[carton253]

Just some information I read about First Chapters. Margaret Mitchell wrote the opening chapter of Gone With The Wind 28 times. After the book went through extensive editing and was published, she did not like it because it dwelt too much on the Tarleton Twins, who, through the edits, had been reduced in importance in the book.

So, maybe the first couple of chapters are the hardest to write.

[MHGinTN]

Hmm, interesting problem ... and an interesting idea you've developed. I have an old friend who loves Civil War History. He would buy your novel in a heartbeat and devour it!

I think I faced a similar dilemma with one of my novels which contains a flash back in time in the middle of telling the story. To prevent confusion for the reader, I actually decided to start the novel with a prologue which set the stage for the alternate History ... since the theme of the novel is a 'what if' for the reader.

Perhaps you could begin your novel by relating the historical events of Chancellorsville, sort of like a journalist relating it to newspaper readers of that era, as a prologue to open the novel and set up the notion of an alternate History. Then, start your first chapter with the alternate History immediately confronting the reader.