Becoming Confederates: Paths to a New National Loyalty by Gary W. Gallagher (review)

Gary Gallagher, as either the author of a monograph or editor of an anthology, has addressed almost every important topic being discussed by Civil War scholars. In this collection of essays, which began as Lamar Lectures at Mercer University, he tackles the issue of Confederate nationalism. To begin, he declares that the Confederacy was indeed a nation, and that the conflict that almost sundered the United States was in truth a clash between two nation-states, one of which existed for only a brief time. Having established those premises, he declares that most, but not all, of the whites who resided within the seceded states developed a strong loyalty to their new nation. This nationalism relied greatly on the military leadership of the Confederacy, and it faded with the defeat of their armies.

Within the framework defined in his introduction, Gallagher explores the nationalism expressed by Robert E. Lee, Stephen Dodson Ramseur, and Jubal A. Early. All three served as Confederate generals in the Army of Northern Virginia, and all of them ultimately developed a strong loyalty to the Confederacy that transcended any concerns they had for regional, state, or local interests. Lee as portrayed by Gallagher wrote often about his support for the Confederate government’s attempts to sustain its war efforts, a cause that to him was much more important than the arguments of any state, including Virginia, in favor of its own interests. He came to this new nationalism in stages, exhibiting strong attachments to the United States, Virginia, and the South in other phases of his life. Not so Ramseur, who was born thirty years after Lee. He grew up in an era of intensifying sectional loyalties and never served in the U.S. Army, going immediately from West Point to Confederate service in 1861. Gallagher says Ramseur easily made the transition from ardent Southerner to committed Confederate, rising rapidly to command a division before his death at Cedar Creek in October 1864. Early provides the most intriguing study in shifting loyalties. He was an outspoken Unionist delegate in the Virginia Secession Convention that later commissioned Lee as the commander of their revolutionary forces, then became one of the most vituperative Confederates, spewing unreconstructed rhetoric long after the war had ended. Early apparently never did anything half-way, and he remained a staunch conservative throughout his life, which Gallagher makes abundantly clear.

Gallagher returns to several other interesting points in his discussion of Lee, Ramseur, and Early. All three consciously fought to preserve a social, economic, and political order that kept blacks under the control of whites. All three came to detest their enemies, especially those from New England, which reinforced their loyalty to the Confederacy, which they believed was populated by superior people. While Early was the most insistent about this, Ramseur was not much more moderate, and even Lee spoke harshly about his blue-clad opponents. Lee and Early each referenced George Washington and the American Revolution, but in sharply different ways. Finally, both Lee and Early retained a strong loyalty to the Confederacy after the war, indicating their persistent Confederate nationalism. While this might also reflect resentment towards the United States government that had defeated them, their words indicate otherwise, especially those of the bellicose Early. In sum, this is a useful book for those seeking to put aside simplistic analyses of Confederate loyalty and dig deeper into a complex and enduring riddle.