The story has something to do withna resistance movement against a Confederacynthat looks rather like SouthnAfrica. President Lee apparently freednthe slaves in the 1870’s, but signs stillnsay things like “Whites Only BeyondnThis Point.” (The Great Emancipatornwas the first President Lee. The currentnpresident, a woman, is a Lee, too.)nComing in at issue #11 as I did leavesnmuch to be desired, but the plot doesnseem confusing, not to say silly.nNevertheless, there’s much to enjoynhere. In particular, the letters sectionnoffers some engaging speculation fromnreaders. There seems to be generalnagreement that, in this world, the fragmentationnof the US didn’t stop withnthe 1860 War. Texas soon split offnfrom the Confederacy, and Californianbecame a separate country, too, alongnwith adjoining parts of Mexico. To thennorth is the Commonwealth of Columbia,nwhere (with no federal governmentnto build dams) happy NativenAmerican salmon fishers have largelynescaped history. Some of the letters areningenious; one, for example, explainsnwhy the Girl Scouts are found in thenConfederacy and Texas, and thenCampfire Girls in the US and Deseret.nSome incidental touches are nice,ntoo. One panel shows a can of Starsnand Bars Beer; the Good MorningnDixie television program offers an offhandnreference to “the Yucatan Territorynuprising”; and there’s a baseballncard for Fidel Castro, power-hitting leftnfielder for the Havana Smokes of thenConfederate League. (At $2.00 a pop,nI decided against a complete set ofnCaptain Confederacy, but you can getnone or all of the 12 available issuesnfrom the Steel Dragon Press, at Boxn7253, Powderhorn Station, Minneapolisn55407. Yes: Minneapolis.)nThe authors of Captain Confederacynare by no means the first to wondernin print about what the world would benlike if the ragged legions of the CSAnhad swept to victory; there seem to benalmost enough books on the subject fornus to call it a subgenre. But they surenare hard to track down. A friend tellsnme that Ward Moore’s Bring the Jubileen(1953) is one example, and HarrynHarrison’s A Rebel in Time (1983) isnanother. I’m especially determined tonfind the latter; it’s about a 20th-centurynsympathizer who travels back in time tonshow the Confederates how to makenautomatic weapons.nOne of the best-known suchntreatments (and one I have read) is bynMacKinlay Kantor, the author of Andersonville.nIn his unimaginativelytitlednIf the South Had Won the CivilnWar, as I recall, the South wins afternGrant is thrown from a horse andnkilled. When slavery proves economicallynunviable, naturally the slaves arenfreed. As in Captain Confederacy, thensecession of Texas reveals the inherentnweakness of the Confederate constitution—nor, alternatively, the devotion ofnSoutherners to their principles. Eventually,nhowever, Texas, the Confederacy,nand what is left of the US arenhappily reunited after they make commonncause against 20th-century totalitarianism.nKantor’s book was publishednin 1961, and shows it. inBy now, five generations of whitenSoutherners have enjoyed the counterhistoricalnfantasy of Confederate victorynand Southern independence. Innfact, that fantasy antedates the Confederacynitself In 1860, Edmund Ruffinnpublished Anticipations of the Future,na hostile response to the impendingnelection of Abraham Lincoln in whichnthe South endures eight years of Lincolnianntyranny before striking a successfulnblow for independence.nAs time has passed, though, thenimage of an independent ConfederatenStates of America has become droller.nAs in Captain Confederacy, the juxtapositionnof Confederate imagery andnthe accoutrements of modern lifenmakes for some cute effects. Here, forninstance, is Will Barrett, in WalkernPercy’s The Last Gentleman. Will isn20 miles from Richmond:nAs he ate Ritz crackers andnsweet butter, he imagined hownRichmond might be today if thenwar had ended differently.nPerhaps Main Street would benthe Wall Street of the South,nand Broad might vie with NewnOrieans for opera and theater.nHere in the White Oak Swampnmight be located the greatnLee-Randolph complex, biggernthan GM and making betterncars (the Lee surpassing bothnLincoln and Cadillac, the Lil’nReb outselling evennVolkswagens). Richmond wouldnnnhave five million souls by now,nWilliam and Mary be as goodnas Harvard and less subverted.nIn Chattanooga and Mobilenthere would be talk of then”tough, cynical Richmonders,”nthe Berliners of the hemisphere.nSometimes, as here, images of an independentnSouthland are used only tonamuse. Other times, though, as fornEdmund Ruffin, they have served contemporarynpolitical purposes.nConsider, for instance, last October’snCountry Music Association awards program.nJust before Hank Williams Jr.nwon his second straight Entertainer ofnthe Year Award, he regaled the TVnaudience with his current hit, “If thenSouth Would Have Won (We’d HavenHad It Made).” If you can leave asidenthe grammar (my wife can’t, or won’t),nit’s quite a song.nIf the South had won. Hank sangncheerfully, he’d run for President andnput the Supreme Court in Texas, sonmurderers would swing, “instead ofnwriting books and going on TV.” Younwonder why Lloyd Bentsen and whatsisnamenwere doomed before they startednin the South?nHank goes on. He’d have all the carsnmade in Carolina, and he’d “ban all thenones made in China.” (OK, songeography’s not his strong point, but allnthose Oriental cars do sort of look alike,ndon’t they?) Far be it from me to giventhe Democrats advice, but protectionismnand xenophobia a la Gephartnmight have played better than whatnthey came up with.nThere’s much more where thisncame from, but the point is that plainlynthe song’s subtext was a disparagingncommentary on the election of 1988.nSurely it’s no accident that the idea of anvictorious Confederacy made it to networkntelevision and the Billboardncountry music top ten at just the timenlast fall that some of us down here werenbiting our tongues while old Georgenwent on about the Pledge of Allegiance—nnot because we agreed withnwhatsisname, but because, deep down,nwe’re still not sure about “indivisible.”nJohn Shelton Reed reads comic booksnand listens to country music innChapel Hill, North Carolina.nJANUARY 1989/45n