Inside the Confederate Nation: Essays in Honor of Emory M. Thomas.Inside the Confederate Nation: Essays in Honor of Emory M. Thomas Emory Thomas, retired Regents Professor of History at the University of Georgia, is a noted scholar of the American Civil War. Among his many celebrated works are: The Confederacy as a Revolutionary Experience (1970) . Edited by Lesley J. Gordon and John C. Inscoe. Conflicting Worlds: New Dimensions of the American Civil War American Civil War or Civil War or War Between the States (1861–65) Conflict between the U.S. federal government and 11 Southern states that fought to secede from the Union. . (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press This article needs sources or references that appear in reliable, third-party publications. Alone, primary sources and sources affiliated with the subject of this article are not sufficient for an accurate encyclopedia article. , 2005. Pp. xiv, 381. Paper, $19.95, ISBN ISBN abbr. International Standard Book Number ISBN International Standard Book Number ISBN n abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m 0-8071-3099-0; cloth, $65.00, ISBN 0-8071-3099-0.) Emory M. Thomas has left an indelible mark on the historiography of the Confederacy Confederacy, name commonly given to the Confederate States of America (1861–65), the government established by the Southern states of the United States after their secession from the Union. . With The Confederacy as a Revolutionary Experience (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1971) and The Confederate Nation: 1861-1865 (New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , 1979), he invigorated in·vig·or·ate tr.v. in·vig·or·at·ed, in·vig·or·at·ing, in·vig·or·ates To impart vigor, strength, or vitality to; animate: "A few whiffs of the raw, strong scent of phlox invigorated her" discussion about the nature and extent of Confederate national sentiment, tensions between conservative and radical elements of the effort to establish a slaveholding slave·hold·er n. One who owns or holds slaves. slave  hold ing adj. republic, and
the degree to which the Confederate years marked a departure from the
antebellum South's economic and cultural patterns. Thomas
subsequently turned his attention to a pair of Confederate icons in Bold
Dragoon dragoonIn late 16th-century Europe, a mounted soldier who fought as a light cavalryman on attack and as a dismounted infantryman on defense. The term derived from his weapon, a short musket called the dragoon. : The Life of J. E. B. Stuart For the Watergate conspirator, see . James Ewell Brown Stuart (February 6, 1833 – May 12, 1864) was an American soldier from Virginia and a Confederate States Army general during the American Civil War. He was known to his friends as "Jeb". (New York, 1986) and Robert E. Lee: A Biography (New York, 1995). Wisely deciding not to revisit exhaustively examined military operations in detail, Thomas succeeded in presenting Stuart and Lee as complex men and soldiers whose personalities had been obscured by generations of hagiographic hag·i·og·ra·phy n. pl. hag·i·og·ra·phies 1. Biography of saints. 2. A worshipful or idealizing biography. hag treatments. Few scholars can claim as impressive a body of work, and it is a measure of Thomas's continuing influence that The Confederate Nation has yet to be superseded as the standard title on the subject. Lesley J. Gordon and John C. Inscoe assembled an impressive group of historians--including former students of Thomas, colleagues at the University of Georgia Organization The President of the University of Georgia (as of 2007, Michael F. Adams) is the head administrator and is appointed and overseen by the Georgia Board of Regents. , and leading Civil War scholars from other universities--to produce a volume worthy of the man it honors. Space prevents listing, never mind assessing, all twenty essays. The volume is divided into four sections: "Nationalism and Identity," which includes eight essays that directly engage themes central to Thomas's work; "Family and Gender," tour essays; "Race," four essays: and "Memory and Legacies," two essays. An introductory survey of Thomas's scholarship and a very brief "Last Word" by William S. McFeely William S. McFeely was a professor of history for decades before his retirement in 1997. He received his B.A. from Amherst College and Ph.D. from Yale University. He taught for sixteen years at Mount Holyoke College before joining the University of Georgia in 1986. round out the collection. Anyone interested in Confederate nationalism will find much to ponder in the book, and this review will focus on that theme. Brian S. Wills charts the ebb and flow the alternate ebb and flood of the tide; often used figuratively. See also: Ebb of support for Confederate nationhood among white citizens in southeastern Virginia--an area that witnessed no major battles but experienced invasion and partial occupation by United States forces. Wills finds both dedication to the Confederacy and deep doubts about the war, concluding that even diehard Confederates finally realized that "the verdict had been delivered on the battlefield" (p. 74). Keith S. Bohannon's essay examines the wave of reenlistment in the Army of Tennessee The Army of Tennessee was the principal Confederate army operating between the Appalachians and the Mississippi (the Western Theater) during the American Civil War. It is named after the State of Tennessee, unlike the Army of the from January through March 1864, a phenomenon that has inspired different interpretations over the years. Were reenlistments coerced by a government that would require continued service? Or did they reflect devotion to the Confederate cause? Bohannon argues that ideology fueled many of the reenlistments, with some soldiers seeing reenlisting "as not only a reaffirmation of their loyalty to the Confederacy but also a public statement to southern civilians and the enemy" (p. 123). But many soldiers were reluctant to reenlist, others deserted, and still others fought poorly during the ensuing Atlanta campaign, which "'suggest[s] that some soldiers did not share the same level of ideological commitment as the majority of their comrades" (p. 123). The Confederate debate over emancipation in 1864-1865 has been much discussed by historians interested in Confederate nationalism. Did it show a willingness to sacrifice slavery for independence, or was it merely a desperate expedient that revealed the bankruptcy of southern pretensions of nationhood? Philip D. Dillard compares responses to the issue in Galveston, Texas, and Lynchburg, Virginia--the former isolated from the harsh realities of war and the latter more directly threatened by Union military power. Lynchburg's white population supported arming slaves, while Galveston's took a far more wary view. "In this final crisis of the Civil War," writes Dillard, "the selection of independence over slavery by those who had seen and felt the full effect of war provides an eloquent statement about the strength of Confederate nationalism" (p. 328). Rod Andrew Jr. examines Georgia's contentious state elections in 1863. Many historians have cited these elections as indicative of internal divisions that weakened the Confederacy. Such arguments, contends Andrew, accord too much importance to disagreements over state rights. "Confederate nationalism evolved over time," he states, and by 1863 it did not "necessarily imply loyalty to an impersonal central government.... If the Davis administration never ultimately became the focus of Confederate nationalism, perhaps it was because it tailed effectively to tap into the essential and undeniable fervor of white southerners--a militaristic and public-spirited patriotism born of suffering, hardship, and fear" (p. 143). The slippery nature of Confederate identification in Kentucky and Missouri lies at the center of Christopher Phillips's essay. Challenging the traditional description of these two border slave states as "southern" before the Civil War, Phillips insists that "it ignores the nature and, more important, the lasting regional consequences of the Civil War, particularly in its most contested space: the western border states" (p. 148). Leaving aside whether those states were the "most contested" arena of conflict, Phillips forcefully makes the case that northern victory, with the seismic changes wrought by emancipation, created a larger South that for the first time included Kentucky and Missouri. "In the process of coming to the support of the Union," he remarks, "the border West in the end actually became the border South" (p. 148). Essays by James M. McPherson
James M. McPherson (born October 11, 1936) is an American Civil War historian, and is the George Henry Davis '86 Professor Emeritus of United States History at Princeton University. , William C. Davis William C. Davis (September 1, 1939—) is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1985 to 1987, as a member of the Progressive Conservative Party. , Joseph T. Glatthaar, Clarence L. Mohr, Thomas G. Dyer, and others extend or encapsulate some of their earlier work, while contributions by editors Gordon and Inscoe and by Frank J. Byrne use the writings of mountain women in North Carolina, a pair of elite young Georgians, and Daniel R. Hundley and John Beauchamp Jones to explore Confederate identity and responses to the war. Readers with a bibliographical bent will regret, as do I, that the editors chose to include only a "select bibliography" rather than a full roster of all Thomas's writings. Others might have expected a bit more attention to biography in a collection dedicated to a major biographer (there is a piece by Nina Silber on Charles Francis Adams's famous speech about Lee). Such quibbles mean little, however, when placed against the merits of this impressive collection. GARY W. GALLAGHER University of Virginia |
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