Harry L. Watson - Southern Cultures: Remembering the Civil War Issue

Jocelyn R. Neal, director

Edward L. Ayers University of Richmond

E. M. Beck Sociology, Emeritus, University of Georgia

Catherine W. Bishir North Carolina State University Libraries

Merle Black Political Science, Emory University

James C. Cobb History, University of Georgia

Peter A. Coclanis History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Thadious Davis English, University of Pennsylvania

Pam Durban English, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

William R. Ferris History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Wayne Flynt History, Emeritus, Auburn University

Thavolia Glymph History, Duke University

Rayna Green National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

Larry J. Griffin Sociology and History, Georgia Southern University

Ferrel Guillory The Program on Public Life, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Jacquelyn Dowd Hall History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Peggy Hargis Sociology, Georgia Southern University

Trudier Harris English, Emerita, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Fred Hobson English, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Lisa Howorth Square Books, Oxford, Mississippi

Patrick J. Huber History, Missouri University of Science and Technology

Anne Goodwyn Jones English, University of Florida

Michael Kreyling English, Vanderbilt University

Louis Kyriakoudes History, University of Southern Mississippi

Malinda Maynor Lowery History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Michael OBrien History, University of Cambridge

Ted M. Ownby Center for the Study of Southern Culture, University of Mississippi

James L. Peacock Anthropology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Theda Perdue History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

C. David Perry University of North Carolina Press

Tom Rankin Center for Documentary Studies, Duke University

John Shelton Reed Sociology, Emeritus, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Louis D. Rubin English, Emeritus, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Anne Firor Scott History, Emerita, Duke University

Bland Simpson English, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Vincas P. Steponaitis Anthropology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Steven Stowe History, Indiana University

John M. Vlach American Studies, George Washington University

David Wilkins American Indian Studies, University of Minnesota

Charles R. Wilson History, University of Mississippi

Southern Cultures Copyright 2013 Center for the Study of the American South
Indexed in Humanities International Complete. Back Issues are available through www.SouthernCultures.org

This issue asks: How should we remember the Civil War? National Cemetery, Fredericksburg, Virginia, 1974, photographed by Raymond W. Smith.

Readers who experienced the Civil War Centennial of 196165 may recall a pair of cartoons that circulated widely in those days. In one, a doddering Union veteran clutches the Stars and Stripes and wearily advises, Forget it. In the other, an equally old but defiant Confederate brandishes his own sides Battle Flag and snarls back, Fergit, hell! In a brief online search, I found no trace of the Yankee, but Fergit, hell! is still plentiful, as a license plate, a bumper sticker, and a slogan in debate.

If we cant forget it, how should southerners remember the Civil War? Over the years, weve done so in many ways. Well into the twentieth century, African Americans honored Emancipation with repeated commemorations, variously focusing on the Proclamation itself, on other key milestones, and especially on Juneteenth or June 19, fully two months after Appomattox, when federal troops finally brought freedom to Galveston, Texas. Once a local holiday, Juneteenth celebrations are now more widespread than ever.

Southern white memory has been utterly different in tone but much more conspicuous. First came private sorrow, bitterness, and rage, immediately searing the survivors and ultimately preserved in family stories. My mother remembered the promising youth who was supposed to become a doctor but went to war instead. He came back so traumatized that he was never good for anything, and forced his wife to support the family. My father could tell of his great-grandparents with six sons. One died beforehand, one lost an arm, three died in combat, and one returned whole. When those personal losses prompted recognition, it usually occurred in cemeteries, over the graves of the fallen themselves. Only later, as the cult of the Lost Cause gathered strength, did monument-building move to the public square and place all those obelisks and bronze sentinels to guard our courthouse lawns. Later still, when the immediate participants had all gone and even the family stories were beginning to fade, many came to overlook the grief and pain, not to mention the issue at stake, and remembered the Civil War era as an age of lost splendor, when belles were belles and men were heroes. The reenactment craze began among women, as society ladies donned hoop skirts to give house tours, assert their social standing, and show off their azaleas. Aside from squiring their partners to antebellum balls, men only joined in later, reenacting actual battles and reliving the glorious days when white male command needed no defense or explanation.