January 1, 1970

Introduced by Richard M. Langworth

Churchill’s 1930 fantasy, which assumes the Confederacy won the American Civil War, is full of surprise twists, turns and reversals of reality. Not only does Robert E. Lee win the Civil War, he then frees the slaves! Gladstone becomes a Conservative, Disraeli, a Liberal. By 1914 Woodrow Wilson is President of the Confederacy, Theodore Roosevelt his counterpart in Washington. Together with the British Empire, to which they are attached in an ‘English-Speaking Association’, the three nations act to forestall the First World War. Lenin, Hitler, Mussolini, absent from World War I, are never heard about. Another aspect of Churchillian thought is the movement toward European unity in 1930 — led by Kaiser Wilhelm!

The noted Civil War historian Shelby Foote, no fan of counterfactual history, gave Churchill’s essay high praise: ‘This is fantasy which transcends all my objections to exploring the what-ifs and might-have-beens in that great war.’

Read the full article, here: ‘If Lee Had Not Won Battle of Gettysburg’, Finest Hour 103, Summer 1999) (Scroll to p.28)