Fictional presidents of the Confederate States of America

In reality, the Confederate States of America (1861-1865) has only had one president, who was Jefferson Davis. In various American Civil War alternate histories where the Confederacy won the American Civil War and continued its existence, various people have served in the office of the presidency of the Confederacy.

Historical figures

George W. Bush

• In the Family Guy episode Back to the Pilot, Brian Griffin prevented the September 11th attacks from occurring by telling his past self about them ahead of time when he had traveled back in time to 1999 with Stewie, originally to find a lost tennis ball. As a result, George W. Bush lost the 2004 election without any fear to exploit, returned to Texas and reformed the Confederacy from nine Southern states. This triggered a devastating Second American Civil War during which seventeen million people were killed in concentrated nuclear strikes along the Eastern seaboard. The original timeline was restored by the end of the episode.

John F. Kennedy

• In C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America, written and directed by Kevin Willmott, John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960 against Democratic candidate Richard Nixon (considered unlikely as he was a Northern, Roman Catholic Republican), when only twenty-nine percent of voters approved of slavery. This and Canadian advancements in culture and sport prompted Kennedy to pursue emancipation. However, Kennedy’s plans for emancipation and female enfranchisement were sidelined by the Newfoundland Missile Crisis and an expansionist campaign in Southeast Asia and ultimately ended by his assassination. In the film, he is stated as being the first Northerner to hold the Confederate presidency although this is contradicted by its companion website whose timeline mentions the election of other Northerners prior to Kennedy.

Robert E. Lee

• Robert E. Lee is often depicted as an independent successor to Jefferson Davis as President in American Civil War alternate histories, such as Bring the Jubilee and The Guns of the South.

James Longstreet

• In If the South Had Won the Civil War by MacKinlay Kantor, James Longstreet's presidency saw the adoption of the Liberty Bill in 1885 which abolished slavery throughout the entire Confederacy.
• In the Southern Victory Series book How Few Remain by Harry Turtledove, James Longstreet's presidency saw the Confederate purchase of Sonora and Chihuahua from the Mexican Empire, a Confederate victory in the Second Mexican War (1881-1882) and the manumission of the Confederate slave population (albeit as a condition of British and French military aid). His (fictional) grandson, Samuel Longstreet, served as C.S. Senator for Virginia and became the first Whig in Confederate history to lose a presidential election following the victory of Freedom Party candidate Jake Featherston in 1933.

William McKinley

• On the online timeline of the 2004 mockumentary CSA: The Confederate States of America, William McKinley served as the President of the Confederate States of America from the late 1800s until 1901. According to the timeline, he was president during the alternate version of the Spanish-American War, which sparked a resurgence in the Manifest Destiny and the Confederacy's continued expansion south that would continue well into the 1920s and would include all of the Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America as part of the nation's conquered territories. In 1901, McKinley was assassinated at the Pan-American Exposition (as in reality). However, instead of being shot by Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist, he was instead killed by an abolitionist.

Richard Nixon

• In the film C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America, a 2004 mockumentary directed by Kevin Willmott which depicts a timeline in which the Confederacy won the American Civil War, completely annexed and absorbed the United States, and perpetuated slavery. By 1960, when only 29 percent of voters approve of slavery, Democratic candidate Richard Nixon was defeated by Roman Catholic Republican candidate John F. Kennedy. On the online timeline of the film, it is reveled that Nixon was eventually elected Confederate President in his own right. During his presidency, Nixon travels to China in 1972 (the first time a Confederate President would do so). His talks with the Chinese government would open the way for Confederate-run labor camps to be run in China, which results in cheaper goods being made and imported from China. However, that year on June 17, five men were caught placing wire taps at the Watergate Hotel in order to spy on the Confederate National Committee. As the investigation wore on, it became clear that the orders came from high-up. How high up was unclear until a mysterious anonymous source, using the code name “Dark Throat”, tipped off the CBI that Nixon gave the orders to place the taps. Under pressure from the press and the CBI investigation of the Watergate scandal Nixon was forced to resign from the presidency on August 8, 1974 (as in real life). During his resignation speech he reminded the public, “I am not a Negro!”. Still, years from the event, the mystery surrounding the informant “Dark Throat” is still speculated about. The most popular theory is that one of the White House slaves had overheard the President, and turn against Nixon by turning him in to the CBI. With the penalty of slaves turning against their masters in the Confederacy being death, it is unlikely the informant would ever even be known.

Ronald Reagan

• In the 2004 mockumentary film CSA: The Confederate States of America, Ronald Reagan served as President of the Confederacy sometime during the 1980s. At one point in the film, a newspaper called CSA Today (a parody of USA Today) shows a picture of Reagan reporting his appointment of John Ambrose Fauntroy V as C.S. Commerce Secretary. In addition, a blurb quoting a Canadian prime minister (likely Brian Mulroney) saying "Mr. Reagan, tear down this wall!" also appears in the same newspaper.

Theodore Roosevelt

• On the online timeline of the 2004 mockumentary CSA: The Confederate States of America, Theodore Roosevelt served in the Spanish-American War in the Battle of San Juan Hill as part of the Rough Riders much like he does in reality. A journal excerpt describes the assault he led up Kettle Hill, "With a pistol in one hand an a saber in the other, he spurred his mount forward. His face grew flushed; his glasses clouded with steam; a wide grin covered his face. He saw the Spanish fleeing before him. He fired at one of them, who fell as neatly as a jackrabbit". The alternate version of the Spanish-American War would spark a resurgence in the Manifest Destiny and the Confederacy's continued expansion south that would continue well into the 1920s and would include all of the Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America as part of the nation's conquered territories. Theodore Roosevelt would eventually become Confederate President after 1901.

Woodrow Wilson

• In If the South Had Won the Civil War by MacKinlay Kantor, Woodrow Wilson leads the Confederacy into the First World War on the side of the Entente (alongside the United States led by Theodore Roosevelt).
• In the Southern Victory Series books The Great War: American Front and The Great War: Walk in Hell by Harry Turtledove, Woodrow Wilson is depicted as the ninth president of the Confederate States and a member of the aristocratic Whig Party. He became president in 1910 following his victory in the 1909 presidential election and lead the Confederacy (as a lame duck) during the First Great War (1914-1917) until March 1916 (when his term expired) on the side of the Entente against the United States, a member of the Central Powers in this timeline.

Fictional characters

Jake Featherston

• President in the Southern Victory Series by Harry Turtledove. The fictional timeline's equivalent of Adolf Hitler, he is motivated by his desire to fight a second war against the United States as revenge for the Confederacy's humiliating defeat in the First Great War and to eliminate the Confederacy's black population and its ruling aristocracy, believing that the former had 'stabbed the South in the back' and that the latter had incompetently led the Confederacy via the War Department and the Whig Party during the First Great War. He is the head of the Freedom Party, having been its presidential candidate in Confederate presidential elections since 1921. He is later killed by a Black freedom fighter named Cassius in 1944.

Wade Hampton V

• President in the Southern Victory Series by Harry Turtledove. The fictional descendant of Wade Hampton III, Hampton is elected President in 1921 over Jake Featherston (Freedom Party) and Ainsworth Layne (Radical Liberal), but is assassinated by Freedom Party stalwart Grady Calkins in Birmingham, Alabama in June 1922. In this alternate timeline, Hampton is the first president in either US or CS history to be assassinated.

President Lee

• The Southern Victory Series by Harry Turtledove mentions a "President Lee," though Robert E. Lee is often referred to in the series only as a general; it is never specified whether the president is intended to be him, his son Rooney Lee or his nephew Fitzhugh Lee.

Burton Mitchel

• President in the Southern Victory Series by Harry Turtledove. Possibly the fictional descendant of Charles B. Mitchel, Mitchel becomes President in 1922 after the assassination of Wade Hampton V. He successfully runs for election in 1927 (being erroneous said to be running for re-election) after the Confederate Supreme Court rules that he was eligible despite serving out more than five years of his predecessor's term, probably to prevent Jake Featherston from being elected. After the start of the Great Depression in 1929, Mitchel is blamed for the Confederacy's economic woes, with shanty towns across the country being dubbed "Mitcheltowns" (the equivalent of the U.S.'s "Blackfordburghs" and the "Hoovervilles" of our own realistic timeline). Mitchel would be the last Whig Party president of the Confederacy after Featherston's victory in the 1933 presidential election, defeating the Whig candidate Samuel Longstreet (the fictional grandson of James Longstreet).

Donald Partridge

• President in the Southern Victory Series by Harry Turtledove. A caricature of Dan Quayle, he became Vice President after an unsuccessful coup led by his predecessor Willy Knight (being considered Knight's polar opposite, a useless, harmless idiot who spent most of his time telling Featherston dumb farm-girl jokes and spending time in the company of various women). He eventually became C.S. president after Jake Featherson was assassinated by Cassius Madison, overseeing the Confederacy's surrender to and subsequent annexation by the United States after the Second Great War (1941-1944).

Gabriel Semmes

• President in the Southern Victory Series by Harry Turtledove. The possible descendant of Confederate Naval captain Raphael Semmes, Semmes succeeds Woodrow Wilson as President in 1916, having defeated Radical Liberal opponent Doroteo Arango in the 1915 presidential election. Semmes oversees the Confederate effort in the First Great War from 1916 until its eventual defeat by the United States in 1917, leaving office in disgrace in 1922 when his term expired.

See also

• American Civil War alternate histories
• Lists of fictional presidents of the United States