In 1991, S.M. Stirling published The Charge of Lee's Brigade. The American colonies never broke away from the British Empire, its 1854 and Robert E. Lee leads a Virginian brigade in the Crimean War.

Since 1832 Viceroy's Commissions in the forces of British North America had been theoretically equal to the Queen's commissions in the British Army proper. 'Old School' Commander Lord Cardigan seemingly had not heard this news having a vocal contempt for all colonials.

Sent into the Valley of Death, the four regiments of American cavalry were decimated by Russian artillery, witnessed by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

So moving was the senseless slaughter, and angered by the use of the colonials as sub-human cannon fodder, Tennyson penned the immortal lines Theirs not to reason why / Theirs but to do and die.

The poem became a freedom rallying cry in the southern states. For the first time in almost a century, independence was talked about openly. The decision was free Americans, or sub-human colonials, and really, it was a no brainer that was settled very quickly. Within five years, Lee was sworn in as Confederate President in Richmond, whilst the Northern states remained within the Empire. Triangulation pressures emerged as one of the many causes of the War of the States that broke out in Lee's second term...