The Great Task Remaining Before Us: Reconstruction as America's Continuing Civil War (review)

The editors, who take their title from Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, explain in the preface that these essays will explore important questions raised in recent years by historians about how the Civil War carried over into Reconstruction. To what degree did violence persist? What did freedom mean for former slaves? What would be the role of government in a reunited nation? How much would the conflict change the economy and society? G. Ward Hubbs in his introduction previews the chapters that follow, noting that most of them focus on the state or local level, while providing insights into the larger issues of the era.

The theme of violence in the states of the Upper South is central to the first three essays. Derek W. Frisby explains that Unionists reluctant about emancipation in western Tennessee argued with more sympathetic Unionists from eastern Tennessee over the status of former slaves, while facing harassment from ex-Confederates. In Kentucky and Missouri, Aaron Astor finds former Confederates and some conservative Unionists harshly opposed to African American claims of equality and citizenship based upon their service in the Union army. Anne E. Marshall agrees that such violence occurred in Kentucky, adding desire to control labor and fear of social contact to the list of causes.

In the chapter of greatest interest to Alabama readers, Margaret M. Storey explores the efforts of the state's Unionists, who unsuccessfully sought political leadership as a result of their loyalty to the United States while resisting violence by ex-Confederates.

Carol Faulkner shifts the focus to gender conflict as she offers insight into efforts by abolitionist women who sought greater roles in the Freedmen's Bureau to aid women and children emerging from slavery. Opposition to their increased participation came from white male reformers and Union army officers. Another relatively unexplored topic—aid to the white poor in the South—is clarified by Denise E. Wright. She describes increasing state legislation for that purpose in wartime Georgia, as well as efforts to assist the white poor by the Freedmen's Bureau and some northern charities in the postwar era.

Justin A. Nystrom provides a more complex view than earlier writers about actions by free African Americans of mixed ancestry in New Orleans during and after the Civil War. He finds that some Afro-Creole family members joined the Union army and later the Republican Party but also took steps to create the possibility for their descendants to pass as white and escape discrimination.

Two essays explore the motivations for former Confederates to develop the heroic Lost Cause concepts and mythology after the Civil War. Rod Andrew Jr. points to the loss of family members during the war as one reason Wade Hampton romanticized wartime service to honor them. Jason K. Phillips finds that often Confederate soldiers who fought to the very end believed God was on their side and also continued to assume southern superiority. Those key ideas also made postwar violence and discrimination more acceptable for them.

Carole Emberton considers ideas of loyalty among different groups in American society during Reconstruction. Union military service reflected loyalty and formed a basis for African American hopes of equality and citizenship. Federal leaders hoped that former Confederates would agree to cooperate after the conflict because of either the potential government power to withhold voting rights or the offer of reconciliation that would lead to economic revival and a peaceful society.

The changing nature of the Republican Party from before the war to the end of Reconstruction is reviewed by Michael Green. He sees a series of internal debates among leaders about how to achieve party goals, which shifted from prewar politics to the wartime focus on maintaining the Union and freeing slaves. Postwar differences followed over which Reconstruction...