William T Sherman, Prince of Bulgaria. What next?

Cross-checking with my library, it's the first story, The Road to Charing Cross, and appears on p.43 of my Harper Collins paperback. There's no mention in the notes of a source for this. That's slightly odd, as it's the sort of thing GMF liked to use to query/confirm Flashy's authenticity.

Thats the story I saw it in. Couldn't we just ASB this into a TL. I mean its less loony than some ideas.
 

MrP

Banned
Thats the story I saw it in. Couldn't we just ASB this into a TL. I mean its less loony than some ideas.

It really depends on the nature of the TL you're intending, how happy you are using an unsupported claim by a fictional character, and whether your readership minds. I have no problem with it myself, but some people will.
 
An extremely interesting thread...

I'd heard the story about Sherman being offered the throne before, but learning that no one has been able to source it outside of a Flashman short story is intriguing. Fraser loved using those types of oddball historical tidbits to insert an air authenticity to the Flashman Papers, yet he didn't feel the need to footnote the anecdote. It's a nice little mystery, isn't it?

Returning to the OP's suggestion, looking at the last half decade or so of the OTL Sherman's life reveals a man who was fading both physically and mentally. There's a well known story about Robert Louis Stevenson visiting the retired Sherman in NYC.

The visit went well at first as Sherman had enjoyed the author's books and was looking forward to meeting him. However, as Sherman indulged more and more in reminiscing about his campaigns, he began to forget who Stevenson was and had to be reminded several times. Sherman would ask who Stevenson was while referring to the younger man was "one his boys" in a reference to the many veterans who visited him.

This fading Sherman who somehow accepted the Bulgarian throne in 1879/80 would present the new nation with a major political crisis within a few years.
 
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