GENRE: Civil War / Alternative History / Action/ Drama

SOURCE: Based on the short story, Last Chance for Freedom, by Jack Maples; 2nd edition (March 2006); Last Chance for Freedom screenplay (WGA #1066018) by Jack Maples

LOG LINE:

History is a series of accidents.  Desperation, circumstance, and opportunity are the catalysts for these accidents. Change one and there may not be consequences.  Change several and history is forever re-written. 

As U.S. WWII General George S. Patton wrote:

A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week. 

Then, again, his opponent and author of German Panzer tank tactics and the concept of blitzkrieg, Heinz Guderian observed that . . .

No plan of battle ever survives contact with the enemy.

STORY SYNOPSIS:

Some stories are written because they offer plot twists that are fun and unexpected.  Others are meant to provoke thought about a particular issue.  Last Chance for Freedom offers both for those who wonder what how the Civil War might have ended such that the South won its independence.

No such story is complete without offering some view of the fate of the slaves, the Black Union soldiers that fought against the Confederacy, and the future of events that now are American and world history.  This tale does these things in a way that will frighten some, capture the imagination of others, and, perhaps, make a few wonder at our current state of affairs.

Last Chance for Freedom is a fictional tale told through the eyes and remembrances of a fictional Confederate Major, John Ames, which pre-supposes three fundamental changes in history that lead to a Confederate victory in 1865. 

• Confederate General Joseph Johnston evades Sherman at the Battle of Bentonville (March 19-21, 1865) to march north and unite with the Army of Northern Virginia

• The Army of Northern Virginia is successfully and properly re-supplied at Farmville, Virginia (April 5-6, 1865) by beating the Union cavalry to the train station where the supplies arrived

• Confederate General Robert E. Lee accepts the proposal of General E. Porter Alexander to withdraw and fight a mountain war.

With these conditions in place, the armies of Lee and Johnston unite west of Roanoke.  Dividing the new Confederate force into six columns led by Confederate General Jubal Early, Lee’s Bad Old Man, go through the mountain passes across the Shenandoah Valley and into West Virginia.  They do not stop there.  Rather, the Confederate army invades Ohio to despoil it as Sherman despoiled Georgia and South Carolina.

In the course of the action in West Virginia, Union Generals Grant, Sherman, and others are killed.  The invasion, which follows the assassination of President Lincoln, sparks a second round of secession that ignites in Indiana.  Fearing a Confederate victory, the Black Union regiments secure permission to go north to avoid being forced back into slavery.  They are resisted by state militia under the orders of the Governor of Pennsylvania - - - and a bloodbath ensues with a victory for the Black Union troops.

Meanwhile, the Lincoln assassination plot unfolds with Secretary of State Stanton at the heart of an overthrow of the Federal government.   Only the efforts of James Wadsworth, the Military Governor of the District of Columbia, save the peace and the Union government.

The tale ends after World War I with a North American continent that has eight separate nations of which the United States is the smallest.  The U.S., an ally of Germany is in decline.  The Confederacy is an ally of England, France and French-held Mexico. It also has bought Cuba from Spain.  Most significantly, the C.S.A. has ended slavery and has become both an agricultural and textile manufacturing force.

To the north and west, the Greater Plains Confederation works with the Confederacy and is planning re-unification.  The Federal Western Republic (California and its sister states) also seeks a single country.  Only the Northeast stands defiantly alone.

OPENING CREDITS:

The film begins with the quotes by Hesse, Patton, and Guderian.  Interspersed are black and white film clips of the destruction of the South and the defeat of Confederate forces such as at Saylor’s Creek.  As the last quote fades off the screen the title of the film appears.

As the title fades off, it dissolves into a wide angle of two riders side by side.  One is a Union cavalryman with the 34-star American flag and the other is a Confederate cavalryman with the Second National flag.  The credits alternate between the left and right side of the screen as the riders continue on until they separate with the Union soldier going left and the Confederate soldier going to the right. 

The camera follows the Confederate rider until he approaches the rear of a line of Confederate soldiers.  He speaks with an officer who appears to be calling out orders.  The firing ceases and the Confederates begin to celebrate.  The scene then cuts to dejected Union soldiers laying down their weapons and beginning to walk across the field toward the Confederate lines.

INITIAL SCENE:

An elderly John Ames, and the grandson, Tom Andrews, of his now dead best friend (Henry Andrews) are sitting in a Victorian parlor.  Melissa Ames, granddaughter of John and fiancé to Tom, is serving them tea.  Tom asks John to explain how the Confederates won when it was so seemingly lost.  As Ames begins to reminisce, the screen fades to the interior of General Joe Johnston's Headquarters tent.

ACT ONE:

CS General Joseph Johnston is in meeting with his generals and proposes a daring move that will extract his forces at Bentonville.  CS General Braxton Bragg accuses Johnston of cowardice in even offering to retreat, but is over-ruled by the other senior officers.  With CS General Dill Lee en route with 5,000 more men, CS Cavalry General Joseph Wheeler explains how Johnston’s army can both escape and cause a one or two delay in the pursuit of US General William T. Sherman’s forces.

Being on the losing side of the argument, General Bragg resigns.  Johnston, Wheeler and the other southern officers then begin preparation for a night time evacuation.  They leave behind most of their wagons and rely on mules as pack animals to transport their supplies.  In addition, they arrange many traps using the abandoned wagons and the wounded troops who are unable to march with the army.  Joe Wheeler also sends a detachment to destroy Cox’s Bridge across the Neuse River to prevent Sherman from swinging around the Confederate army to the northeast.

At Raleigh, North Carolina, two Union Corps are engaged by CS General William Hardee and two regiments under CS General Robert Hoke.  In the melee that follows, General Johnston is mortally wounded as CS General William Taliaferro advances his forces to cover the Confederate flank.  John Ames, who is present at the battle, is sent to find CS General Robert E. Lee to direct him to meet with Johnston’s Army of Tennessee west of Roanoke, Virginia. 

Ames arrives at the Headquarters of the Army of Northern Virginia as General Lee learns that supplies have arrived at Farmville, Virginia.  General Lee is in despair, however, following the losses to his army at Saylor’s Creek.  The news of the arrival of the Army of Tennessee gives him hope, but the loss of General Johnston saddens him as well.  General Lee immediately convenes a meeting of his officers to facilitate the escape of his army from that of US General U.S. Grant using the same technique that aided the Army of Tennessee.

Before the evacuation begins, Lee meets with CS General George Pickett to instruct him to leave with CS General E. Porter Alexander for Danville, Virginia.  At Danville, Pickett and Alexander are to propose an even more plan to CS President Jefferson Davis for the two united armies that will number 70,000 men, but that still will be outnumbered 2:1 by the Union forces. When the two armies unite at Roanoke, Lee mourns the loss of Joseph Johnston, his friend since the Mexican War.

ACT TWO:

At Roanoke, Generals Lee, Pickett, and Alexander meet privately with President Davis to discuss Alexander’s Plan, which is to divide the army into six divisions and to slip through the mountain passes into the Shenandoah Valley and on into West Virginia.  The key to the plan is to buy time and get (and stay) ahead of Grant’s and Sherman’s armies by two days.  In the meeting with the senior officers that follows, Lee and Longstreet go with President Davis on a journey into exile.  CS General Jubal Early assumes command of the combined Confederate force.

They succeed in their primary goal by continuing to travel without the many wagons that have slowed them down - - - they are functioning as a large guerilla force that is ready to divide and divide again.  As General Lee predicts, Grant also streamlines his forces and leaves most, but not all of, his wagons behind.  John Ames is part of a mounted infantry force that stays east of the Shenandoah Valley to attack these wagons and the limited forces that are guarding them.  John and Henry meet their future wives who live in the mountains outside of Roanoke.

Once in the West Virginia mountains, the Confederates have devised a plan to further reduce the size of the Union armies and to slow their pursuit.  On the same day, and nearly at the same time, five of the Confederate divisions set fire in mountain pass traps and kill the men in the Union columns that are caught inside the infernos.  Generals Sherman, Logan, Woods, and Hazen plus many Union brigadier generals as well as 12,500 Union soldiers perish in the fires.  With the mountain passes blocked by raging fires, the Union forces must withdraw to find alternative routes.

Meanwhile, John Ames, Henry Andrews, and his men as well as other guerilla groups successfully attack several wagon trains at night and destroy many supplies.  General Grant learns of the disaster in the mountains, the multiple attacks on his wagons, and the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln on the same day.  He is more angered than dismayed and swears to destroy every vestige of Confederate resistance.  Several days later, the re-united Confederate army faces and destroys US General Stanley’s Fourth Corps, which was cobbled together to stop the Confederate advance.

The Peace Democrats in Charleston greet the Confederates warmly as Stanley had looted the town rather than accessing the plentiful supplies that the Union army had stored there. These Union supplies are of great aid to the Confederates, who now can fully re-equip and feed their men. 

In a meeting after the battle at Charleston, West Virginia, Porter Alexander quotes Sun Tzu: “Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting. What is of supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy’s strategy.”  He draws on this by saying that Sherman used this principle in despoiling South Carolina and Georgia.  General Early then announces that the army never was intended to stay in the mountains - - - the real goal is to return Sherman’s favor by burning as many towns and cities in Ohio as possible.

When Grant arrives still in a rage, he continues to abuse the citizens of Charleston.  His disrespect of these citizens is re-paid when Grant is killed in an ambush and Sheridan loses an arm.  The people of Charleston rise up in support of the Confederacy.

ACT THREE:

In the wake of the success of the southern army, a Confederate peace delegation arrives to meet with President Andrew Johnson.  They are accompanied by former presidential candidate and US General George McClellan.  The delegation includes Vice President Alexander Stephens, Thomas Bocock, Speaker of the Confederate House, and Robert Barnwell, Confederate Senator.  President Johnson supported by Horace Greeley begins the negotiation process.

In Indiana, the threat of a confederate invasion and smoldering discontent with the Republicans leads Democrat Samuel Buskirk, the Speaker of the Indiana House, to call for his state’s secession as well.  When news of this action reaches Grant’s army, several Indiana regiments desert and begin their long journey home.  Indiana Republican Governor, Oliver Morton, notifies Edwin Stanton, the Secretary of War.

As these events unfold, Grant sends US General George Custer’s cavalry and several Corps in pursuit of the deserters.  In Washington, an enraged Edwin Stanton, a citizen of Ohio, orders the arrest of the peace delegation and the Indiana legislature.  Fearful of a Confederate victory, the Black Union regiments that still are in the Shenandoah Valley ask to be sent north to avoid becoming slaves again.  When they approach the Mason-Dixon Line, they are met by Pennsylvania militia who are under orders from their Governor not to let these African-American Union soldiers and the escaped slaves following them into the state.  Chanting “Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!” the U.S. Colored Troops overwhelms the state militia.

Union General James Wadsworth, the Military governor of the Military District of Washington, aided by Senator John Forney, is deeply disturbed by Stanton’s actions.  Senator Forney tells General Wadsworth that he suspects Stanton’s involvement in Lincoln’s assassination and enlists Wadsworth’s aid in investigating the matter.

With Kentucky, Ohio, and Illinois regiments beginning to desert as well, Custer continues to pursue the Indiana regiments.  Facing Wheeler’s cavalry and prisoners released from Camp Chase, he believes he can win when a Union regiment appears on his right flank.  To his dismay and surprise, it is the Indiana regiment - - - but flying the Confederate flag.  Custer dies in a hail of gunfire from his front and flank.

Based on the investigation of Wadsworth’s agent, Frederick Williamson, and assistance from Lewis Pryce, a Pinkerton agent, Wadsworth is able to connect Lafayette Baker, Stanton’s own intelligence operative, to John Wilkes Booth and John Surratt as the instigator of the Lincoln assassination.  It is a trail of evidence from Sergeant Boston Corbett, who shot Booth after his escape from ford’s Theatre, that links both Baker and Stanton to the plot - - - which included the overthrow of the entire U.S. Government.

Acting on this investigation, Stanton and all of his co-conspirators are arrested, the Peace Delegation is freed and the Democrats in Congress are returned to continue their governmental service.  With the peace treaty concluded, the war ends and the South gains its independence.  There is, however, a price.  The western states form the Greater Plains Confederation, California and the Pacific states become the Federated Western Republic, and Utah separates from the Union as the Deseret Commonweal.

ENDING SCENES:

The film ends in John Ames study in 1920.  Slavery has long since ended in the South, which has become a textile manufacturing power as well as a producer of many agricultural products.  Because of its loss of power and the textile industry, the New England states also have ceded themselves back to the British Empire. What is left of the former United States is an impoverished land lacking resources and unable to support any industry other than the mining of coal and shipping.  As an ally of Germany in World War I, it now is a pariah on the world stage.

Tom Andrews and Melissa Ames leave for a ride in Tom’s new car.  As the story concludes, John Ames gazes toward the Blue Ridge mountains and wonders how things might have turned out had the north won the war.