Joe Dowling (These Fractured States)

From Alternative History

Possibly the most violent dicitator of all time, Joe Dowling instigated the World War in North America and along with King Charles XI and Benito Mussolini, caused the deaths of more than a hundred million people. He also commited the greatest act of genocide in history and was ultimately responsible for the near destruction of the CSA.

[edit] Early Life

Born on the 10th July 1889, Joe Dowling was the son of a mining family in Virginia and what the many upper class Confederates saw as the 'white trash', little better than blacks. Both his parents died before his 18th birthday and he joined the Confederate Army in 1910. By the time of the Great War, he was already a sargeant in the 1st Richmond Infantry.

[edit] The Great War

Joe Dowling was stationed on the Maryland front throughout most of the war, fighting with distinction during the fall of Washington, Baltimore and the battle of the Deleware. From this high water mark, however, the CSA's gains were slowly hammered down, while in Tennesse, General Custer's 1st Army crept through Kentucky and towards Nashville. There is evidence that Dowling formed a relationship with a young black woman during this time, her name is unknown. When the blacks rebelled however, Dowling was sent into Georgia to fight them. Although the rebellion was crushed, he returned to Virginia, to find that his fianiacee had been murdered by his regimental commander, a Native American. This, coupled with the slow and agonizing defeat of the CSA by the US and it's allies, explain Dowling's later actions. By the start of 1919, the war was turning very badly against the CSA. Russia had left the war in Europe, the Irish Rebellion was in tatters, Italy was wavering and France had been forced out of Cologne. Both Quebec and the CSA were collapsing. The CSA's surrender on July 10th, followed two weeks later by the fall of Montreal and the surrender of France and Quebec, brought the Great War to an end.