Four Peas to Creating an Authentic Alternative History: Preparation

We have come to the end of our series. If you haven't been following the series from the start here are links to Premise, Probability, and Possibilities. We now move on to our fourth Pea, what I like to call:

P#4: Preparation

I can hear you scream, "what was I doing during the previous three steps?" That was preparing your premise to make a story. Now comes the fun part (at least for me) researching your characters. I have created little who's who bios for just about every fictional character I have created. I know when they were born, where, where they were educated, who they married, how many children they have, who were their classmates, etc. While this may seem an exercise in absolute tedium, there is a point. Without doing this step your Alt-Hi will become Sci-Fi. Not in the sense of the typical definition of the genre, but because your character will seem an outside "alien" observer to the events you describe instead of being able to seamlessly interact with their surroundings. 

Why do you have to do this? You are changing the outcome of one premise, but your character must still be believable within the "correct" timeline. In the case of my story, the key character, John Lee Anderson, is the brother of Robert Anderson of Fort Sumter, went to West Point at the Same time as Grant, served with him in the Mexican War, and during post war assignments in the South, married a distant cousin of Jefferson Davis and retired from active service, and is the father of three sons and one daughter, all of whom have followed their father into military service, to the great disappointment of their mother. Called back into service and assigned to the "Northern reaches of the Nebraska Territory" by President Pierce, he sees his responsibility to the people of the Western States and Territories as outweighing his duty to Washington. That is the bare bones type of research that I do, and I put it into a nice bio that looks like this. (For space concerns I have not done John Lee Anderson but Kenneth Mark Bassett, a supporting character.)

Bassett, Kenneth Mark
b. May 11, 1831 Portland, ME. Graduates from U.S. Military Academy, 1851. Stationed at Fort Kent, ME on Border Patrol 1851-1855. Assigned to command of Brigadier General John Lee Anderson in Nebraska, 1855. Commissioned Captain, 1855. Chief of Police, Upper Nebraska Territory, 1855-61. m. Kimberly Ann Chase, March 21, 1858. Commander Military District Number Five, Wyoming, Dakota Territory, 1861. Commander of Camp Teton (1861-63) and Fort Shoshone (1863-1889). Commissioned Major, 1862. Founder of Territorial Police, 1870. Commissioned Major, Republican Army, 1875. Second Colonel, 1878. Colonel, 1880. Governor of Wyoming (1893-1905). d. Tuesday June 13, 1922 Cheyenne, WY.

I think you can see that, by creating a "life" for your character, you have also created a purpose for his existence in your story (other than a story needs a character). If you do all these steps, you are now in possession of a premise that will survive not only one story, but even being turned into a multi-novel series. You can now begin to write.

The Grand Tour: Wyoming

Once Texas seceded the action in The West paused, at least temporarily, for the laws of mature required a reaction from the East. It was long overdue.

When Alaska proclaimed herself a Republic, Washington did nothing. When Nevada seceded, Washington did... Nothing. When Iowa seceded and seized the federal arsenal on Rock Island Washington did, once again, nothing. Yes, I will admit, they did call a peace conference after Nevada left, but with the Civil War as precedent, we all know how those turn out. Nothing would come of it but delay, which the Republic would use and the U.S. would squander.

By the time that Texas, for the third time in its history, proclaimed itself to be the Republic of Texas, Washington seriously began to think about maybe, quite possibly, doing something. In the typical glacial pace of Washington politics, four weeks would pass before President Grant decided to order a blockade of the Texas Coast. If Grant had not been so caught up in his campaign slogan of "Let us Have Peace", and had been more of the General who saved the Union, he may have ended the dreams of Western Independence before they had taken root. Grant's delay saw to it that three states would become six, and the territories would unite.

The uniting occurred at the Convention of Territorial Governors, which was hastily called to assemble in Cheyenne, the Capitol of Wyoming Territory. The City grew up along the Union Pacific Railway and was also the start of the Cheyenne-Deadwood Trail. The Territory was the also the Fifth Military District of General John Lee Anderson's command. It was established at the commencement of the Civil War by Kenneth Mark Bassett, a native of Portland, Maine, and has its headquarters at Lander, a town near the Wind River. Fort Shoshone is the Chief Garrison of the district, and it commands four other forts, including Bridger and Laramie.

Washington has its forts in the territory as well, but their loyalty is questionable. Of the Six forts established by the U.S. Army since the end of the Civil War, none of them have rushed to Washington's aid. Actually, the official standard is neutrality. For Washakie, 15 miles from Shoshone, is the only one of the six to declare loyalty to the West.

The strategic placement of Wyoming has led it to become the unofficial War Department at the early stages of the War. We shall see if Washington realizes it in time.