Gary Gallagher, a professor at the University of Virginia, speaks about the Civil War on Wednesday night at the Old Town Events Center on Winchester.
(Photo by Jeff Taylor)
Posted on 11/20/2003 9:58:32 AM PST by stainlessbanner
Although the Civil War is a topic of deep interest to many, it remains the source of heated debates within the American culture.
Gary Gallagher, a professor of the history of the Civil War at the University of Virginia, told those who attended his lecture Wednesday that the Civil War remains divisive because Americans continue to struggle with different theories and interpretations of its central issues.
About 50 people attended Gallagher's lecture, held at the Old Town Events Center on Loudoun Street in Winchester.
"I'm probably going to say something that will offend almost everybody in here at different points," Gallagher prefaced his talk, which was part of U.Va.'s Engaging the Mind Lecture Series, a new outreach initiative to bring the university's top scholars and teachers to different Virginia communities.
Since the end of the Civil War, writers and historians who've interpreted the war have fallen into three main categories, Gallagher said.
Those who've adhered to the South's "lost cause" school contend that the Confederacy's goal in the war was protecting states' rights and not the institution of slavery.
"White southerners emerged from the war thoroughly beaten, but largely unrepentant," Gallagher said.
They realized they needed to separate the Confederacy's role in the war from slavery in order to give future generations of Southerners a way to maintain pride when discussing the war, he said.
"These lost cause writers succeeded to a remarkable degree," Gallagher said.
Writers and historians such as Henry Wilson and Frederick Douglass, who propagated what Gallagher called the Union cause, cast the opposite theory on the war, holding that slavery was the central issue.
Some modern Civil War writers continue to ascribe to either the South's lost cause or the North's Union cause schools of interpretation. Gallagher noted that "Neo Confederate" books are more popular and sell better than those that convey that the Civil War was fought over slavery.
A third school of interpretation -- the reconciliation tradition -- focuses on the American virtues displayed by soldiers for both the Union and the Confederacy.
"Reconciliation absolutely holds sway in most of the re-enactor community," Gallagher said, explaining that most re-enactments focus on tactical issues of the war and soldiers, not slavery.
Gallagher concluded by saying that in order to fully understand the war, people must be willing to address the most divisive issues, including slavery.
The Engaging the Mind Lecture Series was launched two years ago, but Wednesday's lecture, sponsored by Virginia National Bank, was the first held in Winchester.
The series will return March 25 with U.Va. Professor and Center for Politics Director Larry Sabato, speaking on the topic "Sabato's Crystal Ball: Elections Past, Present, and Future."
Gary Gallagher, a professor at the University of Virginia, speaks about the Civil War on Wednesday night at the Old Town Events Center on Winchester. (Photo by Jeff Taylor) |
B freaking S!!! Right, sure, a bunch of defeated southern soldiers gathered in some Hooters bar right after the surrender. They worried that the future would see them as fighting a war for slavery and not states rights, so they started passing the word to say the war was about states rights. Right. That is all these people had to do after the war. Worry about what the future would think. Worry about their legacy. Right. Sure.
Yeah that's pretty far fetched. I think it was about States Rights and that included the right to let states decide whether or not slavery should be illegal. Afterall the Supreme Court found a "slavery right" in the Constitution. Perhaps it would have worked if the South hadn't unilaterally attacked the federal fort and instead spent more time negotiating. They should have gotten more help from the world community and gotten the UN involved. /sarcasm
"I started it to steal silverware."
"EXPERT" my A**!
How can someone who cannot even properly define what an historical event WAS be called an "expert"?
Ben Butler was a highly controversial, politically appointed general who won some early victories for the Union cause. He had backed Jefferson Davis for President in 1860, but after secession he became an ardent War Democrat.
After the 6th Massachusetts Regiment was fired upon in the streets of Baltimore, Butler lifted the resulting blockade of Washington by bringing the 8th Massachusetts by ship to Annapolis and from there by rail into the capital. Lincoln rewarded him with a commission as major general of volunteers.
Posted to command of the Department of Virginia he suffered a reverse at Big Bethel but managed to retain control of Fortress Monroe at the tip of the York-James Peninsula. He increased his unpopularity with southerners by declaring escaped slaves of secessionist masters to be contraband and thus subject to seizure by the military. In August of 1861 he led the army portion of the successful operation against Hatteras Inlet in North Carolina.
After the navy captured New Orleans in April of 1862 and Butler was appointed military governor in charge of the occupation forces. Never afraid of controversy, he had a man hanged for tearing down an American flag, closed secessionist newspapers, and confiscated the property of citizens who refused to swear allegiance to the United States. He received the nickname “Spoons” for allegedly confiscating silver from churches and homes. His most lasting nickname, that of “Beast” Butler had its origins in his infamous General Order Number 28, which he issued in response to the insults and abuse that Federal officers were routinely receiving from the women of New Orleans. The operative part of this directive read “hereafter when any female shall by word, gesture, or movement insult or show contempt for any officer or soldier of the United States she shall be regarded and held liable to be treated as a woman of the town plying her avocation.” Butler was condemned throughout the South for this order, and he was branded an outlaw by Jefferson Davis. Butler refused to back down. But the harassment of his men stopped and no women were ever arrested under the order.
Returning to field command in 1864, he managed to get himself and his army bottled up in the Bermuda Hundred while trying to cut the railroad supply lines between Richmond and Petersburg. This action coupled his failure in his next operation, designed to take Fort Fisher resulted in his removal from command. He resigned from the army in 1865.
He was elected to Congress the next year. He was a leader in the movement to remove Andrew Johnson from the office for too lenient treatment of ex-Confederates. He subsequently served five terms in Congress and one as Governor of Massachusetts.
http://www.swcivilwar.com/butler.html
Other scholars have defined theories in a better fashion including political, economic, cultural, etc.
Wow at what a remarkable revelation has developed in the mind of this "gifted" man! And I thought all along we just liked to argue....
Well I am so danged glad that I have you out there in ci-ber space to know exactly what I think, believe, understand and such. Gee, that's Paw for coming to my rescue. Danged, just didn't know how stupid of a southerner I was. Glad you are out there to protect me. What is your name again? Dean?
They realized they needed to separate the Confederacy's role in the war from slavery in order to give future generations of Southerners a way to maintain pride when discussing the war, he said.
Which was a quote from the article. So, I responded to his quote, not the "badly titled" document.
Would that be Red McPherson?
MISSING HISTORY: OMISSIONS IN JAMES McPHERSON'S BOOK THE BATTLE CRY OF FREEDOM
Sorry but anything he states as fact, I take with a block of salt
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.