LostGettysburgAddress
Private
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2015
- Location
- Santa Barbara, California
In my research on Southern Unionists in Georgia over the past 12 years, I came across numerous instances of discord in families split on the question of secession. The brother versus brother scenario is perhaps better known than say, husband versus wife (more on that one in a future post); yet, the most common disagreements, from my observations, were between father versus son. Simple explanations of Civil War allegiance in the South leave me less than satisfied - e.g, the older men had fathers in the Revolution, or did not want the economic disruption that a potential war promised; or, e.g. the young men were simply hot for the excitement and adventure of what they presumed would be a short war, full of glory and honor (better to impress the ladies).
For the Southerner, the decision to abandon their country and start a new nation was not one taken lightly. It was, in my view, a complex and often tortuous mental calculus, trying to balance competing loyalties to family, country, section, God, local community, ancestry, etc...
I am interested to hear what you think about this apparent generation gap in Southern allegiance. Was it significant? Did an older generation of stubborn Union men help dampen nascent Confederate nationalism?
I published an article a few years back on Wesley Shropshire of Chatooga County, GA. He was a wealthy slave owner who not only strongly opposed secession, but actively aided deserters and Union men to get north to safety behind Union lines. His son, a Rome attorney and disunion delegate to Georgia's secession convention, died in Confederate service. The father was a Union delegate to the same convention, who reluctantly signed the ordinance under extreme family and peer pressure. Of the son's death, the father remarked, "It was distressing but I am not to blame."
Wesley Shropshire's large claim before the Southern Claims Commission was supported by depositions from Georgia luminaries like former governor Joseph E. Brown, Alexander H. Stephens, and Benjamin Hill and approved in its entirety. This was a rare outcome from a commission that was highly skeptical of most claims.
You may download the entire article free at:
http://www.davidtdixon.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Enemy-on-the-Home-Front1.pdf
For the Southerner, the decision to abandon their country and start a new nation was not one taken lightly. It was, in my view, a complex and often tortuous mental calculus, trying to balance competing loyalties to family, country, section, God, local community, ancestry, etc...
I am interested to hear what you think about this apparent generation gap in Southern allegiance. Was it significant? Did an older generation of stubborn Union men help dampen nascent Confederate nationalism?
I published an article a few years back on Wesley Shropshire of Chatooga County, GA. He was a wealthy slave owner who not only strongly opposed secession, but actively aided deserters and Union men to get north to safety behind Union lines. His son, a Rome attorney and disunion delegate to Georgia's secession convention, died in Confederate service. The father was a Union delegate to the same convention, who reluctantly signed the ordinance under extreme family and peer pressure. Of the son's death, the father remarked, "It was distressing but I am not to blame."
Wesley Shropshire's large claim before the Southern Claims Commission was supported by depositions from Georgia luminaries like former governor Joseph E. Brown, Alexander H. Stephens, and Benjamin Hill and approved in its entirety. This was a rare outcome from a commission that was highly skeptical of most claims.
You may download the entire article free at:
http://www.davidtdixon.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Enemy-on-the-Home-Front1.pdf
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