Who was Laura Wright?

In our world, she was a lady who Sam was sweet on back before he met
Olivia, when Sam was a "jack of all trades" in Nevada. IOW, she walked
out of Sam's life to go and teach school at some other frontier
community. Biographers assume that Sam had been shy and had never
explained to Laura the depth of his affection.

A lifetime later, when Sam was the world famous Mark Twain and Livy was
dead, Laura wrote to her long-lost beau. She had married a Missouri
judge and the marriage had collapsed, and Laura Wright Dake was a little
old school marm forced to keep school teaching by stern economic
necessity. (She was the sole support of a handicapped 37 year old son.)

Sam was never fond of "old age" and pitied anyone afflicted by time,
especially himself. He sent Laura money and affectionate notes.

Years after Sam's death, Laura was a little old lady who had a chest
full of old letters from Sam Clemens. She told her only interviewer that
her letters were written to her by Sam Clemons and she intended to
destroy them rather than let them be seen by the world.

That is what really happened. In the ATL, the point of divergence is
that Reynolds and Meade refused command of the Army of the Potomac, and
Lincoln handed the AoP to Ben Butler. Ben Butler (in unwitting
co-operation with Lee) bolted towards the enemy and got wiped out in the
Third Battle of Manassas ( called Third Bull Run by the Yankees.)

Third Manassas was a big enough catastrophe to end Union defiance to the
Army of Northern Virginia. One of the many tag-on effects to the Rebel
Victory was an "ethnic cleansing" by pro-Yankee Nevadans against their
pro-South neighbors. Being from Missouri, Clemens was one of those
exiled back East.

The silver lining in the dark cloud is that Laura is one of the
Southerners sent back where she came from. Missouri was fissioned into
two States with West Missouri being the Confederate one. Sam never
published more than an occasional short story by way of fiction, but he
and Laura do okay as journalists.

The Clemens belong to the Confederate Commonwealth Party, the biggest
and most moderate of the Confederate Parties. Sam was Governor of West
Missouri when Joe Johnston looked for a Vice President and Sam got the
nod.

I thank you very much for the kind words.