Who were the losers that wrote the history of the Civil War?

Please give the author, title, and date of publication.

My initial feeling when I saw this was, is this some college student who's looking for forum members to do his or her work for a research paper? But as a member with hundreds of posts, I have to give you the benefit of the doubt.

So: if you define "losers" as Confederates, then all you need to do is perform a search of former Confederates, and see what books they wrote. There may well be hundreds of them. Among the most prominent:

The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government (1881) by former CSA President Jefferson Finis Davis.

• These are books by Virginia journalist and writer Edward Alfred Pollard, per Wiki:
  • The Southern History of the War; 3 vols.:
    • First Year of the War, with B. M. DeWitt, 1862
    • Second Year of the War, 1864
    • Third Year of the War, 1864
  • Southern History of the Civil War; 4 vols. The Blue & The Gray Press:
    • First Year, Volume 1 (No publication date given)
    • Second Year, Volume 2 (No publication date given)
    • Third Year, Volume 3 (No publication date given)
    • Fourth Year, Volume 4 (No publication date given)
  • Observations in the North: Eight Months in Prison and on Parole (1865).
  • The Lost Cause (1866).
  • Lee and His Lieutenants (1867).
  • The Lost Cause Regained (1868).
  • The Life of Jefferson Davis (1869)
The most notable book on the list is The Lost Cause (1866). Yep, the term was coined by an actual southerner.

- Alan
 
My initial feeling when I saw this was, is this some college student who's looking for forum members to do his or her work for a research paper? But as a member with hundreds of posts, I have to give you the benefit of the doubt.

So: if you define "losers" as Confederates, then all you need to do is perform a search of former Confederates, and see what books they wrote. There may well be hundreds of them. Among the most prominent:

The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government (1881) by former CSA President Jefferson Finis Davis.

• These are books by Virginia journalist and writer Edward Alfred Pollard, per Wiki:
  • The Southern History of the War; 3 vols.:
    • First Year of the War, with B. M. DeWitt, 1862
    • Second Year of the War, 1864
    • Third Year of the War, 1864
  • Southern History of the Civil War; 4 vols. The Blue & The Gray Press:
    • First Year, Volume 1 (No publication date given)
    • Second Year, Volume 2 (No publication date given)
    • Third Year, Volume 3 (No publication date given)
    • Fourth Year, Volume 4 (No publication date given)
  • Observations in the North: Eight Months in Prison and on Parole (1865).
  • The Lost Cause (1866).
  • Lee and His Lieutenants (1867).
  • The Lost Cause Regained (1868).
  • The Life of Jefferson Davis (1869)
The most notable book on the list is The Lost Cause (1866). Yep, the term was coined by an actual southerner.

- Alan

The question is intended to determine whether the axiom " the victors write the history" actually applies to the Civil War. And no, I am not a college student and have not been since 1976.
 
The question is intended to determine whether the axiom " the victors write the history" actually applies to the Civil War. And no, I am not a college student and have not been since 1976.

I've made the point that, the United States is very very very unique in its handling of its civil war victory. I don't think there are too many nations, or any modern nation (say, in the last 200 years) where the losers of a civil war had such access to free speech and a free press that they could craft their own version of the war.

Indeed, in many civil wars, the losers are subject to mass jailings and death purges. In the US, the losers got to write their own history books, among other things.

The maxim about the winners writing the history might well be true... everywhere else but here.

- Alan
 
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Jefferson Davis, by Varina Davis.

This memoir by the wife of Jefferson Davis has been on my bookshelf for years, but I have never read it.

My edition is a modern paperback facsimile of the 1890 volumes (there are two) that I bought at a book sale years ago, just because it was so cheap. I think I paid $2.

I've read elsewhere that Varina Davis was actually a good writer and made good money at it after her husband died. I guess I'll finally have to read the biography of her own bed mate and find out :smile: ...
 
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Four Years In The Saddle, by Harry Gilmor (1866)

https://archive.org/details/fouryearsinsadd00gilmgoog

This is the book that led me to become a member of this CWT forum. I wanted to know more about the Confederate Army actions near my home in northwest Baltimore and stumbled across a reference to this book, which was one of the very first Civil War military memoirs published by a Confederate officer.

The memoir was disappointing in many ways, but stimulated my interest both in the story of Harry Gilmor and the uses of historical memory for political and personal purposes.

The book is available free on line to anyone interested.
 
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Longstreet, Hood, Taylor,Alexander, Mosby etc all wrote books I'm pretty sure you are familiar with. Also soldiers from the ranks wrote many widely read books such as Co H by. Sam Watkins, Rebel Private Front and Rear by William Fletcher, as well as Diarists such as Mary Chesnutt and Sarah Morgan Dawson.

And the list could go on for some distance ....
 
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I'd put Jubal Early on that list. Wikipedia:

The articles written by him for theSouthern Historical Society in the 1870s established the Lost Cause point of view as a long-lasting literary and cultural phenomenon.

Yes, the post-war writings of Jubal Early are foundational to the "Lost Cause" idea.

I've read some of the Early pieces. Has there ever been a book that pulls it all together?
 
Daniel Harvey Hill, CSA general and magazine publisher

from Wiki

 
A Soldier's Recollections: Leaves from the Diary of a Young Confederate: With an Oration on the Motives and Aims of the Soldiers of the South By Randolph McKim. New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1910.

The book is free on line:

http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/mckim/ill6.html

McKim has been accused by some of being unreliable and overwhelmed by phoney Lost Cause ideology. He is sort of a local Baltimore favorite for admirers of the Confederacy.
 
Longstreet, Hood, Taylor,Alexander, Mosby etc all wrote books I'm pretty sure you are familiar with. Also soldiers from the ranks wrote many widely read books such as Co H by. Sam Watkins, Rebel Private Front and Rear by William Fletcher, as well as Diarists such as Mary Chesnutt and Sarah Morgan Dawson.

And the list could go on for some distance ....

There are hundreds of books out there that will fit this definition. Maybe thousands.

For an overview maybe you should start with David Blight’s popular Race and Reunion (2001). I've read this and it is excellent.

Gary Gallagher is a very highly regarded historian. I haven't read it but Gary W. Gallagher and Alan T. Nolan, The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History [Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2000]).
 
Another book is Gen. George Eggleston, CSA, A Rebel's Recollections (1874). The Indiana-born Eggleston was on JEB Stuart's staff. Serialized in the Atlantic magazine, his book is supposedly the first post-war autobiography (or first person observation?) of a general.
Book went through four editions and was popular up north especially in New England.
Book defends secession - the war was one of self-defense & necessity for survival, etc., etc.
One of the pillars of "Lost Cause-ism" was his adulation for the bravery and devotion of the common soldier and they deserve respect and honor always.

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/51211/51211-h/51211-h.htm

We have a little thread on CWT:

http://civilwartalk.com/threads/a-rebels-recollections-by-george-cary-eggleston.115948/

I've skimmed parts of the book. I noticed the preface to the 4th ed. was written by William Dean Howells, the Atlantic editor. Howells did not like the post-war "sentimentalism" writing and wanted to see more "realism". To him realism was the truthful treatment of what happened. To Howells, Eggleston's book was as real as it gets.
 
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