The Man Who......

 

General George Armstrong Custer walked into the hotel room in Washington and the notables gathered therein jumped up as though Jesus himself had entered. They looked at his as Jesus since he would have to save them. Because he was the only hope the Democratic Party had of winning the Presidency in the upcoming election in the centennial year of 1876.

The only potentate who did not rise was the nominal canid ate Governor Samuel J. Tilden of New York who had been selected by the convention to carry the banner of the Democratic party. A handsome individual in expensive clothing with a diamond stickpin in his cravat he looked at the strutting gamecock with a jaundiced eye. He had been designated as the candidate by the convention but the party bosses wanted to what you should never do. Change horses in midstream. They wanted to replace him with the Hero of the Battle of the Little Big Horn.

Bayard and Thurman who had been among the bitter rivals that had contested the nomination were leading the charge. Even Hendricks who Tilden had taken on as his Vice-Presidential nominee was in on the attempt to steal the nomination. The only one who refrained was General Winfield Scott Hancock who thought if a general was to be the nominee it could only be him.

The problem was that the “soft money” contingent led by John Kelly from his own state of New York wanted to abrogate his victory and turn to a successful general to combat the dominance of the Republican Party ever since the War Between the State. They wanted to flood the nation with greenbacks instead of going back to the gold standard that Tilden embraced. This strutting peacock would be their puppet in this since he knew about as much about economics as a dog did about Latin. It is the rest of the duties of a President that would be the rub.

“Gentlemen thank you for inviting me to meet with you today. I have just arrived from the Dakota’s where we put paid to the savages as you well know.” Custer stood tall in his fringed buckskin jacket and battered felt hat like he had just ridden in from the battlefield. He was a theatrical presence of that there could be no doubt. He couldn’t even appear in his correct dress uniform. If these idiots thought they would control this vainglorious lout they had another thing coming. There was no doubt that he would take them into another war.

“Please sit down General and we can put our proposal to you.” John Kelly motioned to a seat in the middle of a circle of chairs that had been set up for the group to discuss their plans. It seemed that the New York Tammany Hall ward heeler had been chosen to be the spokesman for the group. Which was bad news for the Governor since his bitter break with Tammany Hall had poisoned the well. Now the Sachem would have his revenge by stealing the nomination.

Custer in Chains!

One of my favorite authors of alternative history Robert Conroy has come out with a great new page turner called "1882 Custer in Chains."

It seems that Custer brought along a couple of Gatling guns and survives the fight at Little Big Horn. He became a national hero and was elected President. In reality there was a little boomlet for him to do just that in real life and if he had triumphed at Little Big Horn this would have been a real possibility. In any event this lead to Custer leading us into a war with Spain much earlier than happened in our history with disastrous results.

I just started reading it and it has the usual excellent mix of historical personages and fictional characters that highlight all of Conroy's work.

If you want to sample Conroy's work I would also recommend what I think is his best book: "1901"

This is a great little story where Imperial Germany under the Kaiser decides to flex it's muscle by invading the United States to take away the colonies we had just taken from Spain. With very interesting appearances by Teddy Roosevelt, James Longstreet, Kaiser Wilhelm and a host of other historical personages you can see from a totally different perspective.

Alternative history is one of my favorite genres and I delight to see one of my favorites issue another book. With new missives from SM Stirling, Harry Turtledove and Eric Flint it is going to be a busy summer.

Highly recommended.

Those that forget history are doomed to repeat it.

There has been an renewed interest in the First World War as we are hitting the centenial of that conflict. The conditions that predated that conflict seem to be recurring again. Instead of the French and the Germans we have the USA and China. With Russia and India thrown in to boot.

There has been a revival almost nostalgia for the event that triggered the war. Cavrilo Princep murdered the Archduke and it all went down hill from there.

I am currently reading an book about alternative outcomes of the First World War called "In Other Trenches." It is very interesting.

The similarities to today's political scene are scary.

If you don't like the Kennedy's you will love "Castros Bomb"

I have getting books like crazy on my Kindle and I am always overjoyed to find something by one of my favorite authors to add to my reading list.

I have always enjoyed the work of Robert Conroy who is one of the best alternative history guys around. I first started reading him with his very cool book "1901" where he imagines a world where the Kaiser invades the United States because he wants to steal the colonies we acquired during the Spanish American War. That book was a lot of fun as were his later books: "1945 Red Inferno" "1945" "1942" and "1862" in which he picks a pivotal year in one of our wars and wonders what would have happened if a few things changed. He seamlessly blends real life historical characters with those of his own invention to tell some great stories.

In "Castro's Bomb" he wonders what would happen if after the Cuban Missile Crisis our buddy Fidel decides to attack Guantanamo Bay and at the same time steal a couple of the tactical nukes that Russia had secreted in Cuba at the time. There are some great battle scenes but the best part of it is the depiction of Kennedy and his relationship to Lyndon Johnson, Maxwell Taylor and a bunch of other historical figures from Camelot. For example when he meets a CIA analysis he is more interested in checking out her tits than what she has to say about Castro. It is a lot of fun.

Highly recommended for some light reading.

An Alternative world.

I just finished the second book in Taylor Anderson’s alternative history series called “Destroymen: Crusade.” This series is about two World War Two destroyers that are mysteriously sent to an alternative universe to an alternative earth with the same geography as our own. But in this world the dinosaurs were never wiped out and two sentient races developed. The Lemurians who are a cat like or lemur like race that allies itself with the humans and a lizard or dinosaur race of savages called the Grik.

The USS Walker and the badly damaged USS Mahon work to help in this battle for survival. Because the Grik do not mean to just defeat the Lemurians, they mean to totally destroy. To the point they will actually eat them. Holy cow! So to speak.

In Crusade, he has upped the ante. The Japanese cruiser that the Americans were dueling with before they entered the “Squall” that transported them to this parallel world has also been transported and has allied itself with the odious Grik. So the technological advantage has shifted.

The battle scenes and the descriptions of the conflict a ship full of men transported to another world are really first rate. I think this series is well worth a look.

Revisiting old favorites.

I love to reread my old books. The wife thinks I am crazy and wonders why I keep so many of my books but I always like to reread them over and over again. It is like visiting with an old friend. Since I am a very fast reader I zip right through them. But it is always enjoyable. So when I leave in the morning for the train I grab a book off the shelf and reread it.

This week I grabbed a nifty little piece of alternative history called "1901" by Robert Conroy. In it he asks what would happen if Kaiser Wilhelm decided that Germany should have the overseas possessions like Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines that the US had just taken from Spain. So the Germans invade New York to force the issue and get the US to turn over these overseas "colonies." It is a fun read. Not great literature but a page turner. As is usual in these books, the historical figures are fun but the fictional characters that are used as plot devices can get kind of tiresome. But it is still a great way to pass the time while riding the train to work.