The Long Shadow of the Civil War: Southern Dissent and Its Legacies (review)

Bynum, a professor emeritus of history at Texas State University, explores the attitudes and actions of white Unionists and African Americans in areas of strong opposition to the Confederacy from North Carolina to Mississippi and Texas during and after the Civil War. She focuses on men and women among the plain folk in the piedmont of North Carolina, the Piney Woods of Mississippi, and the Big Thicket of East Texas.

Two chapters examine the Civil War era. The first considers the rising sense of “a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight” (3) as non-slaveholders formed guerrilla bands to resist the Confederate draft and impressment of supplies. Their leaders ranged from harsh Bill Owens of Randolph County, North Carolina, to charismatic Newt Knight in Jones County, Mississippi, and clever Warren Collins of Hardin County, Texas. Quaker and Wesleyan Methodist religious views set apart North Carolina Unionists from the others. Family ties connected many of these Unionists across the three states. Confederates broke up some guerrilla groups and forced men into the army, while others escaped capture. A second chapter discusses North Carolina women in conflict with Confederate soldiers over conscription of male relatives and seizure of food and animals. Some women faced arrest for taking government supplies and torture to gain information about the guerrillas.

The focus shifts to Reconstruction and later years in the next section of the volume. Complex racial relationships included political coalitions of black and white Republicans in the North Carolina piedmont, who faced Klan violence toward men and women with only limited help from law enforcement. African Americans struggled against white efforts to gain apprentice control over black children. Interracial relationships faced increased opposition after the war when persons assumed to be of mixed ancestry met discrimination. Repeated efforts by Newt Knight to gain federal compensation for his Union military service in the Civil War failed for several reasons. Most former Confederates who testified refused to recognize his political motives, while fading memories, lost or limited documents, and government skepticism also weakened his case.

Post-Reconstruction years found some former Unionists in Mississippi and Texas turning to new forms of dissent. In politics they became Populists and later rural Socialists. Their religious views turned to Universalism or they moved west to become Mormons. Some members of the Newt Knight family had formed interracial unions that led to multiracial younger generations. Female family members of mixed ancestry sought to avoid discrimination and achieve respectability through education, by becoming teachers and missionaries, or by leaving Mississippi to assume white or Native American identities. Others faced stereotypes such as “Jezebels” (120). The dissenters and their views challenged the dominant image of a Solid South built upon unified sympathy for the Confederate Lost Cause. An epilogue explains the varied family memories and portrayals of the dissenters, ranging from principled Unionists or backwoodsmen to criminals or traitors who betrayed their race. The more positive views appear to be gaining acceptance among recent generations of the families.

Bynum has researched extensively in federal, state, and local records, as well as oral histories and memoirs. She has built upon her earlier studies of working class southern women and the “Free State of Jones” (x), while adding new information and analysis, especially about dissent in Texas. This volume offers insights into the complexities of southern dissent, gender roles, race relations, and the influences that shaped memories. Following the intricate family connections in the dissenter groups requires careful concentration at times, but rewards the reader by unraveling important ties from one state or generation to another.