minfigCharmed wrote:
Crazy ... and then?
You'll find out soon...

Here is a list of historical references I made during the story that not everyone might get. I figured explaining them would make folks happy:
In the first chapter, the soldiers refer to the "late, great, Stonewall Jackson." In the story and real life, General Jackson was killed by friendly fire.
In real life, nations who semi-supported the CSA included: Britain, Holland, Brazil, Spain, France, and others.
Generals MacPherson and Ramirez are fictional.
The word "dagoes" used in the line "Why, I heard tell that in North Caroliney, they have a whole regeement made upa Dagoes" is a little-used offensive term for Italians. I'm not promoting the usage of the word, I'm just showing the xenophobia that was entrenched in 19th century America.
Gordon's hatred of blacks and Jews mirrors Hitler's.
MacPherson's Lament was a real song sung by the 19th century Anglo-Scottish army.
The maps of Alaska in Lincoln's ofice are references to how the US bought Alaska; in this story, that hasn't happened...yet.
The term "president's office" is correct. The famed Oval Office wasn't even a room until 1909, during William Howard Taft's administration.
General Pickett was a real general who led the famous failure that was the Confederate charge at Gettysburg. However, that failed charge never happens in my story.
The "American People's Party" is based on Germany's National Socialist Party.
In Gordon's campaign speech, the first line is based on the Ku Klux Klan rally scene from the movie "Oh Brother, Where art Thou?"
In Gordon's campaign speech, the line about "the disgraceful treaty" is a reference to the way Hitler used to talk about the Treaty of Versailles.
In Gordon's campaign speech, the line "Four score and eight years ago, our forefathers brought into being our Grand Republic" is a reference to the famous Gettysburg Address: "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."
Gordon being a Virginia native and thus, a "foreigner," mirrors Hitler, who was not German, but Austrian.
The line in the campaign speech where Gordon refers to a "Hamlin" is a reference to Lincoln's first vice president Hannibal Hamlin.
Ambrose E. Burnside, Gordon's vice president, was a famous Union general in real life.
In Gordon's campaign speech, the line where he says "I am America and America is me!" is a reference to the famous Triumph of the Will speech. In it, Nazi big-wig Rudolf Hess shouts "Hitler is Germany! Germany is Hitler!"
The Union recession following defeat in the Civil War is based on the Great Depression in the German Weimar Republic following WWI.
The way "Gordon ordered the state militias to provide 20,000 soldiers "to suppress, by force, if necessary, the Mormon usurpers," is similar to what Lincoln did at the beginning of the Civil War in real life.
"Deseret" was once a real place. War broke out between Mormons and the US in the mid-1800's.
General Custer was at Appomattox when the war ended in real life. He was famous for making his highly stupid Last Stand at Little Bighorn. His "lightning war" tactic in my story is another Nazi reference; the English translation of "Blitzkreig" is "Lightning War."
General Joe Hooker was a real Union general.
The Confederate "slave colonies" are supposed to mirror Liberia, a US-established country to
deport slaves to.
There actually was a Paraguayan dictator named Fransisco Lopez who fought a bloody war with Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay.
Brigham Young was a Mormon leader in real life. There is even a modern college named Brigham Young University.
The Gordon-founded "Congressional Commitee on Un-patriotic Activities" is a reference to the Stalinist trials in the Soviet Union.
The Presidential Guards are the product of, as the story suggested, my reading about the French Royal Swiss Guards and Spanish Wallooon Guards. It was also based on the German SS.
The place where it says Gordon's coup d'état took place on George Washington's birthday is a nod to how the famous Nazi Kristallnacht took place on famous Protestant preacher Martin Luther's birthday.
J.E.B. Stuart, who became the CSA's president in my story, died in the Civil War in real life.
In case you aren't American and don't get the joke about Sarge's real name, John W. Booth was the man who assassinated Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theater after the end of the war in real life.
General von Bredow, the Prussian Jake Lee shoots, was an actual Prussian General in the Franco-Prussian War who actually did lead a disasterous cavalry charge in battle.
The "Big Four" is a reference to Churchill, Stalin, and FDR during WWII. They were known as the "Big Three."
The "Quadruple Alliance" was actually an alternate name for the Central Powers in WWI. Although, I had no idea of that when I wrote it, unbelievably.
"Operation: Northern Lion" in my story is a reference to the Nazi "Operation: Barbarossa." "Northern Lion" was what people called the Swedish monarch Gustavus Adolphus during the Thirty Years War. "Barbarossa" was a German king during the Crusades.
Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa Selim of Iraq is a deliberate look-alike to Saddam Hussein.
The books Lincoln prescribes to the publisher are real and were the books the USSR were founded upon.
In my story, William McKinely, an angry officer, shot Lincoln. You may know that McKinely, in real life, was president of the US at the turn of the century. What you may not know, however, is that McKinely
himself was assassinated in real life.
Gordon's line: “Christmas Day, 1871; a day which will forever live in infamy," is an obvious nod to FDR's speech about Pearl Harbor.
I hope this helps people enjoy the story!
