For Want of a Nail

For want of a nail, the shoe was lost
For want of a shoe, the horse was lost
For want of a horse, the rider was lost
For want of a rider, the battle was lost
For want of a battle, the war was lost
For want of a war, the nation was lost

I’m not sure who actually penned this little saying but I know that Ben Franklin printed it in Poor Richard’s Almanac. Its used for the title of a book that I’m currently reading called For Want of a Nail. The book is written as a 200 year history of the North American continent assuming that General Johnny Burgoyne defeated the Americans under General Gates at the battle of Saratoga.

In 1777, the British launched a two-pronged attack along the Hudson River with the intent of cutting New England off from the rest of the colonies. Burgoyne’s force was coming from Canada and met an American army under General Gates and General Arnold. The Americans not only beat Burgoyne in a pitched battle, but because of the inability to retreat, he was forced to surrender completely. It was the only good news that came that year as Washington was pushed back from Philadelphia and the city was captured.

In the book, Burgoyne manages to defeat the American force, aided by reinforcements that arrived from the south and proceeds to capture Albany. With the loss of Philadelphia, the more moderate faction of Congress enters into negotiations with the British and a formal reconciliation is hammered out in 1778. In the book, the British give fairly generous terms and only end up executing a few major players in the war: Samuel Adams, John Adams, John Hancock, Roger Sherman, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Richard H. Lee, and Patrick Henry. Washington is convicted but sentenced to a prison colony.

The book then takes an interesting twist with the flight of some of the second tier founding fathers. Under Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and Gen. Nathaniel Greene, a group of settlers flee, to what for us would be Texas, and found a new nation called Jefferson. Back in the colonies, the territory is reorganized with a certain level of autonomous rule under British supervision and renamed the Confederation of North America (C.N.A.)

Currently I’m in the mid 19th century where the C.N.A. has just reorganized under a strong central government (very much like Canada now) with Gen. Winfield Scott elected as Governor-General (essentially the Prime Minister). Meanwhile the country of Jefferson has grown to include all the territory from the Rio Grande to within 50 miles of the Mississippi. The chapter I’m on now jumps back in time to the early part of the 19th century and will lay the foundation for the consolidation of Jefferson with the struggling republic of Mexico to form the United States of Mexico (U.S.M.).

For the most part it’s fairly believable. I question some small aspects of the development, including the economic factors that lead to the abolition of slavery in the C.N.A. But it reads well and is fairly entertaining. My only real complaint about the book is the authors annoying lack of maps. There is one broad map at the beginning of the book but no smaller maps that would help you determine where certain cities are. Obviously I know where all the old cities are, but as new cities spring up, it’s hard to determine where certain cities are. For example, the author mentions the city of Michigan City several times, which I think is somewhere in either the location of Cleveland or Toledo, but I can’t be sure and there is no map to give me a better idea where it is. But other than that I think it’s quite well done.

Probably the most interesting aspect is the constant use of footnotes, referencing books that don’t exist. It really gives it the flavor of a true history of a world that we might have experienced in some other reality. I’m not done, but from what I’ve read, I would highly recommend it.