Becoming Confederates: Paths to a New National Loyalty

Images

Gen. Robert E. Lee, portrait by photographer Julian Vannerson, probably from March 1864. At the time of this photograph, Lee unquestionably was the most admired public figure in the Confederate nation and just weeks away from his encounter with Ulysses S. Grant in the Overland campaign. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, reproduction number LC-DIG-cwpb-04402 Thomas Crawford’s equestrian statue of George Washington on the capitol grounds in Richmond, Virginia, photographed in April 1865. On his way to accept command of Virginia’s state forces almost exactly four years earlier, Robert E. Lee passed the monument featuring the man he most sought to emulate—and who shaped his loyalties to Virginia and the United States. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, reproduction number LC-DIG-cwpb-02528 Robert E. Lee leaving the McLean House at Appomattox Court House following his surrender to U. S. Grant. A. R. Waud’s simple sketch managed to capture a sense of stoic resignation, an attitude evident in Lee’s subsequent insistence that former Confederates come to terms with the loss of their nation and focus on the process of reintegration into the United States. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, reproduction number LC-DIG-ppmsca-21320 Stephen Dodson Ramseur (left) and Frank Huger in their West Point uniforms on the eve of the secession crisis. Ramseur and the South Carolina– born Huger were classmates at the academy, briefly officers in the U.S. Army, and eager converts to the Confederate cause. Author’s collection Cover of the sheet music for Our National Confederate Anthem. It represents Ramseur’s two primary loyalties—to the slaveholding South and the Confederacy—as inextricably linked, while also acknowledging the centrality of soldiers to the national project. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, reproduction number LC-USZ62-33407 Artist James E. Taylor inaccurately depicted Ramseur on horseback at the moment of his mortal wounding at Cedar Creek. Conspicuous bravery in combat resulted in five wounds for Ramseur, who, like many other young officers from the slaveholding class, demonstrated his Confederate loyalty at great personal risk. Courtesy of the Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio Jubal Anderson Early in Confederate uniform. Early often affected less formal military dress, which contributed to his reputation as a colorful eccentric. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, reproduction number LC-DIG-ds-01484 Front page of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, November 19, 1859, featuring a portrait of John Brown. Although the accompanying article referred to Brown as “a traitor to the American Union,” many northern newspapers were far kinder. Favorable response to Brown and his raid brought a major change in Jubal Early’s attitude toward northerners. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, reproduction number LC-USZ62-137591 “The Ruins of Chambersburg— View of Main Street,” an illustration Harper’s Weekly offered readers three weeks after Early’s cavalry burned the Pennsylvania city in retaliation for Federal destruction of civilian property in Virginia. “The burned district covers all the business portion of the town and some of the finest private residences,” read Harper’s accompanying text. “Bedridden old women even did not elicit any compassion in the breasts of these rebels.” Harper’s Weekly, August 20, 1864 “Tracks of the Armies,” a propagandistic print by pro-Confederate artist Adalbert Johann Volck, shows a Confederate soldier returning home to find it in ruins and his wife dead in the rubble. Destruction of civilian property by Union troops embittered Lee, Ramseur, and Early, fueling their determination not to succumb to the United States. Author’s collection Emancipation threatened the slave-based social structure that figured very prominently in the state, southern, and Confederate loyalties of Lee, Ramseur, and Early. In the minds of all three, U.S. armies carried out on a massive scale what John Brown had attempted in October 1859. Edwin Forbes documented the movement of enslaved people to Union lines in this sketch from 1864, on the bottom of which he wrote, “Contrabands Escaping. May 29th Hanover Town Va.” Library...