“ A solid introduction to the history of the Confederacy and to the ways in which southerners have used and misused that history.” —Washington Post Book World “ A startling but delightful analysis of the post–Civil War South.” —James I. Robertson, Jr., Richmond Times-Dispatch “ [Goldfield] writes with considerable authority and grace, and he is most ar- resting when dealing with skirmishes in the contemporary South such as those found in fundamentalist churches, country music, and arguments over the Confederate flag.” —Journal of American History “ Changing perceptions of the South is an important theme to historian David Goldfield, who is rapidly getting a reputation as the heir-apparent to deceased southern analysts Wilbur J. Cash and C. Vann Woodward. Still Fighting the Civil War has stirred controversies among conservatives and diehard region- alists while earning accolades from others for insights, corrective facts, and engaging prose. Goldfield has obviously discovered that there is much spiritually nourishing and intellectually delectable to be devoured by south- erners uncomfortable in living on southern barbecue alone.” —Southern Seen This page intentionally left blank WINNER OF THE JULES AND FRANCES LANDRY AWARD FOR 2002 This page intentionally left blank updated edition Still Fighting the Civil War The American South and Southern History DAVID GOLDFIELD Louisiana State University Press baton rouge Louisiana State University Press Copyright © 2002 by David Goldfield All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America Louisiana Paperback Edition, 2004 Designer: Barbara Neely Bourgoyne Typeface: Janson Text Typesetter: Coghill Composition, Inc. “The Mill Mother’s Song” by Ella May Wiggins is from American Folksongs of Protest, ed. John Greenway. Copyright © 1953 University of Pennsylvania Press. Reprinted by permission. “The Tall Men” by Donald Davidson is from his Poems 1922–1961 (University of Minnesota Press, 1966). Reprinted by permission. Excerpt from John Brown’s Body by Stephen Vincent Benet. Copyright © 1927, 1928 by Stephen Vincent Benet. Copyright renewed © 1955 by Rosemary Carr Benet. Reprinted by permission of Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Goldfield, David R., 1944– Still fighting the Civil War : the American South and Southern history / David Goldfield. — Updated edition. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8071-5215-7 (paper : alkaline paper) — ISBN 978-0-8071-5216-4 (pdf) — ISBN 978-0-8071-5217-1 (epub) — ISBN 978-0-8071-5218-8 (mobi) 1. Southern States— Civilization. 2. Southern States—Social conditions. 3. Southern States—History—Philosophy. 4. United States—History—Civil War, 1861–1865—Influence. I. Title. F209.G65 2013 975—dc23 2012048188 The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. ∞ for Erik and Eleanor This page intentionally left blank Contents Preface to the Updated Edition xi Acknowledgments xiii Introduction 1 1 The Past Is 15 New Traditions 20 The Orthodox Church 28 Counterculture 37 2 God-Haunted 43 Blessed Defeat 50 Rituals of Faith 54 Making Good Christians 57 Black Branches 63 Dissenters 64 Civil Religion and Civil Rights 69 3 Culture Protestants 76 4 Pretty Women 89 The Woman’s War 93 Support and Sacrifice 96 Masks 103 Beneath the Pedestal 108 Keepers of the Past with an Eye to the Future 111 Suffering Suffrage 116 5 Lady Insurrectionists 137 The Opening 138 Clubbing 140 Women’s Work 145 False Chivalry 150 Lifting As We Climb 152 6 A Woman’s Movement 162 Off the Pedestal 163 Daughter of the Confederacy 165 Freedom’s Midwives 170 Take It Like a Man 177 Gender Agenda 181 7 Colors 187 Fluid Dynamics 191 Redeemed, Again 195 Exile 201 Reading, Writing, and Race 208 Alabaster Cities 214 Mirror Images 216 8 Sharings 239 Revelation 244 The Offering 249 Signs 252 9 New Battlegrounds, Old Strategies 256 Voting Rights and Wrongs 257 Schools: Burdens of Race and History 266 Natural and Unnatural 269 Work: Ebb and Flow 273 10 Measures 281 Southerners 283 Silences 289 11 Histories 298 Not Forgotten 301 Inclusion 305 12 The Real War 320 Notes 339 Index 369 Illustrations following page 120 Dedication of Robert E. Lee Equestrian Statue, 1890 Poster advertising Birth of a Nation, 1915 Old Catawba Hydroelectric Station, 1904 Mill air conditioning, 1907 Pyramid at Hollywood Cemetery, 2001 Confederate Memorial Day, 1920 United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), 1904 Colored Methodist Episcopal Church (CME), 1925 Friday night football in Icard, North Carolina, 2000 The Ten Commandments, Gastonia City Hall, 2001 Parade for woman’s suffrage, 1913 Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) Women’s Education Parade, 1908 Textile worker, Union Point Mill, 1941 Mrs. M. LaBlanc washing dishes, 1938 1918 graduates of the Atlanta School of Social Work Charlotte Hawkins Brown instructing pupils, 1947 Septima Clark and Rosa Parks at the Highlander Folk School, late 1950s White woman protesting hiring practices, 1963 following page 224 Citadel cadets celebrating the resignation of female cadet Shannon Faulkner, 1996 Harper’s Weekly illustration of whites’ perception of freed slaves, 1862 Advertisement for Luzianne coffee, 1918 Ben Tillman regaling voters, ca. 1900 Educating the South, 1925 Photo montage from Richmond promotional brochure, 1932 Segregation on public transit, 1933 Blues passed down from generation to generation, 1935 Voting in Jackson, Mississippi, 1966 Monument to African Americans, Columbia, South Carolina, 2001 Waving the Confederate battle flag at Woodlawn High School, 1963 Porfirio Fuentes cradles his son, 1998 Casual interracial contact in Birmingham’s Linn Park, 2001 Gone With the Wind premiere, 1939 Reinterment of Confederate sailors from the submarine CSS Hunley, 2000 The Confederate battle flag ‘‘compromise,’’ Columbia, South Carolina, 2000 The capitol grounds in Columbia, South Carolina, 2001 Preface to the Updated Edition The Civil War continues to fester in the South more than in other places. Place still matters here and the war was fought on this ground. Its scars are still visible in some areas, and where they are not, memorial markers and statues keep that history alive. It surrounds us, not as obtrusively as it once did, but its presence is still palpable. It is an ill-fitting cloak among the bank towers of Charlotte, the freeways of Atlanta, and the chic restaurants of Dallas and dozens of other cities. The Civil War sesquicentennial commemoration, beginning in 2010, offers an opportunity to calibrate how far southerners have journeyed in reconciling memory with history since the appearance of the first edition of Still Fighting the Civil War in 2002. Three trends are evident. First, it has been a relatively low-key anniversary. Second, the museum exhibits, the symposia, and the re- interpretations of historic sites have a common theme of inclusiveness. The stories of African Americans and women, and their respective roles in the war, are much more evident now than they were at the centennial commemora- tion. Third, even with the inclusion of new stories, public history displays often lack an interpretive framework. The public receives two contradictory messages, neither of which reflects the historical reality of the war. One message is the moral equivalency of both sides. The other is that the war was a glorious battle cry of freedom, a triumph of good over evil. Lost in these messages is the war itself, the real war, the bloody war that took 752,000 lives. Rather than raising questions about the war itself, the sesquicentennial commemoration either abdicates a point of xi xii Preface to the Updated Edition view or, in the numerous conferences dedicated to the anniversary, regurgitates the historiographical narrative of the past fifty years. It is a war without tears. Even with these flaws, the inclusiveness of the sesquicentennial commemo- ration has given the public a more complex view of the Civil War than here- tofore. Complexity is good. Ambiguity is even better. If we can begin to look upon the Civil War more critically as a conflict for which both sides were re- sponsible and in which both sides paid a heavy price in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of men, then we can find some common bond between all south- erners and, in fact, all Americans. We would then excise the present from the past and at last move forward to a future less encumbered by a mythical past. The objective is not to forget the past but to remember it better. Charlotte, North Carolina, September 2012 Acknowledgments This book has many parents. It rests on the work of scholars, journal- ists, and novelists. If I listed them all here, I would inevitably leave someone out, not to mention that I would reduce the pool of potential reviewers sig- nificantly. Embalmment of my sources in the endnotes is the best I can do. Some of the professionals whose work is evident in this book are not ac- knowledged in the notes. Copy editor Sarah Richards Doerries made splendid suggestions that improved the flow of the manuscript. Archivists in the North Carolina Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Library of Congress, the Duke Divinity School Library, Clemson University, and the Virginia Historical Society shared their expertise. Don Veasey of the Birmingham Public Library, Jim Willard of North Carolina Historical Sites, Michael Rose and Betsy Ricks of the Atlanta History Center, Cathy Mundale and Karen Jefferson of the Robert W. Woodruff Library at the Atlanta Uni- versity Center, and Heather A. Whitacre of the Museum of the Confederacy were particularly helpful. Staff at the Charlotte Observer, especially Don Hin- shaw and talented artists Kevin Siers and Diedra Laird, and Mic Smith and Tom Spain at the Charleston (S.C.) Post & Courier offered generous support to my project. And speaking of support, there is no finer staff to work with than the folks at LSU Press.