The Lost Cause

In 1866, the term "the Lost Cause" first appeared when Edward Pollard, a lawyer and journalist, published a book titled "The Lost Cause: A New Southern History of the War of the Confederates." His book was a history of the war that included the rise and progress of the Confederates and how their cause was the "most gigantic struggle of the world's history." Pollard was not the only person to take up this cause and many former Confederate officers, like Lieutenant General Jubal Early, joined him. Their stated goal was to raise the South above politics and rumors and reveal the truth of the matter.

In short, they meant to change history. (https://archive.org/details/lostcausenewsout00poll)

Photo: Edward Pollard nps.gov

Today, 150 years after the war ended, the causes of the war are still being debated. But in 1861, did the men who joined the Confederate cause misunderstand why they were going to war? The historical record is clear that this is not so.

The confusion that is found today is due to the Lost Cause and its revisionist history.

Up until the Emancipation Proclamation, the Union was fighting the war in order to preserve the nation as a whole, while the Confederacy was fighting to keep the institution of slavery. Vice President of the Confederacy Alexander Stephens stated unambiguously that slavery was the reason for secession in his "Corner Stone Speech."
(http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/cornerstone-speech/)

In addition, each state that seceded issued a statement for secession and that defending slavery was the reason, one after another in the Declaration of Causes of South Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama and Texas. In their own words: (http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/06/what-this-cruel-war-was-over/396482/)

Slavery was the cause of the American Civil War and the cause for which the Confederacy was fighting.

Photo: rockysmith.net (http://www.ucs.louisiana.edu/~ras2777/amgov/stephens.html)

The post-war period between 1865 and 1877 is known as Reconstruction, the time the nation took to reunite and rebuild. Some advances were made for African Americans but the rights they gained were quickly taken away by Jim Crow Laws. The states that left the Union were required to renounce their secession, to abolish slavery and to pay off war debts. South Carolina has never renounced secession and Mississippi did not ratify the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery until 2013.

Photo: usatoday.com

The war lasted much longer than anyone had anticipated and both sides had believed that they would be victorious by Christmas of 1861. Instead, the war dragged on for four years, took over 600,000 American lives and resulted in the burning of cities and destruction of property. When the war ended, the country was exhausted and ready to put the conflict behind them and move on. This allowed the Southern revisionists to quietly begin promoting the Lost Cause and they were successful to a remarkable degree. 

Photo: americancivilwarstory.com

What the Lost Causers wished to convey to posterity were the atrocities committed by the Union army, the disadvantage that the Confederates faced, their noble perseverance in the face of overwhelming odds, and, primarily, to distance the cause of war from slavery. Instead, they claimed that they simply wanted to maintain their idyllic and pastoral way of life. The Lost Cause placed the blame of the war on President Lincoln and the Union for limiting states' rights. Their efforts were advanced by the Daughters of the Confederacy, United Confederate Veterans, former President of the Confederacy Jefferson Davis's writings as well as the films Birth of a Nation and Gone with the Wind. 

Photo: imdb.com

Not only were their efforts successful in romanticizing the antebellum South, changing attitudes about the cause of the war and creating sympathy for the South, they also changed what the flag of the Confederacy meant. The flag that today is known as the Confederate flag is the Battle Flag of Army of Tennessee and flew above the army during conflicts.

But the flag was not widely used immediately after the war. In fact, its prominence in the South did not occur until 1948 when the Dixiecrats were running on a platform of racial segregation. As the nation moved towards desegregation, more and more Confederate flags were raised in protest. 

Photo: cwmemory.com

Today, proponents for the flag claim that it is not indicative of racism, but that it represents their pride in the heritage of the South that the Lost Cause created. However, its use over time demonstrates that it does indeed represent racism. It was flown above armies fighting to maintain the status quo and keep an entire race of people enslaved. It is used by the Ku Klux Klan, a racist hate group. And it was flown in support of segregation, a time of extreme racial hatred in America. To argue that the flag represents heritage and not hatred is to perpetuate the lie that is the Lost Cause.

Photo: newsweek.com