The book is written in the manner of a history text published in the alternate reality of 1961 and describing the developments of the past century, in which the Confederate States of America had existed as a separate nation-state.
Washington, D.C. descended into total chaos, with mobs running through the streets, looting, raping, and lynching blacks; Lee's army captured the city without firing a shot and proceeded to restore order.
With the mobs howling for Abraham Lincoln's blood, it was safest for him to be taken into a comfortable custody at Richmond, Virginia from where he sent northwards a letter announcing his resignation and conceding the Confederacy's victory.
Hamlin's main achievement was the retention of West Virginia in the Union as well as preventing pro-Confederate militias in Missouri from detaching that State.
The two terms of US President James B. McPherson (in actual history, a Union officer who was killed during the Battle of Atlanta in July 1864) were marked by a strong tendency towards reconciliation with the Confederate States.
His Second Inaugural Speech, arguing that the war ending in 1863 saved the lives of many who would have been killed had it dragged on, was warmly received south of the Mason–Dixon line, became part of the school curriculum, and helped achieve an eventual reunification (though it came only long after his death).
A new political force named the Jeffersonian Party called for abolition of slavery and gained the support of such prominent people as Stephen Dodson Ramseur, Robert E. Rodes, John Pegram and, later, Leonidas Polk.
Southerners having resolved this by themselves, rather than having the decision forced upon them by a victorious hostile army, helped avoid any lingering bitterness, and no organization resembling the Ku Klux Klan arose.
In the aftermath, the US, CS, and Texas all felt threatened by Soviet missile bases and armored brigades in Alaska (which had never been purchased from Russia in 1867).