederacy and as well as New England enact similar laws, resulting in an uptick in their economy as well. NYC uses the new revenue to begin rebuilding its city. The U.S. keeps its high tariffs in place, believing it needs the money to rebuild its fractured nation. The Copperhead Party comes to dominate Union politics. In Canada, seeing that the small country of New England has done so well on its own, a slim majority votes not to become a confederation. ---1870s: The transcontinental railroad, whose construction had stalled after the war, is finally completed. P.T. Beauregard is elected president of the C.S.A. with Johnston as his vice president. Afraid that their slaves will run away to Virginia once it abolishes slavery, Maryland and Kentucky also begin the process of gradual emancipation. The Cheyenne tribe votes to join the Confederacy, since becoming a state would allow them greater power to protect their borders and culture. The Cheyenne pass a law banning white settlers from entering their state. This leads to conflict with Union citizens living in the Colorado territory, which the Cheyenne claim is rightfully theirs. The dispute becomes so violent that Confederate troops must be sent in to keep the peace. This angers the Union government, which threatens military action. To distract them from the border dispute, the Confederates begin funneling weapons to the Lakota including canons. Confederate advisors also instruct the tribe on building factories and foundries. These weapons make the Indian Wars of the northern plains very bloody. The Lakota trade some of their weapons to the Metis of Canada. The Union government passes a law deporting all people of color. Many of them flee to Tennessee or the western Confederate states. Tennessee’s burgeoning factory industry benefits greatly from the influx of workers. Following Tennessee’s example, Texas passes civil rights and women suffrage laws. When California attempts to expel its citizens of color, the Latino population stage a popular revolt. They capture the city of San Diego as well as the eastern counties bordering Arizona. They send a telegram to the Confederacy requesting annexation. Confederate troops from Texas, the Arizona Territory, and the New Mexico Territory cross the Sierras, and South California becomes the newest Confederate State. Seeing that they can’t count on protection from the federal government, California votes to become an independent republic and takes Oregon with it. The California Republic begins to trade more with China, Japan, and Russia than the countries of western Europe. Seeing how weak the Union has become, British troops annex Washington Territory into British Columbia. The governor of the Union Territory of Utah makes a proposition to the Confederates. If the Confederates allow them to have the land in the Colorado Territory west of the Rocky Mountains, the Confederates can annex the rest of the Colorado Territory and Utah will sever all ties with the Union. The Confederates agree. Utah takes Colorado’s western counties and declares itself the Republic of Utah. The Confederates grant the white Union settlers that remain on the Confederate side of the mountains the southern counties as a state separate from Cheyenne, ending the border dispute. The Lakota turn the tide of the war and push into Union territory. The Lakota and Union eventually sign a peace treaty that gives the Lakota half of the state of Minnesota and demilitarizes the border between the two nations. Having lost a war with Indians and with the federal government caring more about building the nation’s economy than the workers and farmers, a new party enters Union politics. The Sickle party originally was the party of farmers disgruntled by railroad and business tycoon forcing them off of their lands, but it gradually came to support workers unions in the city as well. The Sickles win seats in districts heavily affected by the railroad tycoons but fail to gain a majority in the House or Senate. Meanwhile, north of the border, Alberta, Saschatewan, British Columbia, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories come together to form the Commonwealth of Ocenas, named after the Cree word for village. They buy Alaska from the Russians. ---1880s: Slavery is abolished in Kentucky, Virginia, and Maryland. North Carolina becomes the first state to pass a gradual emancipation law and civil rights law at the same time with Arkansas being the second. Panicking over the potential of all its slaves running away, Missouri immediately emancipates its slaves. This causes a humanitarian crisis, as uneducated, unemployed freedmen wander the state looking for work. South California, New Mexico, Arizona, and the Confederate Indians (except for Cheyenne) pass civil rights bills. Arizona, New Mexico, and the Confederate Indian tribes immediately emancipate their slaves, but they don’t face as big a problem as Missouri due to the low number of slaves in their borders. Texas institutes gradual emancipation. To be more centrally located, the Confederate capital is moved from Richmond to the newly built Confederate City of Dixie (C.C.D.) at the border of Texas, Arkansas, and Choctaw. It’s the only territory in the Confederacy directly under the control of the Confederate government. In the Union, the Sickle party gains control of the House of Representatives. Fearing that the Marxist ideas of the Sickles are being fueled by poor European immigrants, the Copperhead president of the Union institutes a $1,000 “citizen fee” for all immigrants attempting to enter the country. This greatly curtails the number of immigrants coming into the Union, most preferring to go to Canada, Australia, or the Confederacy instead. Meanwhile, New England buys New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia from the British Empire. The nation votes to change its name to New Britain. The Lakota annex the Metis majority regions between Canada and Ocenas. California annexes much of the Idaho valley to gain access to the mines and rich soils of the region. California stops its expansion at the Rocky Mountains, lest that action convince the Indian tribes in that region to join the Lakota or the Confederacy. Canada finally forms from the remaining eastern promises, with laws in place that ensure there is always an equal number of French and Anglo seats in the commonwealth’s parliament. ---1890s: The Confederacy is thrown into crisis when slave catchers from Mississippi are found crossing the border into Tennessee to search for runaways. The crisis eventually makes it to the Confederate Supreme Court. The Court sides with Mississippi, allowing slave catchers to go into free states and civil rights states to retrieve runaways. The non-slave states return to issuing papers to free blacks to prove they’re not slaves. A scandal ensues when a free family from North Carolina is forced into slavery by slave catchers from South Carolina. Free blacks and sympathetic whites form vigilante gangs to protect free blacks. These vigilante groups become united under the banner of the Cardinals (a political movement named after the official state bird of most of the free states). The Cardinals slowly grows into a political movement supporting the abolition of slavery and civil rights for the whole of the Confederacy. For the first time since the founding of the Confederacy, an amendment is proposed to the Constitution. The amendment proposes the abolition of slavery throughout the Confederacy, all former slaves will be granted citizenship, the right to vote being extended to all citizens, and civil rights being extended to all citizens. Meanwhile, in the Union, the animosity between the Sickles and the Copperheads begins to intensify and threatens to once again tear the Union apart. ---The year 1900: As the new century dawns, elections are held in both the Union and the Confederacy. The new amendment proposed the Confederate constitution passes with the required two-thirds majority vote from the states. The remaining slave states (Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida) threaten to secede from the Confederacy if the amendment is put into law. The Confederate government is split over how to respond, the old guard Democrats wanting to let them leave while the Cardinals want to force the slave states to comply. Meanwhile, in the Union, the animosity between citizens begins to subside with the arrival of a third party onto the political scene. Their presidential candidate is one Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt promises to address the complaints of both the Sickles and the Copperheads. From the sickles, he promises to nationalize many of the Union’s industries to support worker’s rights as well as to make sure the business tycoons do what’s best for the country and not just what’s best for their pocketbooks. For the Copperheads, his party will support ethno-nationalist policies that keep America white and encourages high birthrates among natural-born Americans. Roosevelt also rekindles an idea, a hope, that had been long thought impossible by most Americans: Manifest Destiny. The Union will stretch from sea to shining sea, and no Indians, no New Britons, and absolutely no colored Confederates will stand in their way. Roosevelt’s party promises a return to America’s golden age, and the citizens of the Union long for it. In the election of 1900, Roosevelt wins the presidency in a landslide. His party sweeps Congress, taking both the House and the Senate. The United States of America is now ruled by the National Socialist Party… This is the first alternate history timeline I've given any serious thought to. The purpose of this timeline is to focus on some aspects of Confederate history and policy that are often left out of most alternate histories, while also not making the CSA out to be some sort of utopian society (as any society created by man will inevitably never be a utopia). I apologize for the numerous spelling and grammatical errors in this post. I wanted to share this idea so badly that I wrote it all down rather quickly. I also apologize for the poorly drawn map that doesn't reflect all of the border changes mentioned in the timeline. This is done partially to my terrible drawing skills and partially due to the trouble with the jpeg. file I was editing.

Ok so there's this show called Designated Survivor and it is a fast paced and tense political drama/thriller. In the show it is the day if the State of the Union address to the Senate and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Tom Kirkman finds out that his policies in (fictional) President Robert Richmond's speech has been taken out. Later he gets a call telling him he will be the designated survivor. The designated survivor is a position in the real world where a low-level Cabinet member from the presidential line of succession, and who is eligible for the presidency (ex. 35+ yr. old, natural-born US citizen, ect.), is chosen by the President to be given presidential level security (including a military aide holding the nuclear football) and taken by the Secret Service to an off-site undisclosed location/facility to watch the State of the Union live on television. If say an explosion blew up the Capitol building then the designated survivor would become acting President of the United States until the deaths of the President, Vice President, Speaker of the House, and the others closer in line to the presidency than themself are confirmed. If everyone in the Capitol died the US government would be crippled. No Congress, Senate, House, Supreme Court, Vice President, and no Speaker. I find this a very interesting alternate history idea. Some think that the designated survivor President would resign seeing himself unfit for the office of President and in the show Kirkman is pressured to do just that. So I would like to hear everyone's ideas in some comments. Maybe this could become a video in the future. Who knows. Also something else there is usually always a second designated survivor who is almost always the President pro tempore of the Senate who is supposed to rebuild the Legislative branch of goverment (maybe even become Speaker of the House). Okay that's all so please come up with some great ideas people I can't wait.

The collapse came on a quiet Thursday at 1 PM. For years Johan Schmidt had been working on his solution to the quickly escalating climate crisis that had been rocking the world of 2030. The world was heating up at an alarming rate. Or at least that’s what Johan believed, he was the world’s first multi trillionaire who made his fortune after his company was the first to mine raw rescores from asteroids. With his seemingly endless wealth, he decided to give back to his fellow man. When he was younger he was a diehard radical eco-warrior but age had quenched his righteous desire to end industrialization. He instead decided to make a device that would end pollution but allow the industrial world to continue. This device though would be expensive and labor-intensive to build but Johan was concerned about the cost if it saving humanity. He had hired some of the best scientists, engineers, and architects to develop the purity towers. A device that would suck the carbon emissions out of the air and turn it into breathable oxygen. After the purity towers were developed he started pressuring governments to allow him to build his devices in cities all around the world by 2030 he had multiple towers in cities and towns across the globe. Of course, this was expensive he had invested much of his money into his devices, so much that he was near destitute and relying on funding from multiple companies and governments from around the world. This funding was at a cost, of course, many governments wanted the air produced to contain chemicals to make their citizens more pliable to government policies. While certain companies wanted advertising to show up in clouds. Whether it was this meddling in the project or a flaw in the tower's design what happened next was a disaster that was so devastating that the world would never be the same. For when the first tower in Berlin came online there was a deep rumbling then a putrid green fog exploded out of the vents that adorned the tops of the towers. Anyone who breathed the fog died nearly instantly by the time news escaped Berlin it was too late the towers we activated and 80% of the world’s population was dead. The collapse came on a quiet Thursday at 1 PM. For years Johan Schmidt had been working on his solution to the quickly escalating climate crisis that had been rocking the world of 2030. The world was heating up at an alarming rate. Or at least that’s what Johan believed, he was the world’s first multi trillionaire who made his fortune after his company was the first to mine raw rescores from asteroids. With his seemingly endless wealth, he decided to give back to his fellow man. When he was younger he was a diehard radical eco-warrior but age had quenched his righteous desire to end industrialization. He instead decided to make a device that would end pollution but allow the industrial world to continue. This device though would be expensive and labor-intensive to build but Johan was concerned about the cost if it saving humanity. He had hired some of the best scientists, engineers, and architects to develop the purity towers. A device that would suck the carbon emissions out of the air and turn it into breathable oxygen. After the purity towers were developed he started pressuring governments to allow him to build his devices in cities all around the world by 2030 he had multiple towers in cities and towns across the globe. Of course, this was expensive he had invested much of his money into his devices, so much that he was near destitute and relying on funding from multiple companies and governments from around the world. This funding was at a cost, of course, many governments wanted the air produced to contain chemicals to make their citizens more pliable to government policies. While certain companies wanted advertising to show up in clouds.  Whether it was this meddling in the project or a flaw in the tower's design what happened next was a disaster that was so devastating that the world would never be the same. For when the first tower in Berlin came online there was a deep rumbling then a putrid green fog exploded out of the vents that adorned the tops of the towers. Anywho breathed the fog died nearly instantly by the time news escaped  Berlin it was too late the towers we activated and 80% of the world’s population was dead.