Southern Union Men Obscured by Lost Cause Mythology

Joined
Nov 9, 2015
Location
Santa Barbara, California
How many stories of Southern Union men lay buried under layers of Lost Cause memory-making? Some Southerners worked hard to hide an embarrassing fact- that one of their family members actively supported the Union in the Civil War. Here are a few paragraphs from one such story. You can download the entire story for free at:
http://www.davidtdixon.com/free-articles/

The Hero and the Ghost

Connor Wright remembered that he was eleven years old when he watched Yankee soldiers steal up through the backyard and surprise his father. Edwin Wright, home on furlough from the 1st Alabama Cavalry, was captured and taken prisoner to Rome, Georgia, on October 25, 1864. Connor heard rumors that his father later died in a northern prison. Others said he was killed while attempting to escape. In any case, Connor never heard from him again.

Countless Southern families remembered their tragic heroes with similar stories passed down for posterity. Edwin Wright’s family, however, rarely spoke of him after the war. By the time his grandchildren had grown, no one seemed to remember much about the man who had vanished.

The mysterious end for Edwin Wright vexed his descendants for generations. Why did they know so little about him and his ultimate fate? Clues lay dormant in the tortured consciences of war survivors. Devastated Southerners faced an anguishing question: Had their political leaders really sacrificed so many lives and achieved nothing? Doubts lingered, memories were reshaped, and eventually a more comforting version of the war emerged. Southern writers and intellectuals transformed ordinary Confederate soldiers into revolutionary heroes battling overwhelming odds for the noble but doomed cause of states’ rights.

Connor Wright and his family constructed their own version of this Lost Cause mythology, concocting various accounts of his father’s activities during the conflict. The stories the family improvised were designed to avoid a fact too difficult or dangerous to face: Edwin Wright left his family and went north voluntarily.

Edwin Wright’s defection was difficult to admit, considering his wife’s connections to the Confederacy. Harriett Connor Wright lost one brother early in the war, but younger brother Wesley Connor survived four years of Confederate service. The family welcomed Wesley back as a hero while conspiring to keep Edwin Wright’s story a secret.
 
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