The assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1862 and the CSA victory at Gettysburg in 1863 demoralizes the North. Key Union cities, including Washington, DC, are occupied by Confederate Forces. The War of the Rebellion becomes The Continental War, as more states attempt to secede, some to join the Confederacy, others to go their own way. But what's left of the Union still has more industrial resources than all the seceding states combined. After the 1868 elections, the Federal government is in the hands of "Union or Death" fanatics who vow to stop at nothing in order to preserve the Union. Meanwhile, the CSA, which was never the loose confederation its founders envisioned, becomes a military dictatorship under its unwilling ruler, Robert E. Lee.