Toccoa, looking south
Toccoa, CSA is a city-state in the northeast corner of the former US state of Georgia. The city is run by a dictatorship with headquarters at the fortified Toccoa Falls College on the northwest edge of the town of Toccoa. The regime that has ruled there since 1984 is said to hold African-Americans as slaves, but no one has ever verified this from within the compound. The regime took power after a bloody take-over of the College shortly after arriving in town. Townspeople who have stayed insist that the dictatorship is benevolent, and few have left since a great migration of refugees in the midst of the war with the Islamic Republic of Anderson (located across the state line to the south of the Republic of Piedmont).
History[]
Days of Peace[]
In the area that is now Toccoa and the surrounding area, Mississippian Indians (Mound Builders) and then Cherokee Indians were the original inhabitants. The first residents of European descent were American Revolutionary War veterans who settled the area when the war ended. The Georgia General Assembly created Stephens County in 1905, and Toccoa was established as the county seat.
The name "Toccoa" is derived from the Cherokee word for "beautiful" or "where the Catawbas lived." The city was established in 1873 around an area formerly called Dry Pond, for a pond that was waterless most of the time.
Camp Toccoa, a World War II paratrooper training base, was located nearby. It was the first training base for the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the Army's 101st Airborne Division, whose Easy Company was subject of the non-fiction book and subsequent HBO miniseries Band of Brothers.
Toccoa is also home to the Travelers Rest Inn, known locally as Jarrett Manor.
Toccoa Falls College is located here. On November 6, 1977 the Kelly Barnes Dam, located above the college, failed. The resulting flood killed 39. Toccoa Falls is located on the campus of Toccoa Falls College.
Doomsday[]
Toccoa residents, and students just beginning a new school year at Toccoa Bible College, were mostly setttling down at home after a pleasant "Sabbath Day" at the numerous area churches on September 25, 1983. At the college, some students were just getting back from various churches and other establishments in places as far away as Atlanta and Athens. Some students, in fact were not expected back until Monday morning, due to Bible College tradition for light or no classes after the "day of rest" on Sunday.
Televisions were tuned to the Emmy Awards program or other regularly scheduled Sunday night programming when warnings came over TV and radio warning of a first strike by the Soviet Union. Announcers were saying "stay tuned" though they had also warned of massive failures of the communication system if nuclear devices were deployed in space over the nation. The mixed signals from the media, in affect, made the aftermath worse as most electronics remained connected to the power grid when the EMPs happened as feared.
As a result of loss of power and commuications, the populace of Tocca was for the most part in a panic. Doors were locked and weapons were loaded in anticipation of dangerous conditions to ensue. The horizon to the southwest and the southeast showed multiple mushroom clouds as Atlanta and Augusta were struck. To the north, Knoxville was hit, as was Chattanooga to the west. To the east, multiple blasts took out Charlotte. It seemed as if the whole nation was being destroyed around them.
Georgia Highway Patrol, as well as local city and county law enforcement agencies, began patrolling in some of the older vehicles without electronic ignition systems. House to house communication of county government pronouncements were practically impossible, but officials had made there way to county offices to proclaim a state of martial law nonetheless. Few if any citizens were seen on the streets for days anyway, but as food began to run low, runs on the grocery stores began by October 1. It was there that hand printed posters informed the desperate citizens of official distribution of goods by Federal and State officials working out of the county offices.
The jails were full of looters that had attempted to rush the stores in the first hours of night on the 25th. The morgue at the local hospital held many bodies of armed hoodlums that had dared to challenge the law enforcement officers that had been guarding the major stores (which had been closed on Sunday evening anyway).
Order had been maintained on the short term, but trouble was brewing in the smaller towns near Toccoa. The twin villages of Avalon and Martin, down toward Lavonia, had never had much to do with the politics of Toccoa, nor the religion of the Bible college. They were 'plain folk' trying to make a living on the surrounding farmland. Among them, though, were radical racists that had agendas anchored in the past.
Refugees from Athens[]
By early October, scouts had been sent to population centers throughout the area. Specifically, scouts sought help from the college towns of Clemson, SC, and Athens, Georgia. As encouraging as the reports were from Clemson, the reports out of Athens proved very troubling from the start. Whether it was the academic versus practical approaches, or the generally more urbane atmosphere of Athens, the towns were nothing alike. As Clemson and nearby Easley bonded with the leadership of Greenville in face of the emergency, the chaos ruled the minds and hearts of law enforcement and bureaucrat alike in Athens.
After initial contact, no return visits had been made from authorities in Tacoa. The faculty and staff at Taccoa Falls College had begun to offer spiritual and moral support along with the willing hands in establishing order in the city and county. However, ruffians from the smaller towns had taken advantage of the unrest in Athens to become the ringleaders of what researchers say was one of the worst post-doomsday experiments in attempted provisional governments of the era. By the end of March, 1984, small bands of refugees had made it up from Athens with tales of the utter destruction of the city at the hands of warring factions. No one dared to venture back for two whole years. Contact with Clemson continued for a while, but mostly local leaders had just depended on local resources to sustain the small population of Stephens county.
Toccoa, CSA[]
The summer of 1986 marked a horrific change in the quiet existence that the Taccoans had begun to enjoy. Two years without the perceived necessities of the 20th century had begun to be the 'new norm.' But then, the exploratory team returned with 'survivors' from Athens. It turned out, though, that these war torn refugees were actually more local than anyone thought. They had actually been instigators of the massacre that destroyed Athens. From rural farms and small towns of Stephens county, these so-called refugees had latched on to a plan to take over the 'capital city' of what they would make a new 'nation.'
Just as the school year was beginning in September, 1986, several of these ruffians had become students at the Bible College. It was a ruse to take over the citadel outside of town as a base to control the whole county. The entire faculty and staff, and at least one-half of the student body died in the violence. Before the end of 1986 the leadership of the coupe declared all of Northeast Georgia to be "the revived Confederate States of America." In their delusion they ruled with an iron fist, "employing" a staff of servants involuntarily - all of whom were captured African-Americans from town and the school, working without pay in order to preserve their lives. Most of the bloodshed in taking the town, in fact, had been amongst the 2,000 or so blacks that lived in and around Taccoa.
War with Anderson[]
See main article: Anderson-Toccoa War
Within months, refugees from Anderson, a county turned Islamic State, had returned to Toccoa to find their city under military rule. However, since those who had remained had learned not to complain, the new comers thought nothing of asking the new leadership for help to take Anderson back "for our kind." Their stories of atrocities and slavery seemed so much worse than what had happened at home.
In a matter of weeks, the leadership had spies crossing into the Piedmont Republic to gather intel. By the middle of March, Toccoan troops were waging guerrilla warfare against stores and businesses throughout Anderson. The skirmishes got the attention of the Piedmont Republic, which stepped in to wage war against the Andersonians. However, the battles were over boundaries and resources rather than against the internal affairs of the State.
By the middle of 1987, the war was over, with an armistice being signed on November 11th of that year. The Toccoans continued to do cause trouble covertly for years, having planted moles deep into Piedmontian society. The plans came to fruition at the turn of the century, over a decade later.
Closed Borders[]
Having made sure their operatives were well compensated, the regime at Toccoa Falls escaped direct suspicion. They had rightly surmised that, in general, the citizens of the Republic would rather blame the UNOI for incidences along the border. Then, in the waning days of the 20th century, things began to change.
Trust had grown between the nations in the decade following the war. Limited travel was allowed as Piedmontians began to accept the relative peace that followed the Lake Hartwell Accord. However, all was not as it appeared. The hate that drove the Toccoans ran deep. Young operatives in their teens were sent in the guise of orphaned refugees to embed themselves in the society.
On December 31, 2000, things came together for the worst terrorist attack in the history of mankind. Explosives imploded the Memorial Auditorium in Greenville, PR, killing thousands. It would take a decade for the facts to come out, but when they did, it was a matter of time before the people of Toccoa would be liberated from 25 years of tyranny.
The terrorism had the wanted reaction, though, as the political machinery in the Piedmont Republic took action to reduce the freedoms of its own citizens. The once leading state in southeastern America became paranoid and lost some of the international support they had gained over the years.