Frequently when we visit an alternate Earth and any divergences aren't obvious, the first place we head to is the book store or the library. It usually takes only a few seconds in the History section to find a place where the timeline has diverged from our Earth.

When we visited 1864.1.1.1999-C it took us only a few seconds to find a book that on our Earth would be considered the greatest book never written. The Autobiography of Abraham Lincoln. We broke more than a few rules with excited outbursts as we pulled the book off the shelf and gazed at the picture of an aged Abraham Lincoln on the cover. In this Earth Lincoln had somehow avoided assassination at the hands of John Wilkes Booth. We quickly flipped through the book to find the source point of the divergence and it wasn’t hard to find.

Below is an excerpt from A. Lincoln: The Autobiography of Abraham Lincoln describing April 14, 1865 .

It had taken some persuading, but Mary begged Robert to join us at the theater that evening to see a performance of Our American Cousin. After all that time in the battlefield I think my weary son would have been just as contented to retire early and get a well-deserved good nights rest but after much persisting he agreed to accompany us to Ford’s Theatre. The Grants had declined after earlier accepting and so Maj. Henry Rathbone and Clara Harris agreed to join us.

I will never know for sure, but I can only guess that Robert’s time in the army with General Grant had trained him to be alert and allowed him to sense the presence of Mr. Booth before he acted upon me. At that moment I was enjoying the play and very much lost in thought. Mary leaned over and asked me what I felt Miss Harris would think about her hanging on me so. I replied that she would think nothing of it and then suddenly there was a commotion behind me. I turned to see Robert being accosted by Mr. Booth. Mary screamed and I could see Booth had a gun in his hand and Robert was struggling to hold his arm away from me. I stepped forward, prepared to intervene but the Major descended upon him before I could move any further and between the two of them quickly subdued Booth. The entire theater was turned to chaos. Robert had to break the door down to let law enforcement in to take Booth away. Mary was hysterical and I did my best to comfort her. We were quickly escorted out of the theater and back to the White House. Where we spent a fitful night. Mary was hysterical and this was further brought on by the revelation that an earlier attempt had been made on my life. It was made even more anxious by word that Seward had been attacked in his bed.

Mary never quite recovered from the shock of that night and I suspect it would be a large part of the reason she had such trouble later on in life.

The rest of the book is fascinating as it accounts Lincoln ’s management of Reconstruction and the quick assimilation of the southern states back in to the Union . Accounts of Lincoln meeting his former adversary’s Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis were really fascinating. However, the tragedies on his wife Mary’s early death as well as that of his son Tad reminded us of how the Lincoln of this Earth just like the of our world had his every victory shadowed by some form of sorrow and defeat.

It also appears that Lincoln of 1864.1.1.1999-C.1 did not enjoy the lionized status of our Earth. This was likely due to the lack of an assassination which on our Earth made him such a tragic yet heroic figure. There was no national mourning, no widespread dedications and memorials in his name. While he is still listed in our top five presidents, and is credited with holding the union together, it was only appreciated later as the varied political aspects of the war and its immediate fall out tempered his praise. His popularity was much like George Washington who left office somewhat unpopular only to gain appreciation later.

In this alternate reality Lincoln returned to Springfield after his term was over. He wrote various speeches and traveled the country where he was received well, even in most parts of the South who begrudgingly recognized his importance in making their return to the Union an easy one. Even Jefferson Davis acknowledged that his old adversary could have wreaked revenge on the Southern states but instead welcomed them back with open arms.

Lincoln died in January of 1886. President Grover Cleveland and former President Ulysses S. Grant attended the funeral. He was buried alongside his wife and sons Tad and Willie in Springfield .

Side notes:

There were several other differences we found upon simple investigation:

1. He was not on the penny. While he remained on the five dollar bill, the penny depicted John Adams.

2. Andrew Johnson was never president. Ulysses S. Grant though was elected as he had been in 1868 which resulted in the same scandalous presidency. In the book, Lincoln expressed some disgust over Grant’s term in office. Johnson returned to the Senate following an inauspicious term as Vice-President and is largely forgotten in U.S. history.

3. The Lincoln memorial consisted of a large statue of Lincoln sitting in his chair. However the “temple” was much more scaled back and appeared reminiscent of the Jefferson Memorial.