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Tom Colleton
Fictional Character
Southern Victory
POD: September 10, 1862
Appearance(s): American Front
through
Drive to the East
Type of Appearance: Direct (POV RE and DttE)
Nationality: Confederate States
Date of Birth: 1892
Date of Death: 1943
Cause of Death: Gunshot wound during combat
Occupation: Plantation Owner, Soldier
Parents: Mr. Colleton
Spouse: Bertha Colleton
Children: Two sons
Relatives: Anne Colleton (sister, deceased); Jacob Colleton (brother, deceased)
Professional Affiliations: Marshlands
Military Branch: Confederate States Army (Great War, Second Great War)
Political Party: Whig Party

Tom Colleton (1892 - January 31, 1943) was the middle sibling of the Colleton family, between Anne and Jacob. Leaving the administration of the Marshlands Plantation near St. Matthews, South Carolina to his sister, Colleton went to war for the Confederacy in August 1914 as a captain in the Seventh Virginia Infantry (he was Reginald Bartlett's CO), serving in the Roanoke Front until the end of the war in the summer of 1917. During a visit home in 1915, he had heard rumors of a fermenting rebellion by the CSA's black population and cast suspicions on Scipio. Anne dismissed the idea out of hand saying that Scipio had helped raise the Colletons since they were babies. But Tom was proven right after the birth of the Congaree Socialist Republic, which claimed the life of Jacob Colleton.

Following his demobilization at the end of the Great War, Tom met up with his sister who was going to lead a militia in to the Congaree swamp and track down and eliminate Cassius once and for all. During the hunt, Tom got stuck in a particularly deep patch of mud which actually proved beneficial as Cassius was retreating close to where he had gotten stuck. He unloaded several rounds into Cassius who sank into the swamps with a triumphant grin on his face; evidently he'd assumed he was going to escape. Anne wasn't happy that she didn't get Cassius herself but Tom reminded her that Jacob was his brother too.

During the interwar period, Colleton married a middle-income woman, the daughter of a grocer (despite his aristocratic heritage; the war had marginalized class lines) named Bertha and had two children. Unlike Anne, Tom saw nothing of value in the Freedom Party, nor was he impressed when he met Jake Featherston. The two men took something of a dislike to each other and Tom stayed out of politics. But when Featherston spoke, even Tom was swept up by his charisma. Years later, when President Featherston led the CSA into the Second Great War in June 1941, Colleton went back to the front, serving as a lieutenant colonel in Ohio. About this time, his sister Anne was killed in a US air raid on Charleston, South Carolina.

Colleton's regiment fought alongside Brigadier General George Patton's armored force as the Army of Kentucky pushed toward Lake Erie, which they reached at Sandusky. The army occupied their position for the winter and spring of 1942 before pushing east in Operation Coalscuttle. Colleton's regiment fought in Cleveland, Beaver, and Pittsburgh before becoming trapped in the pocket. On January 31, 1943, Tom Colleton was shot and killed by a U.S. soldier. He was survived by his wife and two sons in St. Matthews.

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