The Civil War: Historical Memory vs Historical Myth: Document Set

Name:_____________________________________ The Civil War: Historical Memory vs Historical Myth: Document Set Directions: Read all of the documents, visit embedded links (links are also available on haiku), and answer the questions in this document. Post it to “Document Analysis” in the dropbox on haiku. IF EMBEDDED LINKS DO NOT WORK, USE THE LINKS ON HAIKU UNDER THE SAME NAME. Historical Context: As you read and examine the following documents, consider that two historical legacies of the Civil War are the Emancipationist tradition, whose work continued into Reconstruction and the ongoing work of equality and Civil Rights to this day, and the Lost Causers who sympathized with the Confederate South and created the “Lost Cause Myth” that by the 1890s inspired monuments, organizations and literature of a Confederate romantic past. Overarching Question: All of the following documents and images preserve some legacy of the Civil War. Some are based more on historical myth, others on historical memory. In your estimation, should all of these artifacts exist, or should some be edited out of our history? Why or why not? Document 1: New York Historical Society, “Reconstruction and the Lost Cause Classroom Resources” 2018. The Lost Cause myth that emerged in the years after the Civil War created a much-larger-than-life hero in Robert E. Lee, who was exonerated of any blame for the South’s defeat. It held that Lee had been perfect as a man and a general, beyond reproach, and something close to a god. It blamed the defeat of the Confederacy on the Union’s larger armies and on fatal mistakes made by a few Confederate generals under Lee’s command, especially James Longstreet at the Battle of Gettysburg. It reframed the reason for the war, arguing that slavery was the North’s convenient excuse for hostilities between two parties that had become each other’s opposites and rivals. It held that the people of the South were better than those of the North. Southerners were gallant, gentle, and honorable. Northerners were brutal, crude, and – a reference to the many European immigrants among the Union’s troops – alien. One Southern general claimed that the bodies of fallen Confederate soldiers had decomposed much more beautifully than those of the Union. QUESTION: Please click on the link on haiku and refer to the Virginia Historical Society’s exhibit on Lee and Grant. As you read over the description of each man, do you see any evidence of the Lost Cause myth? Type your response here: From the reading, it is obvious the southerners were pushing their lost cause myth through people who seemed to uphold their values without considering other people in other regions. For instance, despite Lee’s support of slavery and engagement in a fight that could break the union, many southerners viewed him as noble and a hero. The same applies to Grant who received a lot of praise despite the numerous scandals of his administration. Therefore, the Lost Cause myth was built on individuals who only supported what was best for the South. Consequently, for the love of the union, Lee and Grant history should be edited out of the U.S history. Documents 2: 1866 book by the Virginian author and journalist Edward A. Pollard, The Lost Cause: A New Southern History of the War of the Confederates. We shall not enter upon the discussion of the moral question of slavery. But we may suggest a doubt here whether that odious term "slavery" which has been so long imposed, by the exaggeration of Northern writers, upon the judgement and sympathies of the world, is properly applied to that system of servitude in the South, which was really the mildest in the world; which did not rest on acts of debasement and disenfranchisement, but elevated the African, and was in the interest of human improvement; and which, by the law of the land, protected the negro in life and limb, and in many personal rights, and, by the practice of the system, bestowed upon him a sum of individual indulgences, which made him altogether the most striking type in the world of cheerfulness and contentment. Document 3: Excerpt from Lost Cause Textbooks: Civil War Education in the South from the 1890s to the 1920s by Connor King. A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Mississippi in partial fulfillment of the...