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The Lost Cause is the name commonly given to a literary movement that sought to reconcile the traditional society of the Southern United States to the defeat of the Confederate States of America in the Civil War of 1861–1865. Those who contributed to the movement tended to portray the Confederacy's cause as noble and most of the Confederacy's leaders as examplars of old-fashioned chivalry, defeated by the Union armies not through superior military skill, but by overwhelming force.
History The South was devastated both economically and psychologically by its defeat in 1865. Many Southerners sought consolation in attributing their loss to factors beyond their control and to betrayals of their heroes and cause. The term Lost Cause first appeared as the title of an 1866 book by historian Edward A. Pollard, The Lost Cause: A New Southern History of the War of the Confederates. All of these were themes that Early and the Lost Cause writers would echo for decades. Lost Cause themes were taken up by memorial associations such as the United Confederate Veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy, helping in some degree the Southerners to cope with the dramatic social, political, and economic changes in the postbellum era, including Reconstruction. Tenets Some of the main tenets of the Lost Cause movement were that: The most powerful images and symbols of the Lost Cause were Robert E. Lee and Pickett's Charge. David Ulbrich wrote, "Already revered during the war, Robert E. Lee acquired a divine mystique within Southern culture after it. Remembered as a leader whose soldiers would loyally follow him into every fight no matter how desperate, Lee emerged from the conflict to become an icon of the Lost Cause and the ideal of the antebellum Southern gentleman, an honorable and pious man who selflessly served Virginia and the Confederacy. Lee's tactical brilliance at Second Bull Run and Chancellorsville took on legendary status, and despite his accepting full responsibility for the defeat at Gettysburg, Lee remained largely infallible for Southerners and was spared criticism even from historians until recent times." In terms of Lee's subordinates, the key villain in Jubal Early's view was Lt. Gen. James Longstreet. Early's writings place the Confederate defeat at Gettysburg squarely on Longstreet's shoulders, accusing him of failing to attack early in the morning of July 2, 1863, as instructed by Lee. In fact, however, Lee 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. Ironically, Grant's acceptance of the Lost Cause mythos, which derived from his unwillingness to reopen the arguments that had led to the war in the first place, may have significantly contributed to the movement's lasting popularity and influence. Further adoption 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 the annotated bibliography, Freeman acknowledged his debt to the Southern Historical Society Papers and Early by stating that they contain "more valuable, unused data than any other unofficial repository of source material on the War Between the States." In this work Lee's subordinates were primarily to blame for errors that lost battles. While Longstreet was the most common target of such attacks, others came under fire as well. Richard Ewell, Jubal Early, J.E.B. Stuart, A.P. Hill, George Pickett, and many others were frequently attacked and blamed by Southerners in an attempt to deflect criticism from Lee. (As mentioned above, Lee accepted total responsibility for his defeats and never blamed any of his subordinates.) The Lost Cause view of the Civil War also influenced the 1936 novel Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell and the 1939 film of the same name. There Southerners were portrayed as noble, heroic figures, living in a romantic and conservative society, who tragically succumbed to an unstoppable, destructive force. A similar treatment appeared in D. W. Griffith's 1915 film The Birth of a Nation and the 2003 film adaptation of Jeff Shaara's Gods and Generals. Modern usage Today, the Lost Cause is no longer a dominant theme of Civil War historians, even Southern ones, and the concept has been thoroughly discredited by modern research into the causes of the war. However, basic assumptions of the Lost Cause have proved remarkably durable in popular conventional wisdom about the war, particularly in the South. Gary Gallagher wrote that "a brief review of recent scholarly and popular literature, fiction, documentaries and films, and the thriving market in Civil War art reveals trends that almost certainly would bring a smile to Jubal Early's lips." 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. See also Notes Further reading | ||||||||
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