Settling Accounts: The Grapple
Encyclopedia
Settling Accounts: The Grapple by Harry Turtledove
is the third book in the Settling Accounts tetralogy
, an alternate history
setting of World War II
in North America
. It is part of the Southern Victory Series, which supposes that the Confederate States of America
won the American Civil War
. It takes the Southern Victory Series Earth
from 1943 to 1944.
and Ohio
is successful, and now pushes them through Kentucky
, Tennessee
, and ultimately Georgia
. At the Battle of Chattanooga American forces land paratroopers on top of Missionary Ridge
and Lookout Mountain
, rather than fight their way to the top in hard-fought battles. Having gained Chattanooga
, Morell seems bent on driving to the Atlantic Ocean
through Georgia, thus cutting the Confederate territory in two. Confederate General George S. Patton, does less well on the defence than he did in the attack on Ohio two years before, his pugnacious instincts making him squander irreplaceable resources on futile attempts at counter-attack.
The operation of Camp Determination in Texas
continues, where blacks are being murdered in gas chambers by the hundreds of thousands, and U.S. General Abner Dowling's is attempting to shut it down by leading an attack toward its location. With only marginal forces at his disposal, this proves difficult to accomplish. Dowling does send his air support to bomb the railways on which horribly crowded cattle cars full of blacks are brought in. However, the advance takes too long; the sound of distant U.S. artillery had aroused some hope among the condemned black inmates, but when the U.S. forces finally arrive they find nothing but enormous mass graves with not a single survivor, and with the murder operation transferred to an "improved camp" in east Texas. Among the innumerable victims is Scipio. Despite this Confederate blacks continue to find ways to resist. In Richmond
, the Confederate capital, blacks rebel seeking not to save their lives but to die with weapons in hand and exact a price from their murderers. Meanwhile, fighting continues among black guerrilla bands in the Georgia
countryside.
As the war rages, the race between American and Confederate physicists to build a "uranium (i.e., atomic) bomb" continues. The Confederates desperately try to recover from Confederate President Jake Featherston
's strategic blunder of initially not taking the bomb seriously and having held up research for over a year. They launch an air raid on the U.S. nuclear project in the state of Washington, to which the Americans reply in kind by bombing Washington University at Lexington
, the center of Confederate nuclear research. Meanwhile, Imperial Germany seems ahead of both the North American powers in the construction of a uranium bomb.
In Europe, German
and Austria
n forces are gradually pushing the French
, British
and Russia
n forces back. Irish
and Serb uprisings continue to operate, and Ukraine
continues as a battleground for both sides. The Russians are unable to concentrate on their Alaskan possessions.
In Virginia, ground fighting seems largely quiet, but both sides are able to launch air strikes against the other, although the Confederates are not able to launch attacks quite as often due to heavy losses.
The Mormon
rebellion in Utah
is suppressed (for the third time) and the U.S. characters debate the morality of various ways of dealing with the problem again. It seems a plan of exiling the Mormons from Utah and deporting them are drawn up.
Meanwhile, the Canadian rebellion is fully active, prompting units which had been active in the Utah fighting to be transferred to Canada
. The troops from the U.S.-backed Republic of Quebec
are not numerous enough or motivated enough to hold off the Canadian guerrillas.
Fighting in Sequoyah (Oklahoma
) appears to be back-and-forth, with both sides sabotaging the oil wells there. A general advance seems to be made in Arkansas, and U.S. forces are pressing the offensive in Sonora
and Chihuahua.
Allegiances at the top of the Confederate government are beginning to show strain as losses the Confederacy is taking mount. There is a pronounced tension between Brigadier General Clarence Potter and President Jake Featherston
, Camp Determination administrator Jefferson Pinkard and Confederate Attorney General Ferdinand Koenig, and between Koenig and Featherston. Featherston engages in shouting matches with his commanding officers over their tactics. Angered with his generals, Featherston's puts all of his faith on "wonder weapons" to win the war. Most ominously, despite the increasingly desperate military situation, Featherston continues to consider the diversion of considerable resources to the extermination program as justified and necessary, since "The War Against the Negroes" is a most important goal which must be "fought" and "won" by total extermination and making the Confederate territory "Negro-free."
At sea, the Japanese threat to the Sandwich Islands
is ended with a naval victory at Midway, and American forces retake Midway Island. Neither side has any real desire to pursue the war further, and there are strong hints that the Japanese might attack British possessions in Malaya
and India
.
The U.S. Navy also smuggles arms to a nascent rebellion in Cuba, in which a teenage Fidel Castro
participates. The United States is able to recapture Bermuda
in a costly action and is threatening to move to the South Atlantic, to cut off food shipments from Argentina
to the United Kingdom
.
The U.S. President Charles La Follette asked the Confederate States for unconditional surrender. Featherston replied with a defiant speech and launched two long-range rockets from bases in Virginia onto Philadelphia. The damage was light but the psychological damage was much heavier.
and 2004's Settling Accounts: Return Engagement
, and preceding Settling Accounts: In at the Death, released in 2007. It was released in the United States
on July 25, 2006. The book was released in the United Kingdom
on October 5, 2006.
Harry Turtledove
Harry Norman Turtledove is an American novelist, who has produced works in several genres including alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction.- Life :...
is the third book in the Settling Accounts tetralogy
Tetralogy
A tetralogy is a compound work that is made up of four distinct works, just as a trilogy is made up of three works....
, an alternate history
Alternate history (fiction)
Alternate history or alternative history is a genre of fiction consisting of stories that are set in worlds in which history has diverged from the actual history of the world. It can be variously seen as a sub-genre of literary fiction, science fiction, and historical fiction; different alternate...
setting of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
. It is part of the Southern Victory Series, which supposes that the Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
won the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. It takes the Southern Victory Series Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
from 1943 to 1944.
Plot summary
U.S. General Irving Morrell's campaign to drive Confederate forces out of PennsylvaniaPennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
and Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
is successful, and now pushes them through Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
, Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
, and ultimately Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
. At the Battle of Chattanooga American forces land paratroopers on top of Missionary Ridge
Missionary Ridge
Missionary Ridge is a geographic feature in Chattanooga, Tennessee, site of the Battle of Missionary Ridge, a battle in the American Civil War, fought on November 25, 1863. Union forces under Maj. Gens. Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman, and George H...
and Lookout Mountain
Lookout Mountain
thumb|right|See seven statesLookout Mountain is located at the northwest corner of the U.S. state of Georgia, the northeast corner of Alabama, and along the southern border of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Lookout Mountain, along with Sand Mountain to the northwest, makes up a large portion of the...
, rather than fight their way to the top in hard-fought battles. Having gained Chattanooga
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Chattanooga is the fourth-largest city in the US state of Tennessee , with a population of 169,887. It is the seat of Hamilton County...
, Morell seems bent on driving to the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
through Georgia, thus cutting the Confederate territory in two. Confederate General George S. Patton, does less well on the defence than he did in the attack on Ohio two years before, his pugnacious instincts making him squander irreplaceable resources on futile attempts at counter-attack.
The operation of Camp Determination in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
continues, where blacks are being murdered in gas chambers by the hundreds of thousands, and U.S. General Abner Dowling's is attempting to shut it down by leading an attack toward its location. With only marginal forces at his disposal, this proves difficult to accomplish. Dowling does send his air support to bomb the railways on which horribly crowded cattle cars full of blacks are brought in. However, the advance takes too long; the sound of distant U.S. artillery had aroused some hope among the condemned black inmates, but when the U.S. forces finally arrive they find nothing but enormous mass graves with not a single survivor, and with the murder operation transferred to an "improved camp" in east Texas. Among the innumerable victims is Scipio. Despite this Confederate blacks continue to find ways to resist. In Richmond
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
, the Confederate capital, blacks rebel seeking not to save their lives but to die with weapons in hand and exact a price from their murderers. Meanwhile, fighting continues among black guerrilla bands in the Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
countryside.
As the war rages, the race between American and Confederate physicists to build a "uranium (i.e., atomic) bomb" continues. The Confederates desperately try to recover from Confederate President Jake Featherston
Jake Featherston
Jacob "Jake" Featherston is a fictional character inthe Southern Victory Series novel series by Harry Turtledove. He is the fictional timeline's equivalent of Adolf Hitler.-Character introduction:...
's strategic blunder of initially not taking the bomb seriously and having held up research for over a year. They launch an air raid on the U.S. nuclear project in the state of Washington, to which the Americans reply in kind by bombing Washington University at Lexington
Lexington, Virginia
Lexington is an independent city within the confines of Rockbridge County in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The population was 7,042 in 2010. Lexington is about 55 minutes east of the West Virginia border and is about 50 miles north of Roanoke, Virginia. It was first settled in 1777.It is home to...
, the center of Confederate nuclear research. Meanwhile, Imperial Germany seems ahead of both the North American powers in the construction of a uranium bomb.
In Europe, German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n forces are gradually pushing the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n forces back. Irish
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
and Serb uprisings continue to operate, and Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
continues as a battleground for both sides. The Russians are unable to concentrate on their Alaskan possessions.
In Virginia, ground fighting seems largely quiet, but both sides are able to launch air strikes against the other, although the Confederates are not able to launch attacks quite as often due to heavy losses.
The Mormon
Mormon
The term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...
rebellion in Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
is suppressed (for the third time) and the U.S. characters debate the morality of various ways of dealing with the problem again. It seems a plan of exiling the Mormons from Utah and deporting them are drawn up.
Meanwhile, the Canadian rebellion is fully active, prompting units which had been active in the Utah fighting to be transferred to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. The troops from the U.S.-backed Republic of Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
are not numerous enough or motivated enough to hold off the Canadian guerrillas.
Fighting in Sequoyah (Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
) appears to be back-and-forth, with both sides sabotaging the oil wells there. A general advance seems to be made in Arkansas, and U.S. forces are pressing the offensive in Sonora
Sonora
Sonora officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 72 municipalities; the capital city is Hermosillo....
and Chihuahua.
Allegiances at the top of the Confederate government are beginning to show strain as losses the Confederacy is taking mount. There is a pronounced tension between Brigadier General Clarence Potter and President Jake Featherston
Jake Featherston
Jacob "Jake" Featherston is a fictional character inthe Southern Victory Series novel series by Harry Turtledove. He is the fictional timeline's equivalent of Adolf Hitler.-Character introduction:...
, Camp Determination administrator Jefferson Pinkard and Confederate Attorney General Ferdinand Koenig, and between Koenig and Featherston. Featherston engages in shouting matches with his commanding officers over their tactics. Angered with his generals, Featherston's puts all of his faith on "wonder weapons" to win the war. Most ominously, despite the increasingly desperate military situation, Featherston continues to consider the diversion of considerable resources to the extermination program as justified and necessary, since "The War Against the Negroes" is a most important goal which must be "fought" and "won" by total extermination and making the Confederate territory "Negro-free."
At sea, the Japanese threat to the Sandwich Islands
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
is ended with a naval victory at Midway, and American forces retake Midway Island. Neither side has any real desire to pursue the war further, and there are strong hints that the Japanese might attack British possessions in Malaya
British Malaya
British Malaya loosely described a set of states on the Malay Peninsula and the Island of Singapore that were brought under British control between the 18th and the 20th centuries...
and India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
.
The U.S. Navy also smuggles arms to a nascent rebellion in Cuba, in which a teenage Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
participates. The United States is able to recapture Bermuda
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...
in a costly action and is threatening to move to the South Atlantic, to cut off food shipments from Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
to the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
.
The U.S. President Charles La Follette asked the Confederate States for unconditional surrender. Featherston replied with a defiant speech and launched two long-range rockets from bases in Virginia onto Philadelphia. The damage was light but the psychological damage was much heavier.
Publication history
The Grapple is the third book in the tetralogy, following 2005's Settling Accounts: Drive to the EastSettling Accounts: Drive to the East
Drive to the East is the second book in Harry Turtledove's Settling Accounts series of alternate history novels. It is set in an analog of World War II in North America, fought between the United States and Confederate States. It was released in August 2005. It follows Return Engagement and...
and 2004's Settling Accounts: Return Engagement
Settling Accounts: Return Engagement
Return Engagement is the first book of Harry Turtledove's Settling Accounts series of alternate history novels. It is an analogy of World War II being waged on American soil between the United States and the Confederate States....
, and preceding Settling Accounts: In at the Death, released in 2007. It was released in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
on July 25, 2006. The book was released in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
on October 5, 2006.