The Confederate Nation, 1861-1865 (review)

BOOK REVIEWS285 future, however, I suspect that would-be biographers who have read Moral Choices will hesitate before relying too completely on psychoanalytical models or arranging their chapters under strict chronological headings. James Brewer Stewart Macalester College The Confederate Nation, 1861-1865. By Emory M. Thomas. (New York: Harper & Row, 1979. Pp. xvi, 384. $15.00.) Early in February, 1861, fifty delegates from seven Deep South states assembled in the little town of Montgomery, Alabama, to establish a new nation. In marked contrast to the somnolent atmosphere which had long pervaded their meeting site, these dedicated men acted swiftly. Within five days theyhad adopted a provisional constitution and elected two provisional executive officers, and, in little more than a month, they had written and approved a permanent constitution. Thus was bom the Confederate States of America, the logical culmination of some four decades of mounting Southern nationalism. But, notwithstandinghopes to the contrary, the nascent Confederacy was not destined to enter the family of nations in peace. In mid-April the guns thundered over Charleston Harbor, signaling the beginning of a bitter conflict that would last four long years. Their numbers augmented by the addition of four more slave states, the founders of the aspiring nation valiandy tested their nationality in the crucible of war, only to be found wanting—their dream of Southern independence shattered beyond redemption by the economic and military might of their Northern adversaries. The story is a familiar one. Yet seldom, if ever, has it been recounted with such imagination and perception as by Emory Thomas in this volume, the most recent addition to the New American Nation series. Artfully combining interpretations informed by the most recent scholarship with a traditional narrative, the author offers a sympathetic, yet not uncritical, portrayal of the rise and fall of Confederate nationhood. Thomas writes well, displaying uncommon literary style and imagination in the introductory portions of each chapter; his organization, characterized by a skillful integration of military and political events within a broader interpretive framework, is superb; and his command of published source materials, reflectednot only in the text but in a comprehensive, fifty-page, critical bibliography, is positively awesome. Such merits are to be expected from one who has authored three previous books and a host of articles on the Confederate experience. The author's fundamental thesis is intriguing and, for the most part, persuasive. According to Thomas, the Confederacy began as the 286CIVIL WAR HISTORY political manifestation of a distinctive ideology spawned in the planterdominated , essentially homogenous Old South. That ideology, although never clearly defined by the author, was rooted in the agrarian, slavelabor economy of the region and nurtured in a persistent folk culture which emphasized personal relationships and a sense of place. Among the central tenets of this so-called world view were individualism, localism, a sincere commitment to state rights, and a romantic sanctification of the status quo. It was to preserve these values and this distinctive lifestyle that the Confederacy was established. Thus, at the outset, the Confederate revolution was essentially conservative— designed to preserve the regional status quo—and so it remained during the first year of the war. However, following a series of military reverses, exacerbated by mounting economic and fiscal woes and accompanied by sagging public morale, it became clear by the spring of 1862 that fundamental alterations inthecherished Old South ideologywere essential to national survival. It was then, argues Thomas, that Southerners began to define themselves as a national people and, in the process, transformed the Old South into what he terms the"ConfederateSouth." Symptomatic of that transition was an increasing centralization of political authority as reflected in the suspension ofhabeas corpus, conscription, impressment, confiscatory taxation, and control over industry and foreign commerce. Furthermore, as a consequence ofwartime exigencies, Southern women underwent a significant role transformation, lower and middle class whites developed a greater sense of class-consciousness, and the old master-slave relationship was profoundly altered. So complete was the transformation wrought by the war that in the closing months of that conflict, in a desperate but vain effort to preserve their nationality, Confederate leaders finally repudiated the cornerstone of the civilization they had sought to save by opting...