The Lost Cause of the Confederacy, known simply as the Lost Cause, is an American

pseudohistorical Pseudohistory is a form of pseudoscholarship that attempts to distort or misrepresent the historical record, often by employing methods resembling those used in scholarly historical research. The related term cryptohistory is applied to pseudoh ...

and historical negationist myth that argues the cause of the

Confederate States The Confederate States of America (CSA), also known as the Confederate States (C.S.), the Confederacy, or Dixieland, was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States from 1861 to 1865. It comprised eleven U.S. states th ...

during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

was just, heroic, and not centered on

slavery Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

. First articulated in 1866, it has continued to influence

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...

gender roles A gender role, or sex role, is a social norm deemed appropriate or desirable for individuals based on their gender or sex. Gender roles are usually centered on conceptions of masculinity and femininity. The specifics regarding these gende ...

, and religious attitudes in the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, Dixieland, or simply the South) is List of regions of the United States, census regions defined by the United States Cens ...

into the 21st century. Beyond forced unpaid labor and denial of freedom to leave the slaveholder, the

treatment of slaves in the United States Slaves in the United States were often subjected to sexual abuse and rape, the denial of education, and punishments like Flagellation, whippings. Families were often split up by the sale of one or more members, usually never to see or hear of ...

often included

sexual abuse Sexual abuse or sex abuse is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using physical force, or by taking advantage of another. It often consists of a persistent pattern of sexual assaults. The offender is re ...

and

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault involving sexual intercourse, or other forms of sexual penetration, carried out against a person without consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or against a person ...

, the denial of education, and punishments such as whippings. Enslaved families were often split and sold apart, usually estranged forever. Lost Cause proponents ignore these realities, presenting slavery as a positive good and denying that alleviation of the conditions of slavery was the central cause of the American Civil War. Instead, Lost Cause proponents frame the war as a defense of

states' rights In United States, American politics of the United States, political discourse, states' rights are political powers held for the state governments of the United States, state governments rather than the federal government of the United States, ...

and of the Southern agrarian economy against supposed Northern aggression. Lost Cause proponents attribute the Union victory to greater numbers and greater industrial wealth, while they portray the Confederate side of the conflict as being more righteous and having greater military skill. Modern historians overwhelmingly disagree with these characterizations, noting that the central cause of the war was slavery. The Lost Cause reached a high level of popularity at the turn of the 20th century, when proponents memorialized Confederate veterans who were dying off. It reached a high level of popularity again during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s in reaction to growing public support for racial equality. Through actions such as building prominent Confederate monuments and writing history textbooks, Lost Cause organizations (including the

United Daughters of the Confederacy The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) is an American neo-Confederate hereditary association for female descendants of Confederate Civil War soldiers engaging in the commemoration of these ancestors, the funding of monuments to them, a ...

and

Sons of Confederate Veterans The Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) is an American neo-Confederate nonprofit organization of male descendants of Confederate soldiers that commemorates these ancestors, funds and dedicates monuments to them, and promotes the pseudohisto ...

) sought to ensure that Southern whites would know what they called the "true" narrative of the Civil War and would therefore continue to support

white supremacist White supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White supremacy has roots in the now-discredited doctrine ...

policies such as

Jim Crow laws The Jim Crow laws were U.S. state, state and local laws introduced in the Southern United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that enforced Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, "Jim Crow (character), Ji ...

. White supremacy is a central feature of the Lost Cause narrative.

Emergence

The movement that took ''The Lost Cause'' for its name had multiple origins, but its unifying contention was that slavery was not the primary cause, or even a cause at all, of the Civil War. This narrative denies or minimizes the explanatory statements and constitutions published by the seceding states—for example, the wartime writings and speeches of CSA vice president

Alexander Stephens Alexander Hamilton Stephens (February 11, 1812 – March 4, 1883) was an American politician who served as the first and only vice president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865, and later as the 50th governor of Georgia from 1882 unti ...

and especially his

Cornerstone Speech The Cornerstone Speech, also known as the Cornerstone Address, was an oration given by Alexander H. Stephens, acting Vice President of the Confederate States of America, at the Athenaeum in Savannah, Georgia, on March 21, 1861. The improvised ...

. Lost Cause historians instead favor the more moderate postwar views of Confederate leaders. The Lost Cause argument stresses

secession Secession is the formal withdrawal of a group from a Polity, political entity. The process begins once a group proclaims an act of secession (such as a declaration of independence). A secession attempt might be violent or peaceful, but the goal i ...

as a defense against a Northern threat to a Southern way of life and declares that this threat violated the

guaranteed by the

Constitution of the United States The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, on March 4, 1789. Originally includi ...

. The Lost Cause's assertion that any state had the right to secede was strongly denied in the North. Lost Cause arguments universally portray slavery as more benevolent than cruel. In its mythology and peculiarly Southern iconography, Confederate generals are characterized as morally flawless, deeply religious, and saintly or Christ-like.

Origin of the term

The term "Lost Cause" was sometimes applied by writers observing the Confederate war effort against the larger industrial might of the North. It appeared in the title of an 1866 book by the Virginian journalist

Edward A. Pollard Edward Alfred Pollard (February 27, 1832December 17, 1872) was an American author, journalist, and Confederate sympathizer during the American Civil War who wrote several books on the causes and events of the war, notably ''The Lost Cause: A New ...

, ''The Lost Cause: A New Southern History of the War of the Confederates''. According to Pollard, the term was inserted at the request of his publisher in New York City, who feared that Pollard's original title, ''History of the War'', would not be catchy enough to sell books. The "Lost Cause" title sold well. Pollard promoted many of the themes of the Lost Cause such as the claim that states' rights were the cause of the war and that Southerners were forced to defend themselves against Northern aggression. He dismissed the role of slavery in starting the war and understated the cruelty of American slavery, even promoting it as a way of improving the lives of Africans. Pollard's revisionist history continues to have an effect on how slavery and the Civil War are taught in the United States. For example, in 1866 Pollard wrote: Pollard in ''The Lost Cause'' and its sequel ''The Lost Cause Regained'' drew inspiration from

John Milton John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet, polemicist, and civil servant. His 1667 epic poem ''Paradise Lost'' was written in blank verse and included 12 books, written in a time of immense religious flux and politic ...

Paradise Lost ''Paradise Lost'' is an Epic poetry, epic poem in blank verse by the English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The poem concerns the Bible, biblical story of the fall of man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their ex ...

with the intention of portraying the pre-war South as a "paradise" that was lost in its defeat.

Tenets

The Lost Cause legend includes the assertion that slavery was not the main dispute between the North and the South and was not the cause of secession. The myth claims that it was merely a matter of time before the South would have given up slavery by its own choice and that it was the trouble-making abolitionists who manufactured disagreement between the regions. Enslaved African Americans were characterized as faithful and happy. Confederate President

Jefferson Davis Jefferson F. Davis (June 3, 1808December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the only President of the Confederate States of America, president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He represented Mississippi in the Unite ...

wrote about the place of the South's enslaved African Americans in his '' The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government'' (1881): Lost Cause advocates point to a perceived chivalric tradition of the South as evidence for the CSA's cultural and martial superiority to the North,Williams, David S
"Lost Cause Religion"
''

New Georgia Encyclopedia The ''New Georgia Encyclopedia'' (NGE) is a web-based encyclopedia containing over 2,000 articles about the state of Georgia. It is a program of Georgia Humanities (GH), in partnership with the University of Georgia Press, the University System ...

'', October 2, 2017. Retrieved May 12, 2024.Landrieu, Mitch
"How I Learned About the "Cult of the Lost Cause""
''

Smithsonian Magazine ''Smithsonian'' is a magazine covering science, history, art, popular culture and innovation. The first issue was published in 1970. History The history of ''Smithsonian'' began when Edward K. Thompson, the retired editor of ''Life'' magazine ...

'', March 12, 2018. Retrieved May 14, 2024. relying on nationalistic narratives of the fanciful Southern Cavalier descended from the English RoyalistsMichie, Ian
"The Virginia Cavalier"
''

Encyclopedia Virginia Virginia Humanities (VH), formerly the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, is a humanities council whose stated mission is to develop the civic, cultural, and intellectual life of the Commonwealth of Virginia by creating learning opportunities f ...

''. Retrieved May 12, 2024 or the Norman knights of

William the Conqueror William the Conqueror (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), sometimes called William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England (as William I), reigning from 1066 until his death. A descendant of Rollo, he was D ...

. Lost Cause rhetoric idealized the South as a land of "grace and gentility" where planter aristocrats were indulgent of their cheerful slaves and its manhood had great courage. Whites and blacks are portrayed as joined in support of the South's benevolent and gracious civilization, superior to that of the North. The Confederate soldier is romanticized as steadfast, dashing, and heroic. Lost Cause doctrine holds that secession is a right granted by the Constitution; therefore, those who defend it are not traitors. Southern military leaders are depicted in Lost Cause hagiography as virtual saints, with

Robert E. Lee Robert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870) was a general officers in the Confederate States Army, Confederate general during the American Civil War, who was appointed the General in Chief of the Armies of the Confederate ...

occupying the preeminent place as a Christ-like figure. Lost Cause advocates try to rationalize the Confederate military defeat with the assertion that the South had not actually been defeated; rather, it had been unfairly overcome by the massive manpower and resources of the deceitful Yankees. Contradictorily, they also maintain that the South would have won the war if it had prevailed in the

Battle of Gettysburg The Battle of Gettysburg () was a three-day battle in the American Civil War, which was fought between the Union and Confederate armies between July 1 and July 3, 1863, in and around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle, won by the Union, ...

, and that it lost because of

Stonewall Jackson Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson (January 21, 1824 – May 10, 1863) was a Confederate general and military officer who served during the American Civil War. He played a prominent role in nearly all military engagements in the eastern the ...

's death in 1863 and the failure of Lieutenant General

James Longstreet James Longstreet (January 8, 1821January 2, 1904) was a General officers in the Confederate States Army, Confederate general during the American Civil War and was the principal subordinate to General Robert E. Lee, who called him his "Old War Ho ...

African-American opposition to Lost Cause monuments

Stories of happy slaves and benevolent slave owners became propaganda to defend slavery and to explain Southern slavery to Northerners. The

had a Faithful Slave Memorial Committee and erected the Heyward Shepherd monument in

Harpers Ferry, West Virginia Harpers Ferry is a historic town in Jefferson County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 269 at the 2020 United States census. Situated at the confluence of the Potomac River, Potomac and Shenandoah River, Shenandoah Rivers in the ...

. In explaining Confederate defeat, an assertion is made that the main factor was not qualitative inferiority in leadership or fighting ability but the massive quantitative superiority of the Yankee industrial machine. At the peak of troop strength in 1863, Union soldiers outnumbered Confederate soldiers by over two to one, and the Union had three times the bank deposits of the Confederacy. After the Civil War, white Southerners wanted to portray the South positively by erecting Confederate monuments to memorialize Confederate generals in support of the false narrative that Confederates had fought the war to preserve states' rights and not slavery. African Americans such as 19th-century civil rights activist

Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 14, 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, Abolitionism in the United States, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. He was the most impor ...

opposed the erection of Confederate memorials. In 1870, Douglass wrote: "Monuments to the 'lost cause' will prove monuments of folly ..in the memories of a wicked rebellion which they must necessarily perpetuate ..It is a needless record of stupidity and wrong." On May 30, 1871, during the national celebration of

Memorial Day Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is a federal holiday in the United States for mourning the U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. It is observed on the last Monday of May. It i ...

at the tomb of the unknown soldier in

Arlington National Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery is the largest cemetery in the United States National Cemetery System, one of two maintained by the United States Army. More than 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington County, Virginia. ...

in Virginia, Douglass delivered a speech about slavery as the meaning and cause of the Civil War. He said: "We are sometimes asked, in the name of patriotism, to forget the merits of this fearful struggle, and to remember, with equal admiration, those who struck at the nation's life, and those who struck to save it—those who fought for slavery, and those who fought for liberty and justice. I am no minister of malice. ..I would not repel the repentant, but may ..my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I forget the difference between the parties to that ..bloody conflict." John Mitchell Jr. was an African American newspaper editor, politician, banker, and civil rights activist in the 19th and early 20th centuries from Richmond, Virginia, who advocated against the erection of a Robert E. Lee monument there. He tried to block its funding but was stopped by a white conservative majority. In

Richmond, Virginia Richmond ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. Incorporated in 1742, Richmond has been an independent city (United States), independent city since 1871. ...

, on May 29, 1890, it was unveiled during a celebration and he covered the event in the ''Richmond Planet''. He wrote: "This glorification of States Rights Doctrine—the right of secession, and the honoring of men who represented that cause ..fosters in the Republic, the spirit of Rebellion and will ultimately result in the handing down to generations unborn a legacy of treason and blood."

W. E. B. Du Bois William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ( ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in a relativel ...

was a

civil rights activist Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...

and

Pan-Africanist Pan-Africanism is a nationalist movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all indigenous peoples and diasporas of African ancestry. Based on a common goal dating back to the Atlantic slave trade, the Trans-Sa ...

who also spoke out against Lost Cause memorials. In 1931, in the official magazine for the

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...

, ''

The Crisis ''The Crisis'' is the official magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). It was founded in 1910 by W. E. B. Du Bois (editor), Oswald Garrison Villard, J. Max Barber, Charles Edward Russell, Kelly M ...

'', he wrote that it "would be an inscription something like this: 'sacred to the memory of those who fought to Perpetuate Human Slavery'". On January 3, 1966, Sammy Younge Jr. was murdered in

Tuskegee, Alabama Tuskegee ( ) is a city in Macon County, Alabama, Macon County, Alabama, United States. General Thomas Simpson Woodward, a Creek War veteran under Andrew Jackson, laid out the city and founded it in 1833. It became the county seat in the same y ...

, two years after the passage of the

Civil Rights Act of 1964 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 () is a landmark civil rights and United States labor law, labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on Race (human categorization), race, Person of color, color, religion, sex, and nationa ...

, which had made segregation of public places illegal. He stopped to use a public bathroom at a gas station, and the white store owner, Marvin Segrest, told him to use the segregated bathroom. He refused and told Segrest the Civil Rights Act made segregated facilities illegal. They argued, and Segrest shot Younge in the head. Segrest was not found guilty in court, which caused Black students in Tuskegee, Alabama, to express their frustrations in protest at the Tuskegee Confederate Monument. The monument was defaced, including with the phrase "

Black Power Black power is a list of political slogans, political slogan and a name which is given to various associated ideologies which aim to achieve self-determination for black people. It is primarily, but not exclusively, used in the United States b ...

". Protestors unsuccessfully tried to pull it down with a rope and chain. The grounds are owned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. During the 1950s and 1960s, white supremacists erected Confederate monuments in opposition to the civil rights movement. On the night of August 20, 2018, at the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, UNC–Chapel Hill, or simply Carolina) is a public university, public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolli ...

in North Carolina, hundreds of protestors gathered at "

Silent Sam The Confederate Monument, University of North Carolina, commonly known as ''Silent Sam'', is a bronze statue of a Confederate soldier by Canadian sculptor John A. Wilson, which once stood on McCorkle Place of the University of North Carolin ...

", a one-hundred-year-old Confederate Monument and demanded its removal. By 9:30 p.m., students pulled down the statue with a rope. The gathering was supported by the actions of a previous student named Maya Little, when in April, Little protested the monument by pouring blood and paint on it. Some residents in North Carolina believe Confederate monuments have connections to white supremacy. In 2020, during the

George Floyd protests The George Floyd protests were a series of protests, riots, and demonstrations against police brutality that began in Minneapolis in the United States on May 26, 2020. The protests and civil unrest began in Minneapolis as Reactions to the mu ...

, several Confederate monuments were defaced with graffiti. From 2020 to 2021 in Virginia, many Confederate monuments were removed from

Monument Avenue Monument Avenue is a tree-lined grassy mall dividing the eastbound and westbound traffic in Richmond, Virginia, originally named for its emblematic complex of structures honoring those who fought for the Confederacy during the American Civil Wa ...

. Lost Cause monuments continue to evoke conversations about racial injustice in the United States. They shift the memory of the Civil War away from themes of slavery and emancipation to states' rights with a romanticized version of slavery and the Civil War.

History

19th century

Newspaper clipping and image about Jackson MS Confederate monument 1891

The defeat of the Confederacy devastated many white Southerners economically, emotionally, and psychologically. Before the war, many believed that their rich military tradition would avail them in the forthcoming conflict. Many sought consolation in attributing their loss to factors beyond their control, such as physical size and overwhelming brute force. The

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

professor

Gary W. Gallagher Gary William Gallagher (born October 8, 1950) is an American historian specializing in the history of the American Civil War. Gallagher in 2024 was the John L. Nau III Professor in the History of the American Civil War at the University of Virg ...

wrote: Yale University history professor Rollin G. Osterweis summarizes the content that pervaded Lost Cause writings:

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...

history professor Gaines Foster wrote in 2013: However, it was the articles written by General

Jubal A. Early Jubal Anderson Early (November 3, 1816 – March 2, 1894) was an American lawyer, politician and military officer who served in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War, Civil War. Trained at the United States Military Academy, ...

in the 1870s for the

Southern Historical Society The Southern Historical Society was an American organization founded to preserve archival materials related to the government of the Confederate States of America and to document the history of the American Civil War.The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government'' by ex-Confederate President

, a two-volume defense of the Southern cause, provided another important text in the history of the Lost Cause. Davis blamed the enemy for "whatever of bloodshed, of devastation, or shock to republican government has resulted from the war". He charged that the Yankees fought "with a ferocity that disregarded all the laws of civilized warfare". The book remained in print and often served to justify the Southern position and to distance it from slavery. Early's original inspiration for his views may have come from Confederate General

. When Lee published his farewell order to the

Army of Northern Virginia The Army of Northern Virginia was a field army of the Confederate States Army in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. It was also the primary command structure of the Department of Northern Virginia. It was most often arrayed agains ...

, he consoled his soldiers by speaking of the "overwhelming resources and numbers" that the Confederate army had fought against. In a letter to Early, Lee requested information about enemy strengths from May 1864 to April 1865, the period in which his army was engaged against Lieutenant General

Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was the 18th president of the United States, serving from 1869 to 1877. In 1865, as Commanding General of the United States Army, commanding general, Grant led the Uni ...

(the

Overland Campaign The Overland Campaign, also known as Grant's Overland Campaign and the Wilderness Campaign, was a series of battles fought in Virginia during May and June 1864, towards the end of the American Civil War. Lieutenant general (United States), Lt. G ...

and the

Siege of Petersburg The Richmond–Petersburg campaign was a series of battles around Petersburg, Virginia, fought from June 9, 1864, to March 25, 1865, during the American Civil War. Although it is more popularly known as the siege of Petersburg, it was not a c ...

). Lee wrote, "My only object is to transmit, if possible, the truth to posterity, and do justice to our brave Soldiers." In another letter, Lee wanted all "statistics as regards numbers, destruction of private property by the Federal troops, &c." because he intended to demonstrate the discrepancy in strength between the two armies and believed it would "be difficult to get the world to understand the odds against which we fought". Referring to newspaper accounts that accused him of culpability in the loss, he wrote, "I have not thought proper to notice, or even to correct misrepresentations of my words & acts. We shall have to be patient, & suffer for awhile at least.... At present the public mind is not prepared to receive the truth."Gallagher, p. 12. All of these themes were made prominent by Early and the Lost Cause writers in the 19th century and continued to play an important role throughout the 20th. In a November 1868 report, U.S. Army general

George Henry Thomas George Henry Thomas (July 31, 1816March 28, 1870) was an American general in the Union Army during the American Civil War and one of the principal commanders in the Western Theater. Thomas served in the Mexican–American War, and despite be ...

, a Virginian who had fought for the Union in the war, noted efforts made by former Confederates to paint the Confederacy in a positive light: Memorial associations such as the

United Confederate Veterans The United Confederate Veterans (UCV, or simply Confederate Veterans) was an American Civil War veterans' organization headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was organized on June 10, 1889, by ex-soldiers and sailors of the Confederate Sta ...

, the

, and Ladies Memorial Associations integrated Lost Cause themes to help white Confederate-sympathizing Southerners cope with the many changes during the era, most significantly

Reconstruction Reconstruction may refer to: Politics, history, and sociology *Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company *''Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Union ...

.Ulbrich, p. 1222. The institutions have lasted to the present, and descendants of Confederate soldiers continue to attend their meetings. In 1879, John McElroy published '' Andersonville: A Story of Rebel Military Prisons'', which strongly criticized the Confederate treatment of prisoners and implied in the preface that the mythology of the Confederacy was well established, and that criticism of the otherwise-lionized Confederates was met with disdain: In 1907, Hunter Holmes McGuire, physician of Confederate general

, published in a book papers sponsored by the Grand Camp of Confederate Veterans of Virginia, supporting the Lost Cause tenets that "slavery asnot the cause of the war" and that "the North asthe aggressor in bringing on the war". The book quickly sold out and required a second edition. The German historian Wolfgang Schivelbusch compared the Lost Cause mythology embraced by the South after the Civil War to the "lost cause" of the ideals held by such Northern intellectuals as

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, minister, abolitionism, abolitionist, and poet who led the Transcendentalism, Transcendentalist movement of th ...

Herman Melville Herman Melville (Name change, born Melvill; August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance (literature), American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works ar ...

Henry Adams Henry Brooks Adams (February 16, 1838 – March 27, 1918) was an American historian and a member of the Adams political family, descended from two U.S. presidents. As a young Harvard graduate, he served as secretary to his father, Charles Fran ...

, and

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

, who had strived to establish an American humanism free of mythologizing and were disillusioned that the Union victory was followed by the materialism of

Gilded Age In History of the United States, United States history, the Gilded Age is the period from about the late 1870s to the late 1890s, which occurred between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era. It was named by 1920s historians after Mar ...

America.

Reunification of North and South

American historian

Alan T. Nolan Alan T. Nolan (19 January 1923, in Evansville, Indiana – 27 July 2008, in Indianapolis) was an American military historian, best remembered for his books ''The Iron Brigade'' (1961), ''Lee Considered: General Robert E. Lee and Civil War History' ...

states that the Lost Cause "facilitated the reunification of the North and the South". He quotes historian Gaines M. Foster, who wrote that "signs of respect from former foes and northern publishers made acceptance of reunion easier. By the mid-eighties, most southerners had decided to build a future within a reunited nation. A few remained irreconcilable, but their influence in southern society declined rapidly." Nolan mentioned a second aspect: "The reunion was exclusively a white man's phenomenon and the price of the reunion was the sacrifice of the African Americans." The historian Caroline Janney stated: The Yale historian

David W. Blight David William Blight (born 1949) is the Sterling Professor of History, of African American Studies, and of American Studies and Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University. Previous ...

wrote: In exploring the literature of reconciliation, the historian William Tynes Cowa wrote, "The cult of the Lost Cause was part of a larger cultural project: the reconciliation of North and South after the Civil War". He identified a typical image in postwar fiction: a materialistic, rich Yankee man marrying an impoverished spiritual Southern bride as a symbol of happy national reunion. Examining films and visual art, Gallagher identified the theme of "white people North and South hoextol the ''American'' virtues both sides manifested during the war, to exalt the restored nation that emerged from the conflict, and to mute the role of African Americans". Historian and journalist

Bruce Catton Charles Bruce Catton (October 9, 1899 – August 28, 1978) was an American historian and journalist, known best for his books concerning the American Civil War. Known as a narrative historian, Catton specialized in popular history, featuring in ...

argued that the myth or legend helped achieve national reconciliation between North and South. He concluded that "the legend of the lost cause has served the entire country very well", and he went on to say: From the beginning of the 20th century through the 1920s, Confederate statues were raised as a symbolic complement to the Jim Crow laws of the South. They embodied a narrative of the Civil War that emphasized the reconciliation of whites in the North and the South who shared in the glory of their valorous soldiers, over an emancipationist interpretation that recognized the struggle for the civil rights of black people, anathema to white supremacists. During the mid-1950s to the late 1960s, as the centennial of the Civil War drew closer, numerous new monuments were raised, sometimes as a direct response in opposition to the Civil Rights Movement.

New South

Historian Jacquelyn Dowd Hall has written that the Lost-Cause theme was fully developed around 1900 in a mood not of despair but of triumphalism for the New South. Much was left out of the Lost Cause:

Works of Thomas Dixon Jr.

No writer did more to establish the Lost Cause than Thomas Dixon Jr. (1864–1946), a Southern lecturer, novelist, playwright, filmmaker, and

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

minister. Dixon, a North Carolinian, has been described as: Dixon predicted a "

race war An ethnic conflict is a conflict between two or more ethnic groups. While the source of the conflict may be political, social, economic or religious, the individuals in conflict must expressly fight for their ethnic group's position within so ...

" if current trends continued unchecked that he believed white people would surely win, having "3,000 years of civilization in their favor". He also considered efforts to educate and civilize African Americans futile, even dangerous, and said that an African American was "all right" as a slave or laborer "but as an educated man he is a monstrosity". In the short term, Dixon saw white racial prejudice as "self-preservation", He was a noted lecturer, often getting many more invitations to speak than he was capable of accepting. Moreover, he regularly drew very large crowds, larger than any other Protestant preacher in the United States at the time, and newspapers frequently reported on his sermons and addresses. He resigned his minister's job to devote himself to lecturing full-time and supported his family that way. He had an immense following, and "his name had become a household word". In a typical review of the time, his talk was "decidedly entertaining and instructive ..There were great beds of solid thought, and timely instruction at the bottom". Between 1899 and 1903, he was heard by more than 5,000,000 people; his play ''

The Clansman ''The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan'' is a novel published in 1905, the second work in the Ku Klux Klan trilogy by Thomas Dixon Jr. (the others are '' The Leopard's Spots'' and '' The Traitor''). Chronicling the American Ci ...

'' was seen by over 4,000,000. He was commonly referred to as the best lecturer in the country. He enjoyed a "handsome income" from lectures and royalties on his novels, especially from his share of ''

The Birth of a Nation ''The Birth of a Nation'' is a 1915 American Silent film, silent Epic film, epic Drama (film and television), drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. The screenplay is adapted from Thomas Dixon Jr.'s 1905 novel and ...

''. He bought a "steam yacht" and named it

Dixie Dixie, also known as Dixieland or Dixie's Land, is a nickname for all or part of the Southern United States. While there is no official definition of this region (and the included areas have shifted over the years), or the extent of the area i ...

After seeing a theatrical version of ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'', "he became obsessed with writing a trilogy of novels about the Reconstruction period." The trilogy comprised ''The Leopard's Spots. A Romance of the White Man's Burden—1865–1900'' (1902), '' The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan'' (1905), and ''The Traitor: A Story of the Fall of the Invisible Empire'' (1907). "Each of his trilogy novels had developed that black-and-white battle through rape/lynching scenarios that are always represented as prefiguring total race war, should elite white men fail to resolve the nation's 'Negro Problem'." Dixon also wrote a novel about

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...

—''The Southerner'' (1913), "the story of what Davis called 'the real Lincoln—another, ''The Man in Grey'' (1921), on

, and one on

, ''The Victim'' (1914). Dixon's most popular novels were ''

The Leopard's Spots ''The Leopard's Spots: A Romance of the White Man's Burden—1865–1900'' is the first novel of Thomas Dixon's Reconstruction trilogy, and was followed by '' The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan'' (1905), and '' The Traitor: ...

'' and ''

.'' Their influential spin-off, the movie ''

'' (1915), was the first film shown in the White House and was repeated the next day to the entire Supreme Court, 38 Senators, and the Secretary of the Navy.

Later use

Professor Gallagher contended that

Douglas Southall Freeman Douglas Southall Freeman (May 16, 1886 – June 13, 1953) was an American historian, biographer, newspaper editor, radio commentator, and author. He is best known for his multi-volume biographies of Robert E. Lee and George Washington, for both ...

's definitive four-volume biography of Lee, published in 1934, "cemented in American letters an interpretation of Lee very close to Early's utterly heroic figure".Gallagher, pp. 24–25. In that work, Lee's subordinates were primarily to blame for errors that lost battles. Longstreet was the most common target of such attacks. Richard Ewell,

Jubal Early Jubal Anderson Early (November 3, 1816 – March 2, 1894) was an American lawyer, politician and military officer who served in the Confederate States Army during the Civil War. Trained at the United States Military Academy, Early resigned his ...

J. E. B. Stuart James Ewell Brown "Jeb" Stuart (February 6, 1833May 12, 1864) was a Confederate cavalry general during the American Civil War. He was known to his friends as "Jeb,” from the initials of his given names. Stuart was a cavalry commander known f ...

A. P. Hill Ambrose Powell Hill Jr. (November 9, 1825April 2, 1865) was a Confederate States Army, Confederate General officer, general who was killed in the American Civil War. He is usually referred to as A. P. Hill to differentiate him from Confederate ge ...

George Pickett George Edward Pickett (January 16,Military records cited by Eicher, p. 428, and Warner, p. 239, list January 28. The memorial that marks his gravesite in Hollywood Cemetery lists his birthday as January 25. Thclaims to have accessed the baptis ...

, and many others were frequently attacked and blamed by Southerners in an attempt to deflect criticism from Lee. Hudson Strode wrote a widely read scholarly three-volume biography of Confederate President

, published in the 1950s and 1960s. A leading scholarly journal that reviewed it stressed Strode's political biases: One Dallas newspaper editorial in 2018 referred to the Texas Civil War Museum as "a lovely bit of 'Lost Cause' propaganda". While not limited to the American South specifically, the

Stop the Steal After Democratic nominee Joe Biden won the 2020 United States presidential election, Republican nominee and then-incumbent president Donald Trump pursued an unprecedented effort to overturn the election, with support from his campaign, ...

movement in the wake of the

2020 US presidential election Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 3, 2020. The Democratic ticket of former vice president Joe Biden and California junior senator Kamala Harris defeated the incumbent Republican president Donald Trump and vi ...

has been interpreted as a reemergence of the Lost Cause idea and a manifestation of

white backlash White backlash, also known as white rage or whitelash, is related to the politics of white grievance, and is the negative response of some white people to the racial progress, or perceived favoritism of other ethnic groups in rights and economi ...

From the 20th century to the present

The basic assumptions of the Lost Cause have proved durable for many in the modern South. The Lost Cause tenets frequently emerge during controversies surrounding the public display of the

Confederate flag The flags of the Confederate States of America have a history of three successive designs during the American Civil War. The flags were known as the "Stars and Bars", used from 1861 to 1863; the "Stainless Banner", used from 1863 to 1865; and ...

and various state flags. The historian John Coski noted that the

(SCV), the "most visible, active, and effective defender of the flag", "carried forward into the twenty-first century, virtually unchanged, the Lost Cause historical interpretations and ideological vision formulated at the turn of the twentieth". Coski wrote concerning "the flag wars of the late twentieth century": The Confederate States used several flags during its existence from 1861 to 1865. Since the end of the American Civil War, the personal and official use of Confederate flags and flags derived from them has continued under considerable controversy. "Following the war, proponents of the Lost Cause used the battle flag to represent Southern valor and honor, although it also was implicitly connected to white supremacy. In the mid-twentieth century, the battle flag simultaneously became ubiquitous in American culture while, partly through the efforts of the Ku Klux Klan, becoming increasingly tied to racial violence and intimidation." African Americans interpreted the battle flag as an opposition to the civil rights movement. Neo-Confederates disagree and argue the flag is about states' rights and southern heritage and not racial hatred. The

ingrained Lost Cause ideology in the schools of southern states by placing Confederate flags and portraits of Confederate heroes in classrooms and assisting teachers with their history lesson plans. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, African American troops strongly objected to the use of the Confederate flag by white troops because of the hypocrisy of waving a flag that fought against the United States. In the 1950s, head of the

Civil Rights Congress The Civil Rights Congress (CRC) was a United States civil rights organization, formed in 1946 at a national conference for radicals and disbanded in 1956. It succeeded the International Labor Defense, the National Federation for Constitutional L ...

(CRC), William L. Patterson, led a campaign to ban the sale of Confederate flags in stores in the United States. Patterson wrote a letter to an editor of the ''New York Times'' saying that the Confederate flag may encourage "mounting fascism" and is "conducive to everything for which the Confederacy stood and stands". Debates about the meaning of the Confederate flag continue, and several states' flags historically have had references to the Confederacy.

Confederate Heroes Day

Confederate Heroes Day began as Robert E. Lee Day in 1931 in

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, and in 1973 the Texas legislature changed Robert E. Lee Day to Confederate Heroes Day to remember and honor Confederate soldiers who fought in the American Civil War. Historian and former professor at Southeast Missouri State University, W. Stuart Towns, considers Confederate Heroes Day a manifestation of Lost Cause ideology. Over the years, attempts to abolish the holiday have failed. The holiday is celebrated on January 19, the birthday of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, which falls a few days after Martin Luther King Jr. Day on January 15. African American lawmakers continue to seek ways to abolish Confederate Heroes Day. The state of Florida continues to celebrate Robert E. Lee Day on January 19. A new bill passed in 2024 is retroactive to 2017 and prohibits the removal of Florida's Confederate memorials. The state continues to celebrate other Confederate holidays, including

Confederate Memorial Day Confederate Memorial Day (called Confederate Heroes Day in Texas and Florida, and Confederate Decoration Day in Tennessee) is a holiday observed in several Southern U.S. states on various dates since the end of the American Civil War. The holi ...

on April 26 and Jefferson Davis' birthday on June 3.

Confederate History Month

The American Civil War began on April 12, 1861, when Confederates fired the first shots at

Fort Sumter Fort Sumter is a historical Coastal defense and fortification#Sea forts, sea fort located near Charleston, South Carolina. Constructed on an artificial island at the entrance of Charleston Harbor in 1829, the fort was built in response to the W ...

in the Charleston Harbor of South Carolina. To commemorate this day, in April 1994

Confederate History Month Confederate History Month is a month designated by seven state governments in the Southern United States for the purpose of recognizing and honoring the Confederate States of America. April has traditionally been chosen, as Confederate Memorial D ...

(also called Confederate Heritage Month) was created. Seven southern states celebrate Confederate Heritage Month —they are: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and Virginia. The

Southern Poverty Law Center The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, it is known for its legal cases against white ...

interprets this celebration of Confederate history in the month of April as part of Lost Cause ideology that wants to portray the Confederate States and secession positively.

United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC)

UDC support of the Ku Klux Klan

The Lost Cause became a key part of the reconciliation process between North and South by virtue of political argument, outright sentimentalism, and white Southerners' postwar commemorations. The

(UDC) is a major organization and has been associated with the Lost Cause for over one century. The United Daughters of the Confederacy portrayed the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to KKK or Klan, is an American Protestant-led Christian terrorism, Christian extremist, white supremacist, Right-wing terrorism, far-right hate group. It was founded in 1865 during Reconstruction era, ...

(KKK) as saviors of white women and children and saviors of the South from what they thought was a majority black rule. UDC member Laura Martin Rose wrote articles for the ''

Confederate Veteran The ''Confederate Veteran'' was a magazine about veterans of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War of 1861–1865. It published histories of the Civil War with a focus on Confederate events. It also propagated a myth of the Lo ...

'', praised the KKK as saviors, and described the movie, ''

'', as "more powerful than all else in bringing about the realization of 'things as they were' during

", and wrote a primer for school children about the KKK. In 1914, Rose published ''The Ku Klux Klan; or Invisible Empire'' and believed Klan violence was necessary by stating Klan violence "delivered the South from a bondage worse than death". Rose wrote her book so Southern children would know that the history of the KKK was created by Confederate veterans, saying: "inspire them with the respect and admiration for the Confederate soldiers, who were the real Ku Klux, and whose deeds of courage and valor, have never been surpassed". UDC historian

Mildred Lewis Rutherford Mildred Lewis Rutherford (July 16, 1851 – August 15, 1928) was a prominent white supremacist speaker, educator, and author from Athens, Georgia. She served the Lucy Cobb Institute, as its head and in other capacities, for over forty years, and ...

also supported the KKK and said: " e Ku Klux Klan was an absolute necessity in the South at this time. This Order was not composed of 'riffraff' as has been represented in history, but of the very flower of Southern manhood. The chivalry of the South demanded protection for the women and children of the South." In 1917, the UDC commemorated the KKK's founding in 1866 by former Confederate veterans in Pulaski, Tennessee, with a plaque on a building where the Klan was founded. In 1926, in

Concord, North Carolina Concord ( ) is the most populous city in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, United States, and its county seat. The city had a population of 105,240 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Concord is the second-most populous city in the Cha ...

, the UDC commemorated the KKK with a monument. The inscription is "In Commemoration of the 'KU KLUX KLAN' during the Reconstruction period following the 'WAR BETWEEN THE STATES' this marker is placed on their assembly ground. The original banner (as above) was made in Cabarrus County. Erected by the DODSON-RAMSEUR Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. 1926."

Stone Mountain carving

The largest Confederate memorial in the United States is located near Atlanta, Georgia, at

Stone Mountain Stone Mountain is a quartz monzonite dome Inselberg, monadnock and the site of Stone Mountain Park, east of Atlanta, Georgia. Outside the park is the city of Stone Mountain, Georgia. The park is the most visited tourist site in the state of Ge ...

. Caroline Helen Jamison Plane was the president of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) chapter in Atlanta and in 1915 planned a project to carve a memorial of Confederate figures at Stone Mountain. After watching the movie, ''

'', Plane also wanted Ku Klux Klan members carved into the mountain's face. Plane wrote a letter to the sculptor,

Gutzon Borglum John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum (March 25, 1867 – March 6, 1941) was an American sculpture, sculptor best known for his work on Mount Rushmore. He is also associated with various other public works of art across the U.S., including Stone Moun ...

, who was involved with the KKK, about the project and her idea of including KKK members in the Stone Mountain carving inspired by the movie. She wrote: "Since seeing this wonderful and beautiful picture of Reconstruction in the South, I feel that it is due to the Ku Klux Klan which saved us from Negro domination and carpet-bag rule, that it might be immortalized on Stone Mountain". The 1915 film ''The Birth of a Nation'', inspired Methodist preacher William J. Simmons to reestablish the KKK at Stone Mountain by burning a cross and initiating 16 new Klansmen. In 1948, Stone Mountain was the location chosen for the KKK to initiate 700 new members. For decades this location served as a meeting place for Ku Klux Klan rituals. Stone Mountain Carving 100 0871

Caroline H. J. Plane persuaded the owners of Stone Mountain to let the UDC have access to the property. Due to funding issues, the changing of sculptors from Borglum to Augustus Lukeman, and two intervening World Wars, the carving of Stone Mountain was not completed until 1972. Confederate leaders Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson are carved into the mountain's face, but the completed project does not have Klansmen carved into the face of the mountain. Black Americans interpret the carving as an intimidation tactic by white supremacists, and as their effort to reclaim the South from the civil rights movement. Some white southerners interpret the carving as signifying their southern heritage and honoring ancestors who fought in the Civil War to preserve states' rights. Historian Grace Elizabeth Hale interprets the carving as "a sort of neo-Confederatism".

Women's club movement

The women's club movement was racially divided. White women's club and suffrage activism refused to include Black women. White women's clubs successfully lobbied for the imposition of a racist Lost Cause curriculum in schools. White women's literary clubs advocated that only Lost Cause literature written by former Confederates and their children should be read. Some of the white women who were members of the

(UDC) were also members of white women's clubs. Black teachers fought against Lost Cause literature in schools. "Black 'clubwomen across the South and in South Carolina understood that they had to define African American identity for themselves through their study of history, literature, and culture.'" The UDC led the deployment of Lost Cause textbooks in Southern schools and created children's auxiliaries called Children of the Confederacy. The UDC created a 52-card game for children about Confederate leaders, officers, Confederate states, and Confederate victorious battles. In the early 20th century, the UDC and the United Confederate Veterans worked together, and each group created a Historical Committee to influence American textbook industries to ensure that only Lost Cause textbooks were taught in schools. The UDC and UCV succeeded in 1910 as Lost Cause literature dominated United States classrooms.

was the UDC president in Georgia from 1899 to 1902 and the UDC national historian from 1911 to 1916. She advocated that subcommittees be organized in every state and that only Lost Cause narratives be allowed in American textbooks. In 1919, she published ''A Measuring Rod to Test Textbooks and Reference Books in Schools, Colleges and Libraries'', which set guidelines for schools and colleges to exclude narratives of the horrors of slavery, slavery as the cause of the Civil War, and the secession of Southern states from the Union. To combat the Lost Cause narratives in American classrooms, in 1946 the

(NAACP) embarked on a campaign to include African American history in American history textbooks. The UDC funded poor descendants of Confederate Veterans to go to college and, after graduation, teach students about the Lost Cause. The UDC controlled the writing, publishing, and banning of American history textbooks for decades and partnered with the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), legislatures, and school committees to positively portray the Confederacy as heroes in textbooks and not as traitors or enslavers. According to some historians, Lost Cause ideology continues to affect how slavery and the Civil War are taught in American classrooms.

Mamie Garvin Fields Mamie Garvin Fields (August 13, 1888 – July 30, 1987) was a teacher, civil rights and religious activist, and memoirist. In 1909, she became one of the first African-American teachers to be hired in a Charleston County, South Carolina, public sc ...

was a

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...

activist, teacher, and African American women's club member from Charleston, South Carolina, who advocated against Lost Cause narratives in Charleston's segregated schools. As a child, she attended Shaw School in Charleston; she later remembered white teachers there teaching about the Lost Cause. After she finished school, Lost Cause ideology continued to be taught to black students, and some segregated schools had white teachers teaching it to black students. African American teachers refused to teach black students using Lost Cause textbooks. Black teachers taught their students about

and other historic African Americans. The Senate of Virginia in 1950 responded to the growing activism of civil rights activists against white supremacy and created the Virginia History and Textbook Commission to publish Lost Cause textbooks. Virginia's Lost Cause textbooks erased Native American history. Virginia's NAACP chapter and the Virginia Teachers Association (VTA), which was a Black educators' organization, opposed Lost Cause textbooks in Virginia's classrooms and taught African American history. By the 1970s, Lost Cause literature was removed from Virginia's classrooms due to political changes such as the new voting power of African Americans under the

Voting Rights Act of 1965 The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the civil rights move ...

and the removal of the Byrd political machine. The new

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) are the state standards for the US state of Texas public schools from kindergarten to year 12. They detail the curriculum requirements for every course. State-mandated standardized tests measure acquisit ...

(TEKS) state school standards, the official K-12 curriculum for the state of Texas, includes

Neo-Confederate Neo-Confederates are groups and individuals who portray the Confederate States of America and its actions during the American Civil War in a positive light. The League of the South (formed in 1994), the Sons of Confederate Veterans (formed 1896 ...

ideology. In 2012, author Edward H. Sebesta described how Lost Cause ideology is placed in Texas history books: "Rebel leader

, is elevated to peer status with

; slaveholder Thomas J. 'Stonewall' Jackson, is venerated as a pious, conservative friend of blacks; and Hiram R. Revels, celebrated as the first African American elected to the US Senate, actually supported the cause of white supremacy." This history curriculum instills a Neo-Confederate ideology in students and enables the movement. In October 2015, outrage erupted online following the discovery of a Texan school's geography textbook, which described slaves as "immigrants" and "workers". The publisher,

McGraw-Hill McGraw Hill is an American education science company that provides educational content, software, and services for students and educators across various levels—from K-12 to higher education and professional settings. They produce textbooks, ...

, announced that it would change the wording. Until the 2019–2020 school year, the Texas social studies

curriculum In education, a curriculum (; : curriculums or curricula ) is the totality of student experiences that occur in an educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view of the student's experi ...

required teaching that slavery was a tertiary cause of the Civil War behind "

" and "

sectionalism Sectionalism is loyalty to one's own region or section of the country, rather than to the country as a whole. Sectionalism occurs in many countries, such as in the United Kingdom. In the United Kingdom Sectionalism occurs most notably in the co ...

". The updated curriculum describes the "expansion of slavery" as having a "central role" in bringing about the Civil War, but sectionalism and states' rights remain. Professor of educational policy Chara Bohan studied the history of American history textbooks published after Reconstruction into the present day and found that Lost Cause narratives about the Civil War predominate in Southern classrooms, and over time made their way into history textbooks used in the North. Bohan explains: "After the Civil War, from the 1870s through the 1910s, public schooling became more widespread in the South, and Confederate sympathizers wanted to ensure that their children received an 'appropriate' education on Southern history and culture. To that end, Southern states developed statewide adoption policies for textbooks. This allowed the state textbook committees to control content by demanding changes or threatening to cancel book contracts unless the publishers acquiesced. Today, most of the states with statewide textbook adoption policies are still in the South. To keep their business, Northern publishers began adapting history books to appease Southerners, essentially publishing a separate version of Civil War history for those states. These editions reinforced a Lost Cause narrative for Southern audiences." Bohan says this sympathetic portrayal of Lost Cause ideology continues today in the history textbooks of various states.

"Faithful slaves" monuments

In 1904, the

(UDC) campaigned for the erection of " faithful slaves" monuments in Southern states to commemorate the history of "loyal" slaves in an effort to erase the horrors of slavery and push the false narrative that enslaved Black people were treated well by their enslavers and were "faithful" to them. Southern Congressmen supported the UDC initiative to erect stereotypical monuments about the "loyal" " mammies" and "faithful slaves". In 1923, the UDC planned on erecting a " Mammy memorial" in Washington, D.C. to memorialize the enslaved Black mothers who were "happy" to take care of their enslavers' families and children. This project was supported by the U.S. Senate when it passed bill S. 4119 on February 28, 1923, for the creation of a Mammy statue to be erected on Massachusetts Avenue near a statue of Union General

Philip Sheridan Philip Henry Sheridan (March 6, 1831 – August 5, 1888) was a career United States Army officer and a Union general in the American Civil War. His career was noted for his rapid rise to major general and his close association with General-i ...

. Black newspapers such as the '' St. Louis Argus,'' ''

The Chicago Defender ''The Chicago Defender'' is a Chicago-based online African-American newspaper. It was founded in 1905 by Robert S. Abbott and was once considered the "most important" newspaper of its kind. Abbott's newspaper reported and campaigned against Jim ...

,'' the ''

Baltimore Afro-American The ''Baltimore Afro-American'', commonly known as ''The Afro'' or ''Afro News'', is a weekly African-American newspaper published in Baltimore, Maryland. It is the flagship newspaper of the ''AFRO-American'' chain and the longest-running Africa ...

,'' and the ''Washington Tribune'' opposed bill S. 4119 in their editorials and cartoons. The

(NAACP) wrote an oppositional letter regarding the Mammy statue to the Senate. Black clubwomen strongly advocated against this movement; their activism and that of other Black civil rights groups prevented the erection of the monument.

Mary Church Terrell Mary Terrell (born Mary Church; September 23, 1863 – July 24, 1954) was an American civil rights activist, journalist, teacher and one of the first African-American women to earn a college degree. She taught in the Latin Department at the M St ...

, who was a

suffragist Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to vo ...

, civil rights activist, educator, and one of the founders of the

National Association of Colored Women's Clubs The National Association of Colored Women's Clubs (NACWC) is an American organization that was formed in July 1896 at the First Annual Convention of the National Federation of Afro-American Women in Washington, D.C., United States, by a merger of ...

in 1896, wrote a letter advocating against the Mammy monument. In January 1923, Terrell wrote: Loyal slaves monument inscription and carving

Prior to the UDC, a faithful slaves monument was erected in South Carolina in 1896 by Samuel E. White, who was a former cotton mill owner, and by the Jefferson Davis Memorial Association. Other Lost Cause monuments were erected in the 1890s and early 1900s in South Carolina. On June 4, 1914, the UDC erected a loyal slave monument on the grounds of

in Virginia. The monument stands near the home of former Confederate general Robert E. Lee. In 2020, during the

, the UDC's headquarters in Richmond, Virginia, was graffitied and burned by protesters because of its role in the erection of Confederate monuments and perpetuating the Lost Cause ideology. Protestors used the " Karen meme" because the UDC was formed by privileged middle-to-upper-class white women.

Gender roles

Men had typically honored the role of women during the war by noting their total loyalty to the Cause. Popular literature often depicted elite white Southern women according to the patriarchal stereotype of helpless Southern belles who seek husbands as a lifeline to restore the fortunes of a ruined plantation or to carry them away from it, as if women could not possibly support themselves. White women on the plantations did face apparent danger without the presence of their men to serve in the traditional role as protectors. Nevertheless, the development of separate or trust estates for white women during the antebellum period had protected their own property from their husbands or their husbands' debtors and allowed them to operate businesses and to manage plantations. Women took a much different approach to the Cause and their position by emphasizing female activism, initiative, and leadership. When most of the men had left for the war, women had taken command of the homestead, found substitute foods, rediscovered their old traditional skills with the

spinning wheel A spinning wheel is a device for spinning thread or yarn from fibres. It was fundamental to the textile industry prior to the Industrial Revolution. It laid the foundations for later machinery such as the spinning jenny and spinning frame, ...

when factory cloth became unavailable, and had run the farm or plantation operations, including the management of enslaved African Americans the elites considered property. According to Drew Gilpin Faust, a campaign was mounted by newspapers and political leaders such as Jefferson Davis, alongside writers of poetry and song, exhorting Southern women to revive the production of cloth goods at home. Many Southern white men were bothered when they discovered that their wives had begun spinning and weaving textiles. They regarded such labor as degrading for elite women. Forced to undertake homespun production due to the North's blockade of goods, many women shared those attitudes but decided they had no choice.

Religious dimension

Charles Wilson argues that many white Southerners, most of whom were conservative and pious

evangelical Protestants Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of the Christian g ...

, sought reasons for the Confederacy's defeat in religion. They said that the Confederacy's defeat in the war was God's punishment for their

sin In religious context, sin is a transgression against divine law or a law of the deities. Each culture has its own interpretation of what it means to commit a sin. While sins are generally considered actions, any thought, word, or act considered ...

s, so they increasingly turned to religion for solace. The postwar era yielded a regional "

civil religion Civil religion, also referred to as a civic religion, is the implicit religious values of a nation, as expressed through public rituals, symbols (such as the national flag), and ceremonies on sacred days and at sacred places (such as monuments, bat ...

", heavily laden with symbolism and ritual, and primarily celebrated by clergymen. Wilson says that the ministers constructed: Acting in their cultural and religious environments, white Southerners tried to defend what their defeat in 1865 made impossible for them to defend on a political level. The South's loss in what they viewed as a

holy war A religious war or a war of religion, sometimes also known as a holy war (), is a war and conflict which is primarily caused or justified by differences in religion and beliefs. In the modern period, there are frequent debates over the extent t ...

left these white Southerners facing inadequacy, failure, and guilt. They faced them by forming what C. Vann Woodward called a uniquely Southern "tragic sense of life" expressed in their civil religion that combined Southern values with conservative and moralistic Christian values. Poole stated that in fighting to defeat the Republican Reconstruction government in South Carolina in 1876, white conservative Democrats portrayed the Lost Cause scenario through "Hampton Days" celebrations and shouted, "Hampton or Hell!" They staged the contest between Reconstruction opponent and Democratic candidate

Wade Hampton Wade Hampton may refer to the following people: People *Wade Hampton I (1752–1835), American soldier in Revolutionary War and War of 1812 and U.S. congressman * Wade Hampton II (1791–1858), American plantation owner and soldier in War of 1812 * ...

and incumbent Republican Governor

Daniel H. Chamberlain Daniel Henry Chamberlain (June 23, 1835April 13, 1907) was an American planter, lawyer, author and the List of Governors of South Carolina, 76th Governor of South Carolina from 1874 until 1876 or 1877. The federal government withdrew troops fro ...

as a religious struggle between good and evil and called for " redemption". The white Southern conservatives who committed to the dismantling of Reconstruction called themselves "Redeemers". The popularization of Lost Cause mythology and the erection of monuments to the Confederacy was primarily the work of Southern women, centered in the

(UDC). The duty of memorializing the Confederate dead was a major activity for Southerners who were devoted to the Lost Cause, and chapters of the UDC played a central role in performing it. The UDC was especially influential across the South in the early 20th century, where its main role was to preserve and uphold the memory of Confederate veterans, especially the husbands, sons, fathers, and brothers who died in the war. Its long-term impact was to promote by Lost Cause iconography an idealized image of the prewar plantation South as a society that was crushed by the forces of Yankee modernization, which also undermined traditional gender roles. In Missouri, a border state, the UDC was active in establishing an independent system of memorials. The Southern states set up their own pension systems for veterans and their dependents, especially for widows, because none of them was eligible for federal pensions. The southern pensions were designed to honor the Lost Cause and reduce the severe poverty which was prevalent in the region. Male applicants for pensions had to demonstrate their continued loyalty to the Lost Cause. Female applicants for pensions were rejected if their moral reputations were in question. In

Natchez, Mississippi Natchez ( ) is the only city in and the county seat of Adams County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 14,520 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located on the Mississippi River across from Vidalia, Louisiana, Natchez was ...

, the local newspapers and veterans had a role in the maintenance of the Lost Cause mythos. However, elite white women were central in establishing memorials such as the Civil War monument, which was dedicated on

1890. The Lost Cause enabled women noncombatants to lay a claim to the central event in their redefinition of

Southern history The history of the Southern United States spans back thousands of years to the first evidence of human occupation. The Paleo-Indians were the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, first peoples to inhabit the Americas and what would become the So ...

. The UDC was quite prominent but not at all unique in its appeal to upper-class white Southern women. "The number of women's clubs devoted to

filial piety Filial piety is the virtue of exhibiting love and respect for one's parents, elders, and ancestors, particularly within the context of Confucian ethics, Confucian, Chinese Buddhism, Chinese Buddhist ethics, Buddhist, and Daoism, Daoist ethics. ...

and history was staggering", stated historian W. Fitzhugh Brundage. He noted two typical clubwomen in Texas and Mississippi who, between them, belonged to the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the

Daughters of the American Revolution The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (often abbreviated as DAR or NSDAR) is a lineage-based membership service organization for women who are directly descended from a patriot of the American Revolutionary War. A non-p ...

, the

Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities Association may refer to: *Club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal *Trade association, an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry *Voluntary associatio ...

, the Daughters of the Pilgrims, the Daughters of the War of 1812, the Daughters of Colonial Governors, and the Daughters of the Founders and Patriots of America, the

Order of the First Families of Virginia The Order of the First Families of Virginia was instituted on 11 May 1912 "to promote historical, biographical, and genealogical researches concerning Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in ...

, the

Colonial Dames of America The Colonial Dames of America (CDA) is an American organization comprising women who descend from one or more ancestors who lived in British North America between 1607 and 1775, and who aided the colonies in public office, in military service, or ...

, and a few other history-oriented societies. Comparable men, on the other hand, were much less interested in belonging to historical organizations; instead, they devoted themselves to secret fraternal societies and emphasized athletic, political, and financial exploits to prove their manhood. Brundage notes that after

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...

came in 1920, the historical role of the women's organizations eroded. Brundage concluded that in their heyday during the first two decades of the 20th century:

Symbols

Confederate generals

The character of Robert E. Lee and the doomed

Pickett's Charge Pickett's Charge was an infantry assault on July 3, 1863, during the Battle of Gettysburg. It was ordered by Confederate General Robert E. Lee as part of his plan to break through Union lines and achieve a decisive victory in the North. T ...

were powerful symbols of the Lost Cause. A representative of the Missouri division of the United Confederate Veterans (UCV) gave a speech at its tenth annual reunion in which he spoke of "a new religion" born in the South. Lloyd A. Hunter treats this new religion as a vital force in the lives of Confederates after the war. A faith focused on the "immortal Confederacy" and an image of the South as a sacred land, it was founded on the myth of the Lost Cause. 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 Antebellum, Latin for "before war", may refer to: United States history * Antebellum South, the pre-American Civil War period in the Southern US ** Antebellum Georgia ** Antebellum South Carolina ** Antebellum Virginia * Antebellum architectu ...

Southern

gentleman ''Gentleman'' (Old French: ''gentilz hom'', gentle + man; abbreviated ''gent.'') is a term for a chivalrous, courteous, or honorable man. Originally, ''gentleman'' was the lowest rank of the landed gentry of England, ranking below an esquire ...

, an honorable and pious man who selflessly served Virginia and the Confederacy. Lee's tactical brilliance at

Second Bull Run The Second Battle of Bull Run or Battle of Second Manassas was fought August 28–30, 1862, in Prince William County, Virginia, as part of the American Civil War. It was the culmination of the Northern Virginia Campaign waged by Confederate ...

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." Alan T. Nolan describes Lee as a "visible sign of the elevation of the Lost Cause" in the South's folk history after the war. Nolan further observes that by the 1980s, the excellence of Lee's generalship was the consensus of standard reference sources and dogma in popular sources such as the Time-Life ''The Civil War'' series. He cites the ''

Encyclopedia Americana ''Encyclopedia Americana'' is a general encyclopedia written in American English. It was the first general encyclopedia of any magnitude to be published in North America. With '' Collier's Encyclopedia'' and ''Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclo ...

'' calling Lee "one of the greatest, if not the greatest, soldier who ever spoke the English language" in its 1989 edition, and the ''Encyclopedia Britannica'' edition of the same year describing him similarly. Among Lee's subordinates, the key villain in Jubal Early's view was General Longstreet. Although Lee took all responsibility for the defeats, particularly the one at Gettysburg, Early's writings place the Confederate defeat at Gettysburg squarely on Longstreet's shoulders by accusing him of failing to attack at dawn on July 2, 1863, as instructed by Lee. In fact, however, Lee issued no such order and never expressed dissatisfaction with the second-day actions of his "Old War Horse". Because Gettysburg was perceived as the "high tide of the Confederacy", the loss there was seen to have led to the failure of the entire war to achieve independence for the South, the blame for which was hung on Longstreet's disinclination to attack. These charges stuck because Longstreet was already disparaged by many high-profile Southerners due to his reputation as a "

scalawag In United States history, scalawag (sometimes spelled scallawag or scallywag) was a pejorative slur referred to white Southerners who supported Reconstruction policies and efforts after the conclusion of the American Civil War. As with the t ...

", caused by postwar endorsement of and cooperation with his close friend and

in-law In law and in cultural anthropology, affinity is the kinship relationship created or that exists between two people as a result of someone's marriage. It is the relationship each party in the marriage has to the family of the other party in th ...

, President Grant. Furthermore, Longstreet advised white Southerners to cooperate with

, in an effort to control the black vote, a fact that was unappreciated by his fellows. He also joined the Republican Party and accepted a federal position. Following the war, the national media, including Northern newspapers and magazines, printed articles that contributed to a trend of portraying Lee as the unconquerable Southern general who was victorious even in his surrender at Appomattox, through his devotion to duty and his resolve to help rebuild the South and educate its youth. Historical and literary magazines in the South cultivated a romantic mystique depicting Lee and his cavalry officers as knightly cavaliers. Albert Bledsoe, once a fellow lawyer with Abraham Lincoln in Illinois, and a former professor at the University of Virginia, railed in Baltimore's ''Southern Review'', of which he was editor, that the Northern victory over the South meant nothing because the South had not been defeated but was overcome by the overwhelming numbers of Union troops. He called Lee, in a passage quoted by Thomas L. Connelly, a military genius whose skills were "unsurpassed in the annals of war" and dedicated his magazine to justifying the Lost Cause. Grant said in an 1878 interview that he rejected the Lost Cause notion that the South had simply been overwhelmed by numbers. Grant wrote, "This is the way public opinion was made during the war and this is the way history is made now. We never overwhelmed the South.... What we won from the South we won by hard fighting." Grant further noted that when comparing resources, the "4,000,000 of negroes" who "kept the farms, protected the families, supported the armies, and were really a reserve force" were not treated as a southern asset. Postwar Virginian writers made Lee the embodiment and the epitome of what they regarded as the superior men produced by antebellum Virginia, which they romanticized as a finer society. By the beginning of the 20th century, Lee had become the preeminent symbol of all the noble traits of character ascribed to those men who belonged to this supposedly more genteel society. Southern writers justified the Lost Cause argument with an appeal to the greatness and the nobility of Robert E. Lee, not only as being above all Southerners, but as a great American and as a "supremely great and good man". This argument was disseminated in literature throughout the country and Lee was made into a national hero of the United States. Brian Holden Reid holds that the literature was skewed in favor of the Southern viewpoint by the beginning of the 20th century, and that an overwhelming Southern bias persisted until the 1960s among historians. He says the school of writers who felt sympathy with the myth of the Lost Cause was influenced by novelists, professional writers, and screenwriters in Hollywood. Most of them embraced the sentimental narrative of a valiant Confederacy overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of Union fighters and its superior resources, and Robert E. Lee was vitally important as a symbol sustaining this romantic interpretation of events.

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York (state), New York politics, incl ...

declared that what Lee had accomplished was a "matter of pride to all our countrymen".

Contemporary historians

Contemporary historians overwhelmingly agree that secession was motivated by slavery. The most important of secession's numerous causes were preservation and expansion of slavery. The confusion may come from blending the causes of secession with the causes of the war, which were separate but related issues. According to Henry Louis Gates, Jr., "the Lost Cause was fundamentally based on white supremacy". He posits that

understood, even beyond political realities, that the falsified narrative of the Lost Cause was anti-Black and would solidify a fabricated, romanticized narrative of American history. Gates says that Du Bois's '' Black Reconstruction'' located the struggles and achievements of Black Americans at the center of the story of the Reconstruction period. This was a challenge to Lost Cause adherents and to the prevailing academic view of Reconstruction at the time, that of the

Dunning School The Dunning School was a historiographical school of thought regarding the Reconstruction period of American history (1865–1877), supporting conservative elements against the Radical Republicans who introduced civil rights in the South. It was n ...

, which maintained that it was a failure, and which deprecated the contributions of Black Americans. Gates describes ''Black Reconstruction'' as a "clarion call" for American Blacks that demonstrated they would not tolerate a historical narrative imposed on them and on their own history by white supremacists. Charles Reagan Wilson, a historian and former director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, has described how by the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century progressive African Americans and white southerners have succeeded in dismantling much of the collective memory of the Lost Cause in the South. Scholar Peniel E. Joseph said in ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' magazine that Du Bois, an African American author,

, and

, published ''

Black Reconstruction in America ''Black Reconstruction in America: An Essay Toward a History of the Part Which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860–1880'' is a history of the Reconstruction Era, Reconstruction era by W. E. B. Du Bois, f ...

'' in 1935 to expose the myths and lies of the Lost Cause. Du Bois wrote about African American excellence in business and politics, about Black progress in democracy, and how their success received white supremacy backlash. According to the historian Kenneth M. Stampp, each side supported states' rights or stronger federal power only when convenient. He cited Confederate Vice President

as a Southern leader who, when the war began, said that slavery was the " cornerstone of the Confederacy", but after the defeat of the Confederacy said, in ''A Constitutional View of the Late War Between the States'', that the war had been not about slavery but about states' rights. Stephens became one of the most ardent defenders of the Lost Cause myth. Similarly, the historian William C. Davis wrote that the

Confederate Constitution The Constitution of the Confederate States was the supreme law of the Confederate States of America. It superseded the Provisional Constitution of the Confederate States, the Confederate State's first constitution, in 1862.. Retrieved July 10, ...

's protection of slavery at the national level: "To the old Union they had said that the Federal power had no authority to interfere with slavery issues in a state. To their new nation they would declare that the state had no power to interfere with a federal protection of slavery. Of all the many testimonials to the fact that slavery, and not states' rights, really lay at the heart of their movement, this was the most eloquent of all." Davis labeled many of the myths that surround the war "frivolous", including attempts to rename the war by Confederate partisans. He stated that names such as " War of Northern Aggression" and "

War Between the States War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organize ...

" (the latter expression having been coined by Alexander Stephens) were just attempts to deny the fact that the American Civil War was an actual civil war. He said, "Causes and effects of the war have been manipulated and mythologized to suit political and social agendas, past and present." Historian

David Blight David William Blight (born 1949) is the Sterling Professor of History, of African American Studies, and of American Studies and Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University. Previous ...

said a key to the Lost Cause is "its use of white supremacy as both means and ends". Historian

Allan Nolan Allan may refer to: People * Allan (given name), a list of people and characters with this given name * Allan (surname), a list of people and characters with this surname * Allan (footballer, born 1984) (Allan Barreto da Silva), Brazilian fo ...

wrote: " e Lost Cause legacy to history is a caricature of the truth. The caricature wholly misrepresents and distorts the facts of the matter. Surely it is time to start again in our understanding of this decisive element of our past and to do so from the premises of history unadulterated by the distortions, falsehoods, and romantic sentimentality of the Myth of the Lost Cause." Wolfgang Schivelbusch described the American South's reaction to defeat as comparable to that of

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

after the

Franco-Prussian War The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...

and

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

after the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, specifically with the myth and ideals of

revanchism Revanchism (, from ''revanche'', "revenge") is the political manifestation of the will to reverse the territorial losses which are incurred by a country, frequently after a war or after a social movement. As a term, ''revanchism'' originated i ...

and the

stab-in-the-back myth The stab-in-the-back myth (, , ) was an antisemitic and anti-communist conspiracy theory that was widely believed and promulgated in Germany after 1918. It maintained that the Imperial German Army did not lose World War I on the battlefield, b ...

. Unlike the other two, which lost relevance after the French victory in World War I and Germany's defeat in

respectively, the Lost Cause continued as an important mythology. Schivelbusch, David M. Potter,

Eugene Genovese Eugene Dominic Genovese (May 19, 1930 – September 26, 2012) was an American historian of the American South and American slavery. He was noted for bringing a Marxist perspective to the study of power, class and relations between planters and ...

, and

Elizabeth Fox-Genovese Elizabeth Ann Fox-Genovese ( Fox; May 28, 1941 – January 2, 2007) was an American historian best known for her works on women and society in the Antebellum South. A Marxist early on in her career, she later converted to Roman Catholicism and ...

speculated this was in part due to serving as an "other America" in contrast to American Capitalism comparably to

Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...

"War Between the States"

The leaders of the Lost Cause movement began to emphasize the expression "War Between the States" at about the same time there was a shift in national usage from "War of the Rebellion" or the "Rebellion" to "Civil War". Southerners such as Vice President of the Confederate States

Alexander H. Stephens Alexander Hamilton Stephens (February 11, 1812 – March 4, 1883) was an American politician who served as the first and only Vice President of the Confederate States of America, vice president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865, and l ...

defended the proposition that the Southern States had legitimately exercised a right to secede from the union. He preferred "War of Secession". The name "War Between the States" avoided the stigma associated with the term "rebellion" and affirmed the assertion that secession was legal and a constitutional right of the individual states who had confederated and were thus an independent nation. Gaines M. Foster writes that almost no one used the expression "War of Northern Aggression" in the late 19th century. Stephens made passing reference to a "war of aggression", and other former Confederates mentioned the phrase "War of Coercion". A few white southerners insisted on the wording of "War Between the States", among them Jefferson Davis, who apologized when he committed the gaffe of using the words "Civil War". Regardless of these usages, "Civil War" remained the most commonly used name for the war by white southerners in the late 19th century.

Cultural references

Statues by Moses Jacob Ezekiel

The Virginian

Moses Jacob Ezekiel Moses Jacob Ezekiel, also known as Moses "Ritter von" Ezekiel (October 28, 1844 – March 27, 1917), was an American sculptor who lived and worked in Rome, Italy, Rome for the majority of his career. Ezekiel was "the first American-born Jewis ...

, the most prominent Confederate expatriate, was the only well-known sculptor to have seen action during the Civil War. From his studio in Rome, where a Confederate flag hung, he created a series of statues of Confederate "heroes" which both celebrated the Lost Cause in which he was a "true believer", and set a highly visible model for Confederate monument-erecting in the early 20th century. According to journalist Lara Moehlman, "Ezekiel's work is integral to this sympathetic view of the Civil War". His Confederate statues included statues erected in Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky. Kali Holloway, director of the Make It Right Project, devoted to the removal of Confederate monuments, has said that:

Thomas Dixon Jr.'s novels

''The Leopard's Spots''

On the title page, Dixon cited

Jeremiah Jeremiah ( – ), also called Jeremias, was one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition, Jeremiah authored the Book of Jeremiah, book that bears his name, the Books of Kings, and the Book of Lamentations, with t ...

13:23: "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?" He argued that just as the leopard cannot change his spots, the Negro cannot change his nature. The novel aimed to reinforce the superiority of the "Anglo-Saxon" race and advocate either for white dominance of black people or for the separation of the two races. Historian and Dixon biographer Richard Allen Cook writes, "the Negro, according to Dixon, is a brute, not a citizen: a child of a degenerate race brought from Africa." Dixon expounded the views in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' of Philadelphia while he discussed the novel in 1902: "The negro is a human donkey. You can train him, but you can't make of him a horse."

''The Clansman''

In ''The Clansman'', the best known of the three novels, Dixon similarly claimed, "I have sought to preserve in this romance both the letter and the spirit of this remarkable period.... ''The Clansman'' develops the true story of the 'Ku Klux Klan Conspiracy', which overturned the Reconstruction regime." The depiction of the Klan's burning of crosses, as shown in the illustrations of the first edition, is an innovation of Dixon's. It had not previously been used by the Klan but was later taken up by them. To publicize his views further, Dixon rewrote ''The Clansman'' as a play. Like the novel, it was a great commercial success; there were multiple touring companies presenting the play simultaneously in different cities. Sometimes, it was banned. The film ''Birth of a Nation'' is actually based on the play, rather than directly on the novel. In 1914, D.W. Griffith had become interested in ''The Clansman'', and the two collaborated on the project which resulted in ''The Birth of a Nation''.

''The Birth of a Nation''

Another prominent and influential popularizer of the Lost Cause perspective was

D. W. Griffith David Wark Griffith (January 22, 1875 – July 23, 1948) was an American film director. Considered one of the most influential figures in the history of the motion picture, he pioneered many aspects of film editing and expanded the art of the n ...

's highly successful film ''

'' (1915), which was based on Dixon's novel. Noting that Dixon and Griffith collaborated on ''Birth of a Nation'', Blight wrote: In both ''The Clansman'' and the film, the Klan is portrayed as continuing the noble traditions of the antebellum South and the heroic Confederate soldier by defending Southern culture in general and Southern womanhood in particular against rape and depredations at the hands of the

freedmen A freedman or freedwoman is a person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, slaves were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their owners), emancipation (granted freedom as part of a larger group), or self- ...

and Yankee

carpetbaggers In the history of the United States, carpetbagger is a largely historical pejorative used by Southerners to describe allegedly opportunistic or disruptive Northerners who came to the Southern states after the American Civil War and were per ...

during

. Dixon's narrative was so readily adopted that the film has been credited with the revival of the Klan in the 1910s and 1920s. The second Klan, which Dixon denounced, reached a peak membership of 2–5 million members. The film's legacy is wide-reaching in the history of American racism, and even the now-iconic cross burnings of the KKK were based on Dixon's novel and the film made of it. The first KKK did not burn crosses, which was originally a Scottish tradition, " Crann Tara", designed to gather clans for war.

Later literature and films

The romanticization of the Lost Cause is captured in films such as ''

'', ''

Gone With the Wind Gone with the Wind most often refers to: * Gone with the Wind (novel), ''Gone with the Wind'' (novel), a 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell * Gone with the Wind (film), ''Gone with the Wind'' (film), the 1939 adaptation of the novel Gone with the Wind ...

'', ''

Song of the South ''Song of the South'' is a 1946 American Live-action animated film, live-action/animated musical film, musical comedy-drama film directed by Harve Foster and Wilfred Jackson, produced by Walt Disney, and released by RKO Pictures, RKO Radio Pi ...

'', and ''

Tennessee Johnson ''Tennessee Johnson'' is a 1942 American film about Andrew Johnson, the 17th president of the United States, released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and directed by William Dieterle. The screenplay was written by Milton Gunzburg, Alvin Meyers, John Bald ...

''the latter of which the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' called "the height of Southern mythmaking". '' Gods and Generals'' reportedly lionizes Jackson and Lee. ''

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

'' reported that these films "recast the antebellum South as a moonlight and magnolia paradise of happy slaves, affectionate slave owners and villainous Yankees".

Post-1920s literature

In his novels about the

Sartoris ''Sartoris'' is a Southern Gothic novel, first published in 1929, by the American author William Faulkner. It portrays the decay of the Mississippi aristocracy following the social upheaval of the American Civil War. The 1929 edition is an a ...

family,

William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer. He is best known for William Faulkner bibliography, his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, a stand-in fo ...

referenced those who supported the Lost Cause ideal but suggested that the ideal itself was misguided and out of date. The ''

'', a monthly magazine published in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

, from 1893 to 1932, made its publisher,

Sumner Archibald Cunningham Sumner Archibald Cunningham (July 21, 1843 – December 20, 1913) was an American Confederate soldier and journalist. He was the editor of a short lived Confederate magazine called "Our Day" (1883-1884) published in New York. In 1893 he establish ...

, a leader of the Lost Cause movement.

''Gone with the Wind''

The Lost Cause view reached tens of millions of Americans in the best-selling 1936 novel ''

Gone with the Wind Gone with the Wind most often refers to: * Gone with the Wind (novel), ''Gone with the Wind'' (novel), a 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell * Gone with the Wind (film), ''Gone with the Wind'' (film), the 1939 adaptation of the novel Gone with the Wind ...

'' by

Margaret Mitchell Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell (November 8, 1900 – August 16, 1949) was an American novelist and journalist. Mitchell wrote only one novel that was published during her lifetime, the American Civil War-era novel ''Gone With the Wind (novel), Gone ...

and the Oscar-winning 1939 film based on it. Helen Taylor wrote: David W. Blight wrote: Southerners were portrayed as noble, heroic figures, living in a doomed romantic society that rejected the realistic advice offered by the

Rhett Butler Rhett Butler (born 1828) is a fictional character in the 1936 novel ''Gone with the Wind (novel), Gone with the Wind'' by Margaret Mitchell and in the 1939 film adaptation Gone with the Wind (film), of the same name. It is one of Clark Gable's ...

character and never understood the risk that they were taking in going to war.

''Song of the South''

The 1946 Disney film ''

'' is the first to have combined live actors with animated shorts.Sergio (February 4, 2016).
"Regarding 'Song of the South' – The Film That Disney Doesn't Want You to See."
''IndieWire.com''. Retrieved January 22, 2019. In the framing story, the actor

James Baskett James Franklin Baskett (February 16, 1904 – July 9, 1948) was an American actor who portrayed Uncle Remus in the 1946 Disney feature film ''Song of the South''. His performance included singing the song "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah." In recognition of h ...

played

Uncle Remus Uncle Remus is the fictional title character and narrator of a collection of African American folktales compiled and adapted by Joel Chandler Harris and published in book form in 1881. Harris was a journalist in post–Reconstruction era Atlant ...

, a former slave who apparently is full of joy and wisdom though having lived part of his life in slavery. There is a common misconception that the story takes place in the prewar period and that the African-American characters are slaves. One critic writing for IndieWire said, "Like other similar films of the period also dealing with the antebellum South, the slaves in the film are all good-natured, subservient, annoyingly cheerful, content and always willing to help a white person in need with some valuable life lesson along the way. In fact, they're never called slaves, but they come off more like neighborly workers lending a helping hand for some kind, benevolent plantation owners." Disney has never released it on DVD and the film has been withheld from

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

. It was released on

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

in the United Kingdom several times, most recently in 2000.

''Gods and Generals''

The 2003 Civil War film ''Gods and Generals'', based on

Jeff Shaara Jeffrey M. Shaara (born February 21, 1952) is an American novelist and the son of Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Shaara. Biography Jeffrey Shaara was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and grew up in Tallahassee, Florida. He graduated from F ...

's 1996

novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...

, is widely viewed as championing the Lost Cause ideology with a presentation favorable to the Confederacy and lionizing Generals Jackson and Lee. Writing in the ''Journal of American History'', the historian Steven E. Woodworth derided the movie as a modern-day telling of Lost Cause mythology. Woodworth called the movie "the most pro-Confederate film since ''Birth of a Nation'', a veritable celluloid celebration of slavery and treason": Woodworth criticized the portrayal of slaves as being "generally happy" with their condition. He also criticized the relative lack of attention given to the motivations of Union soldiers fighting in the war. He excoriates the film for allegedly implying, in agreement with Lost Cause mythology, that the South was more "sincerely Christian". Woodworth concluded that the film through "judicious omission" presents "a distorted view of the Civil War". The historian William B. Feis similarly criticized the director's decision "to champion the more simplistic-and sanitized-interpretations found in post-war 'Lost Cause' mythology". The film critic

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

described the movie as "a Civil War movie that

Trent Lott Chester Trent Lott Sr. (born October 9, 1941) is an American lobbyist, lawyer, author, and politician who represented Mississippi in the United States House of Representatives from 1973 to 1989 and in the United States Senate from 1989 to 2007. ...

might enjoy" and said of its Lost Cause themes, "If

were handled this way, there'd be hell to pay." The consensus of film critics was that the movie had a "pro-Confederate slant".

References

Bibliography

* * * Barnhart, Terry A. (2011). ''Albert Taylor Bledsoe: Defender of the Old South and Architect of the Lost Cause''. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press. * * * Coski, John M. (2005). ''The Confederate Battle Flag: America's Most Embattled Emblem''. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press. * Cox, Karen L. (2003). ''Dixie's Daughters: The United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Preservation of Confederate Culture''. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida. * * Davis, William C. (2002). ''Look Away: A History of the Confederate States of America''. New York: Free Press * * * * Freeman, Douglas Southall (1939). ''The South to Posterity: An Introduction to the Writing of Confederate History''. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. * Gallagher, Gary W. and

, editors (2000). ''The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History''. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press . * Gallagher, Gary W. (1995). ''Jubal A. Early, the Lost Cause, and Civil War History: A Persistent Legacy (Frank L. Klement Lectures, No. 4)''. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Marquette University Press. . * Goldfield, David (2002). ''Still Fighting the Civil War''. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press. * * * * * Janney, Caroline E. (2009). "The Lost Cause"
''Encyclopedia Virginia''
Virginia Foundation for the Humanities * * Osterweis, Rollin G. (1973)
''The Myth of the Lost Cause, 1865–1900''
Hamden, Connecticut: Archon Books * Reardon, Carol (1997). ''Pickett's Charge in History and Memory'', University of North Carolina Press . * * * * Ulbrich, David, "Lost Cause" (2000) in Heidler, David S. and Heidler, Jeanne T., eds. ''Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History''. New York: W. W. Norton & Company . * Wilson, Charles Reagan, (1980). ''Baptized in Blood: The Religion of the Lost Cause, 1865–1920''. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press . * Wilson, Charles Reagan (1997). "The Lost Cause Myth in the New South Era" in Gerster, Patrick and Cords, Nicholas, editors ''Myth America: A Historical Anthology, Volume II''. St. James, New York: Brandywine Press *

External links

Lost Cause Ideology
from the Encyclopedia of Alabama
Lost Cause Myth of the Confederacy
From the Encyclopedia of Arkansas
Grayven Images: Confederate Monuments and Power of the Lost Cause in Florida
from the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...

Lost Cause Religion
from the Encyclopedia of Georgia
Mississippi and the Lost Cause
from the

Mississippi Department of Archives and History Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) is a state agency founded in 1902. It is the official archive of the Mississippi Government. Location The Mississippi Department of Archives and History is located at 200 North St., Jackson, ...

Historical Events in the Confederate Veteran: Introduction
from the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou or MU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri, United States. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Univers ...

'Oracle of Lost Causes' Review: The Making of a Myth
from

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

Origins of the Confederate Lost Cause The mythos of The Lost Cause of the Confederacy
from

JSTOR JSTOR ( ; short for ''Journal Storage'') is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources founded in 1994. Originally containing digitized back issues of academic journals, it now encompasses books and other primary source ...

Daily
Memorialization of Robert E. Lee and the Lost Cause
from Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial
Confronting Slavery and Revealing the "Lost Cause"
from The National Park Service
Interview with historian Adam Domby about ''The False Cause: Fraud, Fabrication, and White Supremacy in Confederate Memory''
on ''Half Hour of Heterodoxy''
Origins of the Lost Cause
an academic panel at ''Reconstruction and the Legacy of the War'' the 2016 conference hosted by the Civil War Institute. C-SPAN. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lost Cause Of The Confederacy Historiography of the American Civil War Aftermath of the American Civil War Cultural history of the American Civil War History of the Southern United States Historical negationism in the United States Social history of the United States Politics of the Southern United States Propaganda legends Pseudohistory Reconstruction Era Riots and civil disorder in South Carolina Riots and civil disorder during the Reconstruction Era Sons of Confederate Veterans White supremacy in the United States United Daughters of the Confederacy Nostalgia in the United States

Emergence

Origin of the term

Tenets

African-American opposition to Lost Cause monuments

History

19th century

Reunification of North and South

New South

Works of Thomas Dixon Jr.

Later use

From the 20th century to the present

Confederate Heroes Day

Confederate History Month

United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC)

UDC support of the Ku Klux Klan

Stone Mountain carving

Women's club movement

"Faithful slaves" monuments

Gender roles

Religious dimension

Symbols

Confederate generals

Contemporary historians

"War Between the States"

Cultural references

Statues by Moses Jacob Ezekiel

Thomas Dixon Jr.'s novels

''The Leopard's Spots''

''The Clansman''

''The Birth of a Nation''

Later literature and films

Post-1920s literature

''Gone with the Wind''

''Song of the South''

''Gods and Generals''

See also

Places and events

Nostalgia and pseudo-historical ideologies

Other

References

Bibliography

Further reading

Primary

Secondary and tertiary

External links