God and General Longstreet: The Lost Cause and the Southern Mind

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Summary: Nice food for thought on Post-War Lost Cause phenomenon
Review: Connelly and Bellows offer a fine selection of short essays that deal with the "mentality" of the Southern mind amid the squalor of a defeated nation. I would think those more versed in their Civil War studies would appreciate this more than the casual reader. An appetizing psychological look at the only section of our country that has been a "defeated nation"

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Summary: The Seeds of the Lost Cause and the Rise of Old Jube
Review: If you want to know how the Lost Cause syndrome got its start and how Longstreet to his shock became the designated failure of the Confederacy, this is a revealing book. Old Pete survived his crippling wounds incurred by bullets during his great counter attack in the Wilderness but the ink from "Old Jube's" (Jubal Early's) pen created greater harm and anguish to Longstreet as Early effectively destroys his reputation. Early holds a tight grasp of southern history and the Southern Historical Society making sure that no one dared write anything about the War of the Rebellion without his approval. How ironic that the man that moved Alexander's auxiliary guns away during Pickett's charge, the former and inefficient Pendleton, makes up a bogus story about Longstreet disobeying a sunrise attack order on the second day of Gettysburg in a speech shortly after Lee died and blames Longstreet solely for the lost battle and in turn the "cause". Early picks up the ridiculous story to exaggerate Pendleton's story to gross proportions while coloring his own role that is very suspect in not supporting an attack on Culp's Hill on the first day of Gettysburg and he also pushed Ewell in not moving his corps to the right as Lee wished failing to contract Lee's over extended lines. Old Jube was a tough fighter but had a hard time with cavalry particularly in the Valley where Lee finally has Early relieved. Unlike Longstreet and Lee, Early left the country after the war and upon his return made a career out of rewriting history to suit his slant. Jubal Early could have been the Roy Cohn of the post Civil War era.

Connelly also explains how Lee becomes a greater hero after death and a rallying point for statues and dedications while the south understandably searches for an answer to the defeat of what many in the south tried to remember as a noble cause. Jackson's role is diminished as Lee's appreciative role becomes magnified almost to diety. As the reasons for the "Lost Cause" become justified, Davis and Stephens even write retrospective histories that contrast conveniently with the changing times, States Rights and Rights under the Constitution rise to greater reasons of separation than does slavery for example.

A devastating loss with so much death, maiming of young men and destruction needed a nobleness that was overwhelmed only by large numbers of Union soldiers and errors of judgement of those other thsn the leaders of the armies. "Lest we Forget" is defined in Connelly's fascinating book.