Sustaining Southern Identity: Douglas Southall Freeman and Memory in the Modern South by Keith D. Dickson (review)

Several decades ago, as a nascent history major at Western Kentucky University, I asked Lowell Harrison's advice on a historiography topic. Dr. Harrison knew of my love for the South and the Civil War, so he suggested I read everything by Douglas Southall Freeman. Without realizing the magnitude of the advice, I readily agreed and was off to the library. Minutes later, I stood frozen, staring at four volumes of R. E. Lee, three volumes of Lee's Lieutenants, and seven volumes of George Washington. It was some of the best advice I ever received.

Memory has become the latest hot topic historical field; how an individual or a collective memory is important, if not critical, in the formation of sectional or national identity. By focusing on the Civil War and recalling the tremendous loss of life, as well as the numerous acts of personal valor, a collective southern memory emerged in which honor and virtue triumphed. Keith Dickson believes Freeman played a crucial role in sustaining the Lost Cause due to his enormous influence through a variety of publications and speeches, professional and popular.

As a student at the McGuire University School for Boys in Richmond, young Freeman was taught that Confederates were patriots, not rebels, and that they fought to preserve constitutional rights rather than slavery. At Richmond College, he developed a lifelong friendship with Samuel Chiles Mitchell, who believed that Robert E. Lee embodied the southern collective experience of duty and honor by defending his native state and his country. After receiving his PhD from Johns Hopkins University, Freeman took a part-time job as an editorial assistant for the Richmond Times Dispatch, where he became acquainted with Kate Pleasants Minor, who offered him the job of cataloging the Confederate Memorial Literary Society's collection of documents, published in 1908 as A Calendar of Confederate Papers. Freeman noted in the work that a valuable set of manuscripts had been donated by Mary DeRenne, whose son later presented him with private correspondence between Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis that had been previously thought lost. Freeman spent the next four years doing diligent contextual research and in 1915 published Lee's Dispatches, to rave reviews.

By the "Great War," Freeman had risen to assistant and then editor of the Richmond News-Leader; patriotism and duty, characteristics dear to southerners, filled his editorials. He continued this theme when Charles Scribner's Sons approached him to write a biography of Lee. Weaving a bond between Lee and his men as well as a bond to Virginia and the South, Freeman captured a Lee who embodied modern southern identity. In R. E. Lee, Freeman used the "fog of war" writing technique, in which the reader knows only what Lee knows at any particular time. The narrative immortalized Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia. Freeman intentionally finished the work on Lee's birthday in 1933, and he received the Pulitzer Prize for biography two years later.

Freeman's next subject seemed to be George Washington, but he returned to the Army of Northern Virginia with a three-volume study of Lee's Lieutenants, which became his most popular work, perhaps due to its publication during World War II. His News-Leader editorials were increasingly filled with war strategy and preparations, and when war came he reminded readers of the sacrifices borne by many Confederates. Freeman's grasp of strategy, tactics, and logistics made him an unofficial advisor to the army, and FDR used Freeman's editorial phrase "liberation," rather than "invasion," to describe D-Day.

Following the war's end, Freeman decided to take up (again) the Washington biography. Such production, in combination with his responsibilities at the News-Leader, could only have been accomplished with a legendary work ethic. He never wasted time, and planning and organization were crucial to his success...