The novel depicts an alternative version of the American Civil War in which the United Kingdom allies with the Confederacy after the Trent Affair. In our timeline, cooler heads prevailed after the seizure of the RMS Trent by Union forces, with the British retaliating only diplomatically by recognizing the Confederacy as a belligerent, instead of merely being in rebellion.
Plot
In late 1861, the United Kingdom gets involved in the American Civil War on the side of the Confederacy in the wake of the Trent Affair. In early 1862, the Union attempts to win a decisive victory against the Confederacy before British reinforcements arrive in the Americas at the Battle of Culpeper but fail miserably because of the horrible leadership of George B. McClellan. However, after numerous defeats for the Anglo-Confederate Alliance and losing Robert E. Lee and most of Canada, the United Kingdom accepts an offer of peace from the Union on the latter's terms.
The British frame the Confederacy for supposedly causing the Trent Affair and switches sides in the war. As a result, the Confederacy admits defeat in early 1863, which ends the conflict two years sooner. John Wilkes Booth is arrested and sentenced to death for trying to help Confederate snipers kill US PresidentAbraham Lincoln and so Lincoln is never assassinated.
