Stephen Karlson (shkarlson) wrote in 50bookchallenge,
Stephen Karlson
shkarlson
50bookchallenge

CUSTER DIED FOR SICKLES'S SINS.

I was intrigued enough by Newt Gingrich and Thomas Forstchen's Pearl Harbor to pick up their Gettysburg: A Novel of the Civil War, Grant Comes East, and Never Call Retreat: Lee and Grant: The Final Victory (the last adding Albert S. Hanser and a surfeit of colons). It's alternative history and I'll avoid spoilers, although readers familiar with If the South Won Gettysburg might get the idea how things start. The ending will be different, however. Sic semper Book Reviews 36, 37, 38. My title refers to one postwar development that will have to turn out differently. The construction of the Transcontinental Railroad and the Hoosac Tunnel will also follow a different course. The Rockville Bridge and Thomas Viaduct still stand, and as far as I can see, the strategic threat to Horseshoe Curve will have to wait for Hitler. The railroads played a major role in the campaign as it unfolded. Genl Lee comes off as the bull-headed Suvorov.    The structure of the titles remind me of some of Bruce Catton's works, in which the events as they actually happened provide material enough.

(Cross-posted to Cold Spring Shops.)
Tags: alternate history, historical fiction, military
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