Henderson V. FitzBelmont
From Turtledove
[[{{{Cause of Death}}}]]
Henderson V. FitzBelmont was a physicist at Washington University in Lexington, Virginia. In 1941, as the Second Great War was breaking out, he proposed a project to research and build an uranium bomb to Confederate President Jake Featherston. Featherston refused to support the substantial resource allocations FitzBelmont requested because the physicist could not guarantee the success of the project.
A year later, however, Clarence Potter found intelligence that the United States was working on a secret project in Washington State. FitzBelmont was asked to examine aerial photographs Potter had obtained and confirmed that the U.S. was working on its own uranium bomb. Given this, FitzBelmont met again with Featherston and this time convinced the President to fund his project.
FitzBelmont was a Confederate patriot and supported the war the against the United States. However, privately he was bitterly opposed to the Freedom Party, a sentiment he confided in Potter.
Fitzbelmont also, like many people, found Featherston intimidating. However, by reminding Featherston that the CS's atomic project would be ahead of the US's had he been granted funding in 1941 instead of 1942, he became one of very few people in the world to whom Featherston ever admitted having made a mistake.
Against long odds, including constant bombing by the U.S., with the help of British research, FitzBelmont was able to build a working uranium bomb. In 1944, as the Confederacy was in what proved to be its deaththroes, General Clarence Potter snuck that bomb into the outskirts of the U.S. capital of Philadelphia. FitzBelmont wasn't able to build another one before the whole of Virginia fell to the United States. FitzBelmont was captured and interrogated for several months by General Abner Dowling. In a conversation between General John Abell and General Abner Dowling, Abell suggested the possibility that FitzBelmont might meet with an "unfortunate accident" - mainly to prevent his falling into the hands of the Japanese or Russians and helping them build a bomb of their own. .
