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A South Divided: Portraits of Dissent in the Confederacy
written by David C. Downing
Studio : Cumberland House Publishing
by Cumberland House Publishing
Release Date : 2007-05-01
Publisher : Cumberland House Publishing
Released : 2007-05-01
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9781581825879
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 3 reviews)
List Price : $22.95
Our Price : $14.00
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Product Description |
When the civil war began, there were outpourings of patriotic fervor in the North and the South. Both sides, however, soon discovered that not all of their citizens were in aggreement and they would have to deal with dissidents throughout the war. Lincoln had to contend with guerrillas in Kentucky and Missouri, violent mobs in Baltimore, draft riots in New York City, and Copperheads and Peace Democrats. At one time or another, the U.S. president censored or suppressed three hundred opposition newspapers in the Northern states.
A South Divided is an account of Southern dissidents in the Civil War, at times labeled as traitors, Tories, deserters, or mossbacks during the war and loyalists, Lincoln loyalists, and Unionists by historians of the war. In recent years there has been an upsurge of interest in Southern dissenters among specific groups or communities. But A South Divided presents a panoramic overview of Southern dissent. What emerges is a complex pattern of dissent involving every state in the Confederacy and every year of the war.
A South Divided is the first book to tell these behind-the-battle-lines stories that have been largely overlooked by most historians of the war. |
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Excellent reference |
great sourcebook filled with a variety of documents.
i give it only 4 stars because the documents begin in Dec 1860 with the SC secession - you will need to get another source for documents prior to that time |
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A thoroughly engrossing "must-read" contribution to Civil War history shelves. |
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Civil War historian David C. Downing (Professor of English, Elizabethtown College) presents A South Divided: Portraits of Dissent in the Confederacy, a singularly fascinating look at the men, women, and slaves of the Confederate states who wanted no part of "a rich man's war and a poor man's fight." From public outrage over rising taxes and practices that rich slaveholders used to avoid being called to risk their lives on the front (there was even a "twenty-slave law" passed that protected slaveholders owning twenty or more slaves from the Confederate draft) to Indian tribes caught within and caught up in internecine rivalry to "cave dwellers" who used sophisticated means to evade conscription to those Southerners, particularly slaves, who outright deserted the Confederate army to join ranks with the Union, A South Divided reveals both individual stories and a grand picture of how internal dissent ultimately contributed to the Confederacy's defeat. "If all it takes to win wars is material superiority, then why did the British fail to prevent American independence and why did America fail to achieve its objectives in Vietnam?" A thoroughly engrossing "must-read" contribution to Civil War history shelves. |
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Fascinating & forgotten facts about the Civil War |
Reviewed by Tyler R. Tichelaar for Reader Views (7/07)
David C. Downing's new book, "A South Divided: Portraits of Dissent in the Confederacy," is a fascinating and long-overdue book. While he references a few books that have preceded his about divisions in the Southern States, "A South Divided" brings to the forefront a forgotten piece of American history that was far more complicated than we have been led to believe.
Downing makes the point that "the South" and the "Confederacy" are not interchangeable terms. Many people in the South did not support the Confederacy but wished to preserve the Union, and many Southerners acted subversively to support the Union during the war. Downing demonstrates that there is a lot of gray area in the battle between the blue and the gray.
The book begins with examples of pre-Civil War Southerners who were abolitionists and anti-secession. Most notable of these, in my opinion, were the Grimke sisters, wealthy daughters of a prominent Charleston and plantation-owning family, who were so disgusted by the evils of slavery they moved to the North and began to advocate abolition. While the book focuses primarily upon men who opposed the rebel cause, it contains a complete chapter on women, including Elizabeth Van Lew, who went so far as to treat wounded Union Soldiers in Richmond, aided a plot for Union soldiers to escape from the Richmond prison, and planted her slaves (whom she actually paid as servants) as spies in other Richmond homes so she could send secret missives to General Grant about the movements of the Confederate troops.
Equally interesting were the discussions of Southern states and counties that opposed secession from the Union. West Virginia's story of division with Virginia and its own incorporation into the Union is the most notable and best known, though seldom told, story. However, counties in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama also all sought to separate themselves from the states they were in and create their own independent states within the Union. These cases were less successful than West Virginia, but the number of them shows how much the South was divided.
Numerous other stories are told of the soldiers, especially Southerners, such as General George Thomas, who achieved high rank within the Union army despite their Southern roots and Northern prejudice against them. The stories of escaped slaves who became members of the Union army are also included. The only information I felt missing from the book was the story of President Andrew Johnson, who was only mentioned briefly, yet I cannot help feeling he was the most important Southerner, or at least the Southerner who rose to the highest rank within the Union during the war.
Perhaps Downing felt the story of Johnson and his impeachment was already well known, but I would have liked to see Johnson included. I think it would have been a good contrast, especially because Downing discusses how skeptical Lincoln and many others were about promoting General Thomas because he was a Southerner, so I would have liked to know more about why Johnson was given such a high position as vice-president.
Overall, I found "The South Divided" to be a fascinating book, filled with detailed stories, yet fast-paced and extremely readable. Ultimately, while Downing mentions the many arguments for why the South lost or why the North won the war, he makes the point that it may have been because the South was not completely behind the cause of the Confederacy that allowed the North to win. I think anyone interested in American history, and especially Civil War buffs, will absolutely love this book which opens up new theories and viewpoints into an old, but never dull moment in the American story.
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