What fascinates me in particular is the point of divergence between recorded history and this timeline, which is outlined in the prelude of the book which surrounds General Lee’s Special Order 191 which outlined plans for an invasion of the north.

• In recorded history a Confederate messenger lost the order, The orders were found by Union soldiers, and was key to the Union victory at the Battle of Antietam.
• In How Few Remain, the orders are instead recovered by another Confederate soldier. McClellan is caught by surprise, enabling Lee to achieve victory and eventual independence from the United States.

This seemingly inconsequential event in the course of history has drastic consequences to all the history after it. Abraham Lincoln lives and is a professional orator expounding the writings of Karl Marx, the French and English are strong allies of the Confederates, George Custer and John Pope are almost demonized as they lead a US mission to quell a Mormon rebellion in Utah, among other important changes to history.

I find it fascinating that such a small event could have such an incredibly large impact. It seems similar to stories (does anyone know one in particular?) of a time traveller going back in time, only to swat a fly that is pestering him without thinking twice. When he returns to his own time, he finds it drastically different from when he left. The fact that something so small can have such far reaching effects really makes one think about how the drastically our future could be changed by a minor decision or action that we wouldn’t even think twice about.

Turtledove is able to make this alternate history incredibly believable If you’re not too caught up in the individual actions and personalities of these historical figures, the characters as they are laid out in the book operate in a very logical manner. All the historical figures used as characters are key to the plot – avoiding the common pitfall of alternate history novels interspersing cameos for the sake of setting the historical scene. The reader is left believing that this is exactly what would have happened had the Civil War ended in this way.

I look forward to seeing how this timeline progresses in Turtledove’s Great War Trilogy which shows the alternate history of World War I. I will post my thoughts on those other novels as I finish them.