"Lee at the Alamo"
Author	Harry Turtledove
Illustrator	John Jude Palencar
Genre(s)	Alternate History
Publication date	September 7, 2011

"Lee at the Alamo" is a short story by Harry Turtledove. It was published online at tor.com on September 7, 2011. It is a work of alternate history, with the point of divergence in December, 1860, when General David E. Twiggs is unable to take command of the Department of Texas, leaving Lt. Colonel Robert E. Lee as the commander. The story itself is set in February, 1861, just after Texas has voted to join the Confederate States through March, 1861. Lt. Colonel Lee concludes that it is his duty to defend U.S. munitions and property in San Antonio, Texas, including the fabled Alamo, rather than allow their surrender to the seceding Texas government, as Twiggs did do in OTL.

While Lee is forced to surrender to Benjamin McCulloch after several weeks of siege, he becomes a national hero. When Virginia does secede as it did in OTL, Abraham Lincoln is able to convince Lee to stay in the Union's service by agreeing to send him west, where he will not be fighting against his fellow Virginians.

TriviaEdit

The story was nominated for a Sidewise Award in 2012.

This is the second time Turtledove has used Robert E. Lee as a point of view character in an alternate history work. The first time was in The Guns of the South.