Lost Cause of the Confederacy

The Lost Cause was a movement that attempted to reconcile the Confederate States of America's loss of the American Civil War. The South was devastated both physically and psychologically by its defeat in 1865. Many Southerners sought relief by attributing their loss to factors beyond their control and to betrayals of their heroes and cause.

Related Topics:
Confederate States of America - American Civil War - South - 1865

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The term Lost Cause first appeared as the title of the 1866 book on the Confederacy by historian Edward A. Pollard. However, it was the formation of the Southern Historical Society by Lieut. Gen. Jubal Early in the 1870s that established the Lost Cause as a cultural and literary phenomenon lasting for decades.

Related Topics:
1866 - Southern Historical Society - Jubal Early

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The main arguments propounded by adherents to the Lost Cause movement about the Confederacy and the war in general were that:

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• The preservation of slavery was not the primary reason for 11 southern states to secede from the Union and precipitate the war.
• Secession was a justifiable constitutional response to Northern cultural and economic aggressions against the Southern way of life.
• The famous generals such as Robert E. Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson represented the virtues of Southern nobility as opposed to some Northern generals characterized in the South as possessing low moral standards.
• Losses on the battlefield were inevitable due to an overwhelming Northern superiority in men and resources.
• Losses were also the result of betrayals and incompetence on the part of key subordinates of General Lee. (The Lost Cause focused mainly on Lee and the eastern theater of operations.)

In terms of Lee's subordinates, the key villain in Jubal Early's view was Lieutenant General James Longstreet. Early's writings place the Confederate defeat at the Battle of Gettysburg squarely on Longstreet's shoulders, accusing him of failing to attack early in the morning of July 2, 1863, as instructed by Lee's orders. Lee, in fact, never expressed dissatisfaction with the second-day actions of his "Old War Horse". Longstreet was widely disparaged by Southern veterans because of his post-war cooperation with President Ulysses S. Grant and for joining the Republican Party.

Related Topics:
James Longstreet - Battle of Gettysburg - July 2 - 1863 - Ulysses S. Grant - Republican Party

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A later manifestation of the Lost Cause mentality can been seen in Douglas Southall Freeman's definitive four-volume biography of Lee, published in 1934. In this work Lee could do no wrong; his subordinates were to blame for any error. Another was in the 1936 novel Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell and the 1939 film of the same name. The Southerners were portrayed as noble, heroic figures, living in a society conservative but romantic, who tragically succumbed only to overwhelming forces. A similar treatment appeared in the 1915 film The Birth of a Nation, directed by D. W. Griffith.

Related Topics:
Douglas Southall Freeman - Biography - 1934 - 1936 - Novel - Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell - 1939 film of the same name - Conservative - Romantic - Tragically - 1915 - The Birth of a Nation - D. W. Griffith

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Today, the Lost Cause is no longer the dominant theme of Civil War historians, even Southern ones, and its tenets have been challenged and in some cases discredited. However, basic assumptions of Lost Cause revisionism have proved remarkably durable in popular conventional wisdom about the war, especially in the South. Lost Cause beliefs have been encouraged by the neo-Confederate movement of the late 20th century, especially in the magazine Southern Partisan. Lost Cause tenets are also frequently voiced during controversies surrounding public display of the Confederate battle flag.

Related Topics:
Neo-Confederate - 20th century - Magazine - Southern Partisan - Confederate battle flag

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