Harry Turtledove - "Timeline 191" Characters Quiz

Answer: General J.E.B. Stuart

In actuality Jeb Stuart was killed in action during 1864. But in this novel the American Civil War (known as the War of Secession) was won in 1862 by the south, so Stuart lives to be 50 in 1882. As commander of the Confederate States' trans-Mississippi forces he is ordered to stop the United States' army trying to prevent the CSA's annexation of new territory purchased from Mexico. Once he succeeds, his next difficult task is dealing with Geronimo and other troublesome former Indian allies.

In early 1882, the Indians shoot him in a remote mountain.

Answer: Jake Featherston

In 1917, after the CSA have lost to the USA (for once), the C.S. capital Richmond is in ruins. Semi-anarchy, soldiers patrolling the streets, bomb-wreckage everywhere and thousands of frustrated unemployed ex-soldiers wandering round. Frustrated about having fought a war for nothing.
Jake is one of them, but then he finds out about a small radical political party called The Freedom Party. He decides to join, not least because they insist it is time for a new revolution and a new government.

Answer: We are not told

In the 1880s he has decided to teach socialism to exploited miners and factory-workers across what's left of the USA. He is 71 years old (and clean-shaven) and many blame him for the existence of the CSA, but he travels regardless.

Answer: Major Abner Dowling

Dowling eventually becomes a general himself after Custer dies of old age. I suppose the message here is that if you stay in the army long enough and put up with the crummy jobs, you will eventually be promoted.
To be honest, I expected Dowling to die of a heart-attack at the end of the series - he was beyond obese!

Answer: Sylvia Enos

Hemingway is referred to as "Ernie" in these novels and his surname never given. But it is safe to assume this man is the same famous writer from our reality. Those who read "The Great War" trilogy for a second time will notice Lucien Galtier help a US ambulance driver called "Ernie" who's just been wounded below the waist.

In real life Hemingway was wounded in a similar manner - ending his career as a WW1 ambulance driver. Another parallel to his real life is that he commits suicide, in this series after accidentally shooting poor Sylvia, his partner (in every respect).

She'd tried to stop him blowing his own brains out and took the bullet instead. He then shot himself - several decades before doing so in real life.

Answer: Both

In 1914 poor Scipio was forced to join Cassius' revolution after stumbling across its planning. He could either join or be "silenced". As he predicted, the revolt failed miserably and he had to flee, calling himself "Xerxes" from then on. Cassius himself went hiding in the swamps and was later killed by C.S. militia. I was a bit surprised that years later Scipio named his son after someone he didn't exactly consider a friend. Several decades after his namesake died, the younger Cassius came across Jake Featherstone and shot him straight away.

He became an over-night hero in the US and went on to give lecture tours in Philadelphia, New York etc.

Answer: Alfred Von Schliffen

In real life Colonel Alfred Von Schliffen was the German officer who thought of the "Schliffen Plan" (funnily enough). That plan called for German troops to march unexpectedly across Belgium into France, quickly defeating the latter via an unexpected angle.

He was inspired by Hannibal during the Punic Wars, but according to "How Few Remain" he actually got the idea from Robert E. Lee's 1862 victory.

Answer: Jonathan Moss

Jonathan was one of original characters (after "How Few Remain", I mean) and I was pleased to see him survive to the end. He certainly had a colourful work history!

Answer: Chester Martin

U.S. President Roosevelt was visiting his troops stuck in trenches in 1916 on the Virginian front. In real life he was famous for bravely visiting front lines to show soldiers he hadn't forgotten them. He was speaking to them when suddenly a Confederate artillery barrage came out of nowhere and Chester threw the President to the ground just in time!

Answer: Cinncinatus

In 1914 before war broke out Cinncinatus lived in the C.S.A. in Covington, Kentucky. During the war he served as a truck driver for the US army after they'd annexed Kentucky. After the war Kentucky was formally made part of the U.S.A. again but Cinncinatus decided it would be wiser to move his family further north into his new country.

He thought it dangerous for any black family to remain close to the C.S. border when the Freedom Party grew. He later turned out to be quite right!

Answer: Both these men

Poor George Enos Senior was killed by a Confederate sub AFTER the 1917 ceasefire was received by the latter. 30 years later his son fought in the next war against the CSA, but he survived. After the 1944 ceasefire George Junior thought he'd be in the navy forever, but then an old acquaintance named Joseph P. Kennedy kindly arranged for his discharge. So, unlike his father, George went home to Boston.

Answer: Chester Martin

Chester Martin was another original character I was pleased to see survive the US-CS wars to the finish.

Answer: Arthur McGregor

When Arthur's son was suspected by the U.S. Occupation Forces of being a rebel, he was shot without trial. So I was on Arthur's side at first when he blew up the over-zealous Major Hannebrink and got revenge. But later on he started planting bombs and killing people simply because they were American, or Canadians who seemed to like Americans. I think the McGregor family were meant to show us that Americans or Canadians can be just as fanatical as middle eastern terrorists given the right circumstances.

Answer: Mark Twain

In real life Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) worked for a newspaper in San Francisco. Eventually he moved to his family's Tennessee lands, and started his writing there, later becoming famous. "Mark Twain" is something he heard local river-boat pilots calling out when measuring depth. But in "How Few Remain", his family's Tennessee lands now belonged to another country so he had to stay in California and edit the San Francisco Morning Call.

He was still just as funny and entertaining though (i.e. when writing about the broke Mexican Emperor selling land to the C.S.A. to pay his debts, he said "From his point of view, the sale actually makes a great deal of sense.

But he's apparently going ahead and doing it, anyway.")!

Answer: False

It was in fact his younger brother Tom Custer who died (at the hands of British redcoats, not Indians) in Montana. The brothers, Teddy Roosevelt and their men had won a great battle chasing the British off American soil back into Canada, when a ceasefire reached both sides. George Custer wept, realising his brother had just died pointlessly. For 30 years he wanted revenge on the Canadians, and was annoyed when Roosevelt (the new president) sent him to Kentucky during the next war.

The two men never got on.

Answer: Ferdinand Koenig

Clearly this guy was supposed to be the equivalent of Hitler's Himmler (or possibly Goring, too). He was a Freedom Party nobody until Jake joined in 1917 after the Great War ended. Koenig became Attorney General after Jake became President, telling Koenig it was better than Vice-President since it had more power and responsibility. Koenig was the one who telephoned the crowded Negro Internment Camps' commandants and said "Do whatever you have to do to make room for new arrivals." That was how the American Holocaust began.
Jefferson Pinkard ran the biggest death camp and thought up its methods, so he was Rudolf Hoess and/or Adolf Eichmann.
Willy Knight ran the Redemption League which joined Jake's party in the 20s. He later tried to kill Jake, so he was the equivalent of Ernest Rohm.
Saul Goldman was Minister of Propaganda and clearly the equivalent of Josef Goebbels. (Ironic - a Jewish Minister for Propaganda!)

Answer: Hosea Blackford

The other three actually existed. In real life they held other political posts and were either almost elected President or just nominated. Hosea Blackford became the equivalent of Herbert Hoover, the man in the White House blamed for The Depression. Even though it was hardly his fault, they nicknamed the homeless shanties popping up everywhere "Blackfordburgs" (they were called "Hoovervilles" in real life).
(They were also called "Mitcheltowns" in the C.S.A. after another fictitious president Burton Mitchel.)

Answer: Hipolito Rodriguez

It was a touching scene. Hipolito (buddies with camp commandant Jefferson Pinkard during the last war) had been pressured to join the camp guards. At first he too thought of gassing men, woman and children as nothing but "population reductions". But one day he saw past their black skins and realised they were people. Thus, as a good Catholic, he could never be forgiven nor wash the blood off his hands.

He decided the best thing was to grab his submachine gun, turn the safety off, put it into his mouth and...

Answer: Lucien Galtier

He lived in Quebec, the French-speaking part of Canada. The rest of Canada had always regarded Quebec as inferior, so when war broke out in 1914 its people helped the US soldiers. Lucien was one of funnier regulars. Not just with his habit of talking to his horse in public, but his observations about life, war, and the world.

Answer: Anne Colleton

Anne was one of the original characters from 1914 onwards. Her family had owned a cotton plantation whose semi-slave labour provided a wealthy lifestyle. When the blacks rose in revolt in 1915 the plantation was destroyed, but Anne and Tom (her only surviving sibling) still had more money than most people (which was handy during the hyperinflation after the war and the subsequent Great Depression).

She worked for The Freedom Party when the second war broke out and was killed in a U.S. bombing raid in South Carolina - ironically not far from the island of Fort Sumter, where the very first US-CS war began in 1861.