American Civil War alternate histories  

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American Civil War alternate histories are alternate history fiction that focuses on the Civil War ending differently or not occurring. The American Civil War is a popular point of divergence in English-language alternate history fiction. The most common variants detail the victory and survival of the Confederate States. Less common variants include a Union victory under different circumstances from actual history, resulting in a different postwar situation; black American slaves freeing themselves by revolt without waiting for Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation; a direct British and/or French intervention in the war; the survival of Lincoln during John Wilkes Booth's assassination attempt; a retelling of historical events with fantasy elements inserted; the Civil War never breaking out and a peaceful compromise being reached; and secret history tales. The point of divergence in such a story can be a "natural, realistic" event, such as one general making a different decision, or one sentry detecting an enemy invasion unlike in reality. It can also be an "unnatural" fantasy/science fiction plot device such as time travel, which usually takes the form of someone bringing modern weapons or hindsight knowledge into the past. Still another related variant is a scenario of a Civil War that breaks out at a different time from 1861 and under different circumstances (such as the North, rather than the South, seceding from the Union).

Film and television

• The Time Tunnel, episodes 12 ("The Death Trap") and 25 ("The Death Merchant").
• The Wild Wild West, episode "The Night of the Lord of Limbo"
• C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America, a mockumentary directed by Kevin Willmott.
• The Legend of Zorro, a sequel to The Mask of Zorro, which is not Civil War-related
• Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies
• Confederate, a planned-but-ultimately canceled HBO television series.
• Black America, a planned Amazon Video television series that focuses on the US government giving African-Americans their own homeland called New Colonia, consisting of the former slave states of Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi, after the Civil War

Games

• Aces & Eights: Shattered Frontier role-playing game, written by Jolly R. Blackburn, Brian Jelke, Steve Johansson, Dave Kenzer, Jennifer Kenzer and Mark Plemmons, and published by Kenzer & Company in 2007.
• Damnation by Blue Omega Entertainment and published by Codemasters.
• Deadlands role-playing game by Pinnacle Entertainment Group
• Dixie hex and counter board game by Simulations Publications Incorporated (SPI), the Union loses the Civil War and is trying to reclaim the Confederate States of America in the 1930s.
• Doomtown collectible card game by Alderac Entertainment Group, Wizards of the Coast, and Five Rings Publishing Group
• Doomtown: Range Wars, a Disk Wars game by Fantasy Flight Games
• GURPS Alternate Earths (1996), a supplement of alternate realities published by Steve Jackson Games for the GURPS Third Edition, which includes the alternate world codenamed "Dixie" in which the North American continent circa 1985 is divided between the northern US and the southern CS along an extended Mason–Dixon line. An updated (current year: 1993) but truncated description of this world, now known as "Dixie-1", was included in the revised Fourth Edition version of the book (see history at GURPS Infinite Worlds#Dixie-1).
• Victoria II, a grand strategy wargame by Paradox Interactive, offers an opportunity for the Confederacy to win the American Civil War and become a world power. It is also possible for a northern Free States of America, instead of the Confederates, to break away.
• Gettysburg: Armored Warfare, a man from 2060 travels back in time to the Civil War and brings weapons from his time that he gives to the Confederate forces in the hope of changing the future of America.
• Deo Vindice, an alternate history mod for Hearts of Iron 4 focusing on an independent CSA during World War II.

Comics

• Captain Confederacy (1986 and occasional tie-ins afterward) by Will Shetterly and Vince Stone.
• Elseworlds: Batman: The Blue, the Grey and the Bat (1992) by Elliot S! Maggin and Alan Weiss.
• Elseworlds: Superman: A Nation Divided (1998) by Roger Stern
• Elseworlds: Batman: Detective No. 27 (2003) by Michael Uslan and Peter Snejbjerg
• What If?: Captain America Volume 1, What If Captain America Fought in the Civil War? (2006) by Tony Bedard
• One issue of Supreme written by Alan Moore.

See also

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• Second American Revolution, a literary cousin or offshoot of Civil War alternate histories
• Second American Civil War, a plot device used in some works set in the future
• Hypothetical Axis victory in World War II, a similar plot device regarding an alternate outcome of World War II
• Fictional presidents of the Confederate States of America, a list of fictional Presidents of the Confederacy devolved from American Civil War alternate histories
• List of alternate histories diverging at the American Civil War