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2. Remembering the Confederacy: Ceremony in the Postwar South, 1865–1920s
- The University of Alabama Press
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2 Remembering the Confederacy Ceremony in the Postwar South, 1865–1920s Since before the beginning of recorded history, the human race has acknowledged the need to celebrate and honor the important aspects of culture— its religion, its heroes, its victories, and its defeats; archaeological findings and anthropological research conclusively show this human trait. As Victor Turner writes: “People in all cultures recognize the need to set aside certain times and spaces for celebratory use.” According to Bernard Lewis, a culture ’s“remembered history”is“preserved in commemorative ceremonies and monuments ...and in the words associated with them.”James Mayo observes that“rituals temporarily add definitions to place, and communities use them to reach beyond the experiences of daily life.”1 The postbellum Ameri can South was no exception. The “experiences of daily life” in the years after the Civil War were experiences of devastation, defeat, poverty, death, a changed social order, a new environment of increased industrialization and commercialization , and a drastic change in the patterns of life. These grand festivities of Confederate remembrances,if even for only one day a year,took white south ern ers out of their dreary, defensive, devastated environment. As the speakers of the day painted their verbal pictures, white south ern ers remembered the glorious past as they wanted to recall it: the days of mastery, the days of victory and honor on the battlefield and the dreams of victory. Few Lost Cause orators spoke of south ern defeats, such as Gettysburg or Vicksburg ; their subjects were First and Second Bull Run, Chancellorsville, and other victories over the Yankees. There were hundreds of events, institutions, and organizations created from April 1865 through the late twentieth century (and more will probably be created with the 150th anniversary of the Civil War in 2011–15) to honor and recall the Confederacy. Gaines Foster writes in detail about many of Remembering the Confederacy 15 them: the Ladies’ Memorial Associations created to decorate and tend Confederate graves and establish cemeteries for the dead soldiers; the South ern Historical Society, which operated out of Richmond to preserve the south ern point of view about the war; the United Confederate Veterans (UCV), formed in 1889; the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), established in 1894; and the United Sons of the Confederacy, which was organized in 1896. Annual reunions of the UCV, myriad military unit reunions, and state and local reunions swept the South for decades until the old veterans could no longer participate. Confederate Memorial Day and Confederate monument cornerstone dedications and monument unveiling ceremonies occurred in virtually every south ern city and town of any significant size. The campaigns to raise the needed thousands of dollars to build the monuments and the cemeteries all presented many opportunities to add to the collective memory of the Civil War and its aftermath.2 These rituals and rhetoric sought to reaffirm the common sentiments of the south ern people, much like a Sunday church service reaffirms the congregation ’s beliefs in the sacred creeds and sacraments of their faith. These events provided for continuity with the traditions and history of the white South, strengthened community solidarity against outsiders such as the military occupation and the hated “carpetbaggers,” and promoted the confidence of the audience in an era of low self- esteem for many white south ern ers. Ceremonial oratory was part and parcel of these rituals and events and played a major role, perhaps the most important role, in the shaping of the Lost Cause mythology by which many south ern ers have lived for generations. David Blight writes about one of these events: “The Decoration Day speech became an Ameri can genre that ministers, politicians, and countless former soldiers tried to master.”3 I contend that all three types of events—Confederate Memorial (or“Decoration”) Day,Confederate veterans’ reunions,and the dedication of Confederate monuments—reached that same level of importance. Before we examine the rhetoric of these events, I will provide an overview of these occasions as they developed. “In the gentle light of Spring”: Confederate Memorial Day As the Civil War ground to a halt in the spring of 1865, south ern women began to clean and beautify the graves of their beloved Confederate friends and relatives.4 Throughout the South, springtime flowers were brought to the graves as the survivors attempted to honor the tombs of the fallen soldiers . A long- running debate developed over the region regarding the ori- [54.243.2.41] Project MUSE...