Q & A July 15, 2018
Q and A July 2018
About 80% of the e-mails I receive after a new blog/article is published, after a reader finishes one of my books, or attends one of my presentations, are complimentary (I really like those). However, the other 20% posed questions, made specific comments challenging my position, or offered constructive (or not so constructive) criticisms. These are a few of those which made me pause, due further research, and/or argue my position. I’ll send a few more in August.
1. (Q): In an article in May 2018, you wrote of the flight of Jefferson Davis from Richmond as Union forces advanced and you told us the story of his capture. However, you only added a footnote that he was held in prison for two years without trial before being released. What did he do with the rest of his life? Tell us more! (A): I heard from several readers, with either this question or comments that they had done their own research to learn more about Jefferson Davis. With this level of interest, I am planning a follow-up article in the fall about the rest of the life of Jefferson Davis. Suffice it to say for now, after his release in 1867, he was helped financially by wealthy friends, and wrote a two volume first person account of the Confederacy titled, “The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government.” He lived until 1889, and always remained convinced that the Confederacy was noble, secession was constitutionally legal, the invasion of southern states by the Union was illegal, and slavery was morally and biblically justified.
2. (Q): You seem to imply that all Southerners were eager to secede from the United States and that is a false narrative. In fact, most of the men who eventually became leaders of the Confederacy were loyal American patriots, such as Generals Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, Joseph E. Johnston, and Stonewall Jackson; and even President Jefferson Davis, who had cautioned against secession. The election of Abraham Lincoln, an avowed abolitionist who disrespected southern culture, convinced these men, and other Southern leaders, that the United States government would erode the rights of individual states to control their own societies within their own borders. Secession was their only alternative. (A): I hope I never gave the impression that I believed “all” Southerners were eager to secede. I agree that many Southerners hoped for some compromise to avoid secession, especially the four Generals you name. Also, until about 1860, Davis may have cautioned against secession, but by the time he resigned from the U.S. Senate, he embraced secession. He anticipated a civil war and had hoped to be named Commanding General of Confederate forces but was instead selected as President of the Confederate States; hardly a stand against secession. Further, I and most historians, disagree with your assertion that Lincoln was an abolitionist; he simply was not. Throughout the campaign of 1860 and even at his inauguration in March of 1861, Lincoln consistently stated that he would have no power, or any intention, as President of interfering with the (then) constitutional right to own slaves. There are several historical certainties about Abraham Lincoln. He despised slavery and thought it a stain on the United States. He did not pursue the Civil War to end slavery, but to end secession and preserve the Union. He simply saw an opportunity to end slavery once the South was defeated but supported passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to Constitution which was the only way to officially end the right, in the United States, for one human to own another and treat the slave as property.
3. (Q): In your book and in a recent article, you quoted Confederate President Jefferson Davis as saying, “We will start and finish the War.” And, in speaking of President Lincoln, adding, “There is no fire in his fight.” I have researched the life of Jefferson Davis and can not place those quotes and, in fact, understanding his character, I doubt if they are correct. (A): In 2011, I found those quotes, purportedly by Jefferson Davis, in a series of articles on the founding of the Confederacy which were in the University of Virginia’s Library and History Department archives. (Now likely held in the new John L. Nau III Center for Civil War History). During my research for my first Lincoln book, the two quotes, among many others, were in several articles which discussed the early divisive conversations among Confederate leaders, including Davis, Alexander Stephens and Robert Toombs, as to the likelihood (and severity) of Northern retaliation for secession, and whether a Southern state should fire the first shot to begin the expected war. The quotes seemed genuine enough to me that I took some notes but there were no specific attributions. I have not studied the life of Davis as you must have and accept that the quotes may be out of context, or possibly never actually occurred (a problem with any Civil War era quote not found in the person’s own handwriting). I accept your position and, if in the future, I use those remarks when writing or talking about Jefferson Davis, I will include a disclaimer. However, I believe those, or similar, remarks, were included in discussions among the leaders of the formation of the Confederate States of America.
4. (Q): Recently, I attended a motivational presentation about the power of friendship and the speaker used the example of the wife of Ulysses S. Grant and the wife of Jefferson Davis, who the speaker claimed became friends after the Civil War. Could this be true? (A): Yes. Julia Dent Grant was a gracious woman who seemed to have a gift for bringing calm to those around her; and she was a valuable companion to her husband throughout his career, especially during his two terms as President of the United States. The Grants moved to New York after his second term and she continued to live there after his death. When Julia Grant learned that Varina Davis, who was the widow of former Confederate President Jefferson Davis, had relocated to New York, Mrs. Grant paid a formal call to introduce herself to the former First Lady of the Confederacy. The two soon became great friends; and gave us a poignant chapter in the epic story of the Civil War.
5. (Q): I have read many of your articles which tell of soldiers, and armies, and Generals in the Civil War. Have you ever researched and written about the Navies on either side? I have probably not researched or written as much as the subject, and the sailors, deserve. A chapter in “Abraham Lincoln – An Uncommon, Common Man” is titled, “The Ironclads have arrived- Mr. Welles has built us a Navy,” and in that section I also mentioned the battle between the C.S.S. Alabama and the U.S.S. Kersarge in the English Channel. Then I briefly covered the U.S. Navy’s role in the battles for Mobile, Alabama, New Orleans, Louisiana, and Vicksburg, Mississippi in both the book and in a few blogs; but the focus was not on any individual sailors or any ship’s officers. Your question has prompted me to begin further research into that aspect of the Civil War, which, I agree, is often overlooked. I am not yet certain if specific articles will result, but that is an early goal and I have enjoyed the research so far.
6. (Q): In the past year you have written at least three articles about the Cherokee Indians, mentioning the in-famous Trail of Tears when their ancestral lands in Georgia were confiscated and they were forcefully removed west to Oklahoma. You then wrote about the Cherokee decision to align with the Confederate States, and recently about a white man who became a Cherokee chief and fought for the South. Is there a familial heritage connection to the Cherokee? Otherwise, why so much interest in that one tribe rather that the dozens of other indigenous peoples involved in the Civil War? First, while I would be honored to share my heritage with Native Americans, in fact my direct linage is Scotts-Irish back to the early 1600s. I did write an article titled “Lincoln’s Unsteady Indian Diplomacy” and another titled, “The Native American Dilemma – Which Side to Choose,” both of which mentioned several Native Nations, with the Cherokee being one. Recently, by coincidence only, I wrote two articles specifically about the Cherokee, but, each was from a different perspective. The first, titled “A Nation Divided – The Cherokee” focused on the political factions within the “Eastern” Cherokee and the decision of one group to fight for the Confederates and another to later align with the Union. Unrelated to those earlier articles, I stumbled across an interesting character named Will Thomas, a white man, Cherokee Chief, state legislator, and Colonel in the Confederate Army, who became the primary focus of a new article. I can assure you that I started with no specific reason to research the Cherokee Nation, but I am glad that I did.
7. (Q): In your blog about Lincoln and Douglas you did not delve into what might have happened if Lincoln had been defeated by Douglas in the 1860 Presidential election. I believe that, if elected, a President Douglas would have prevented the Civil War, since Douglas would not have (illegally) invaded the Southern States as Lincoln did. Further, Douglas would have championed a compromise on the subject of slavery which would have allowed it to disappear over time. There was no need for nearly a million young men to die and the south’s infrastructure to be destroyed; except for Lincoln’s aggression, stubbornness, and spitefulness toward the people of the South. Would Douglas, or any other candidate besides Lincoln, have avoided the Civil War, in your opinion. (A): Douglas, the presumptive Democrat presidential candidate, was doomed early in the 1860 campaign because Southern Democrats chose to split from the national party and nominate John Breckenridge. (There was also a candidate under the Constitutional Union Party). But, by dividing the Democratic Party vote, neither Douglas nor Breckenridge could possibly win enough votes to overtake the nearly unified Republican Party candidate, Abraham Lincoln. The other candidates combined voter totals were greater than Lincoln received, so he was a “minority” President; but, he won substantially more votes than any other single candidate and he easily won the Electoral College vote. To make Lincoln’s vote totals even more impressive, he was not allowed on the ballot in most Southern states. Douglas’s problem was that Southern leaders, and the region’s citizen voters had no confidence that he could engineer another satisfactory compromise; although, to them, Douglas probably would have been preferable to Lincoln, but not by much. Southern political leaders and the plantation aristocracy were convinced the North would continue to press anti-slavery measures in any new states, even if there was no specific action taken right away against the fifteen states with constitutionally protected slavery. Their fear was that under a Lincoln administration, the abolitionists would be even less restrained. I believe there would have been a Civil War sooner or later no matter who had been elected President in 1860; or whether or not the Confederates fired on Fort Sumter. The lines were drawn, with such a large gap between the sides that further compromise, satisfactory to both North and South, was not possible. At the time, there could only be either (a) two nations divided from the (former) United States, or (b) there would be Civil War; and, as we now know, war it was!
8. (Q): I have read your article “The Militarization of the South” with interest. You state as a fact that because many Southern gentlemen attended a military academy at either West Point or at one of several state or private military schools, their martial education made the Civil War more likely. While it is true that many officers in the antebellum army did resign from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and offer their services to the Confederacy, the great majority of graduates remained in the U.S. Army. Also, it appears that civil careers had greater appeal to most young men. With far less education than is required today, a man could become a successful physician or an attorney. Someone with an aptitude for numbers could go to any town and earn steady pay as a clerk. Every boy knew men in his neighborhood who ran a mill and enjoyed a steady income with little effort. Any number of trades were available that demanded far less discipline and paid as well or better than the military. As for young Southern men being encouraged to pursue a military career, at the moment I cannot think of a single instance. Robert E Lee and his older brother applied to West Point and Annapolis, respectively, because Anne Carter Lee had no money to pay for their college education. That was also the case for other young men like Thomas (Stonewall) Jackson who would not have received an education otherwise. For that matter, parents (North or South) were not inclined for their daughters to marry career military men. An officer in the antebellum army would almost certainly be sent to a remote and distant post for long periods of time. Who would want a daughter to make a home and raise grandchildren in such an environment, so far removed from her own family and friends? An officer's pay was not likely to advance a man in society, and there were much more favored professions for a young man to pursue. (A) Thank you for what is one of the most articulate (and civil) criticism of one of my articles. (Note: I needed to edit out a couple of paragraphs for brevity but hope I still conveyed the writers intent.) You have made some excellent points but we will have to agree to disagree. I believe the successful military experiences of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and the Generals on his staff, (especially since they had dominated Mexico in a brief war a few years earlier), gave these men a degree of confidence that they could quickly succeed in the first few engagements against a depleted and discouraged U.S. Army. I believe they over-estimated their own capabilities and under-estimated the resolve of the U.S. Army and its Commander-in-Chief, Abraham Lincoln. Of course, there is no certainty in either argument and I hope you continue to comment on future articles.
Contact the author at gadorris2@gmail.com and see other articles at the website: www.alincolnbygadorris.com