1865 Alabama: From Civil War to Uncivil Peace by Christopher Lyle McIlwain (review)

It is no secret that many southerners in the former Confederacy were utterly unrepentant for the damage they caused by seceding and fighting in the Civil War. Even when their defeat was imminent, many still attempted to achieve their wartime goals of independence and the right to continue to own slaves. In 1865 Alabama: From Civil War to Uncivil Peace, Christopher Lyle McIlwain Sr. examines how the attitudes of white citizens in Alabama influenced political and military decisions in 1865 and how those decisions had a negative impact on Alabama's economic development for decades after.

1865 Alabama works within a mostly chronological framework, following the closing of the Civil War and the beginnings of Reconstruction. McIlwain at times contrasts developments in Alabama with those of neighboring states, such as Tennessee, using the appointment of Republican military governor William G. "Parson" Brownlow and his policies toward former Confederates as an example of Reconstruction policy Alabamians were trying to avoid. Ironically, however, their efforts, which took the appearance of continued rebellion, calls for the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and aggressive resistance to the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, had the opposite effect, leading the federal government to impose more of its northern control over Alabama's affairs. The antics of these state officials, combined with horrific violence directed at Alabama's black population (and white moderates) and citizens' denial of their previous stances on secession and the war's consequences, also resulted in a lack of economic investment, from both northern states and abroad. It was the lack of financial stability, McIlwain argues, that inhibited Alabama's reconstruction.

McIlwain introduces several thought-provoking arguments, including that secessionists were actually a minority in Alabama and were simply the loudest voices that held the most power. Other historians could argue that this may have been the case in 1865, as public opinion shifted toward making peace and rejoining the Union. However, as the book only focuses on the year 1865, a potential weakness is that it does not adequately explain this shift, instead only showing its aftermath.

McIlwain is particularly adept at demonstrating the varying perspectives of Alabamians from different backgrounds, from pro-Union citizens to the most outspoken of the secessionists. He devotes significant time to exploring the nuances of Alabamian public opinion, using women's personal papers and diaries as well as newspapers of varying political backgrounds to show that most of white Alabama was much more moderate and receptive to reunion and reconstruction than historians have previously shown. He also reveals a crucial sectional divide, with northern and central white Alabamians being much more likely to have pro-Union views, and southern white Alabamians more likely to preach secessionism, probably because southern Alabama was mostly untouched by Union soldiers until the end of the war and northern Alabama had not been so lucky.

Although McIlwain provides important discussions of political differences among white Alabamians, his analysis of the state's black population sometimes disappoints. His periodic characterization of enslaved African Americans as utterly dependent and apolitical beings strips them of their agency and portrays them as passive characters in the grand drama of the Civil War. Though the South did face thorny questions posed by a large, newly freed African American population, McIlwain frames these issues entirely through the perspective of southern whites, many of whom wished to retain the system of slavery and expressed racist ideas to justify their positions. As a result, the slaves that the Confederacy expended so much manpower to keep in chains remain very much in the background of McIlwain's narrative.

1865 Alabama is an important contribution to the existing literature on Alabama during the Civil War and can serve as a case study about the condition of Confederate politics at the close of the Civil War. McIlwain painstakingly demonstrates the nuances in public opinion in Alabama and successfully makes the case that the state would...