What happened after the end of the Civil War was an odd occurrence. Generally, after a time of war the victor controls the spoils and the narrative. That did not happen with the Civil War, as a movement called The Lost Cause took hold to present the Confederacy in the best possible light. According to this pseudo-historical approach, the Civil War was only about state's rights. State's rights of course is another term for slavery. What the Lost Cause falsity shows is that racism ran deep into the nation, and the more efforts at reconstruction to grant equality to African-Americans, the more push back occurred. It is into this milieu that General US Grant was elected President, with perhaps a challenge greater than winning the Civil War was winning the peace.
The Lost Cause, and its related bad apples, made that difficult. The Lost Cause, according to Encyclopedia Virginia was based on six main tenants.
1.
Secession, not slavery, caused the Civil War.
2. African Americans were “faithful slaves,” loyal to their masters and
the Confederate cause and unprepared for the responsibilities of freedom.
3. The Confederacy was defeated militarily only because of the Union’s overwhelming advantages in men and resources.
4.
Confederate soldiers were heroic and saintly.
5. The most heroic and saintly of all Confederates, perhaps of all Americans, was
Robert E. Lee.
6.
Southern women were loyal to the Confederate cause and sanctified by the sacrifice of their loved ones.
The movement further asserts that the South did not lose the war, they were simply overwhelmed by the money, manpower and industry of the north. Many false narratives were created by the Lost Cause movement and the many academics, both north and south, who became beholden to it. The narrative became so strong and pervasive that it still haunts the nation today. One main casualty of the Lost Cause was General and President Ulysses S Grant.
 |
Painting, March 1865, The Peacemakers
General Sherman, General Grant, President Lincoln, Admiral Porter |
The movement portrayed him as a drunkard, a butcher and, during his presidency, corrupt. We were taught many of these things, but research has shown that none of the labels placed on US Grant were warranted or correct. While he drank excessively while stationed in California, more recent research shows that during the war and presidency he seldom had the episodes of drunkenness. There may have been a few instances of "falling off the wagon" but it never seems to have affected him before, or during battle. His aide, James Rawlins, kept this under control while in war, and his wife while serving in Washington.
 |
| General Grant at Cold Harbor |
Second, the Union suffered heavy losses as he pursued the strategy laid out by President Lincoln and himself--to destroy Lee's army. Many Eastern theater generals wanted simply Richmond, but Lincoln and Grant always understood Lee's Army of Northern Virginia to be key. Prior to Grant, if a battle was a stalemate, or lost by the Union the Union leaders of the Army of the Potomac would simply retreat. Grant did not do this. The Union fought most of the Civil War in an attacking posture, and the South in a defensive posture, and defense has the upper hand in fortifications, knowing the territory, and local culture. Most of the war was fought in the south, meaning the north had to have long supply lines. Robert E Lee became a Saint to the south, and Grant the devil. But, for both sides the war was being fought in a time of transition and battle field tactics had to change due to changing technologies. That took time to adjust. When looking at casualty figures, Lee had a similar, if not greater, casualty rate when he went on the attack as compared to Grant. Only a few times, Gettysburg being one, did Lee go on the offensive.
Grant also developed a comprehensive strategy to win the war when appointed command of all Union forces. He developed the attack through the south to Atlanta, attacks at Mobile and along the Eastern sea board--all generally simultaneous. General Sherman's march to the sea, without supply lines, was itself based on a maneuver when Grant took his army across the Mississippi to attack toward Jackson before turning back to capture Vicksburg. Grant's movements regarding Vicksburg are thought to be among the best in warfare.
As an aside, I suppose few know that when General Grant dictated the terms of surrender at Appomattox, the terms were taken down by one of his aides--General Ely Parker, a full-blooded Seneca Native American. When Parker was introduced to Robert E Lee, Parker relates that "General Lee stared at me for a moment," said Parker to more than one of his friends and relatives, "He extended his hand and said, 'I am glad to see one real American here.' I shook his hand and said, 'We are all Americans.'"
 |
Painting imagined scene at Appomattox Courthouse
April 1865
Harvard University |
During his Presidency Grant attempted to safeguard the rights of blacks, and attempts to thwart him were made by many cities and southern states, and Democrats in congress and at the state and local level. Grant had to balance concern for another war with the rising tide of the KKK which often took matters into its own hands. He had to overcome the intransigence of his predecessor, Andrew Johnson, who tried to block attempts at equal rights for African-Americans. Reconstruction, often criticized due to the narrative of the Lost Cause, was necessary to move African-Americans ahead to put them on equal footing. Simply put, they faced continued discrimination as work arounds of federal movements by the south and its clowns were found. The KKK, and other organizations were highly effective undertaking political terrorism beyond its extrajudicial killings and violence it perpetrated through out much of the south and parts of the north.
 |
General Grant and part of his Staff, Ely Parker is to left
Harvard University
|
While some of the people Grant surrounded himself became corrupt, he was not corrupt and lost his life savings to a Ponzi scheme. His faith in people proved difficult because he did not some to become corrupt. The US was faced with other problems than that caused by reconstruction, there was a great recession, debt from the war, and finding jobs and income for those displaced by the war. It was a difficult time but Grant persevered. He realized that in Washington his aides were not the like the aides he had during the war.
 |
KKK and White League joined forces after the Civil War
New Georgia Encyclopedia |
As much as the South and the Lost Cause narrative have prevailed, it is time for historians, and others, to recognize the false claims made, the pseudohistorical method behind the whole story. The story particularly took hold in the first part of the Twentieth century after the soldiers who fought in the north had pretty much died out. (Think 1915 film, Birth of a Nation.) Civil War historian Bruce Catton believed the Lost Cause "elevated the entire conflict to the realm where it is no longer explosive” “The victim of the Lost Cause legend has been history,” according to Alan Nolan, “for which the legend has been substituted in the national memory.” I am sure the continued myth perpetuated the racism against African-Americans. That may be the worst part of the continuation of such a myth. Words matter, and in this case University historians on both sides led the Lost Cause narrative, showing how strong the anchor tendency is in creating a true myth.
Tomorrow Juneteenth will be marked, June 19, 1965 being the day the last slaves freed by the Emancipation Proclamation were freed by federal forces in Galveston Bay, TX. Without Abraham Lincoln and General Grant there would not be a Juneteenth celebration. The Lost Cause myth still pervades our past, and our present. it is up to us to see that it ends so it does not pervade our future.
