Bending History to meet a Lost Cause Agenda: Erasing the Confederate Generals from History Who Don't Muster Up to Their Version of History

Many of the Lost Cause monuments situated on courthouse lawns and parks in southern cities and towns at the center of the storm often have a similar look to them. Why? Most were commissioned at about the same time (1890s-1920s) and most were turned out by the same artists, who, interestingly, often lived north of the Mason-Dixon. No doubt General Robert E. Lee was a likely choice for many of these monuments, often situated atop his beloved Traveller, the most famous horse of the Civil War. Lee was an ideal choice to represent these early 20th century Lost Cause monuments of southern defiance because the story of Lee turning down President Abraham Lincoln's request to lead the Union army to put down the Southern rebellion fits the Lost Cause narrative of a war between the states over states' rights. Many Americans either of a certain age educated in a time in which the Lost Cause interpretation of the Civil War held sway across this nation or perhaps those still living in areas in which teachers, families, and communities still clings to this interpretation are quite familiar with Lee's rejection of Lincoln's offer in favor of deferring to his state's (Virginia) decision to secede from the Union. Lee's decision to favor his state over the union fits the Lost Cause narrative perfectly and thus the general has been remembered fondly by those who fervently cling to the idea that "The War Between the States" (their term of choice) was fought over states' rights and other issues rather than slavery (see an earlier post in which Southern and Confederate leaders clearly declare slavery as the root cause of the Civil War).



Longstreet statue in Gainesville, GA

Longstreet statue recently installed at Gettysburg

Not all Confederate generals have been remembered as fondly as Lee. A couple of the most capable generals have been largely erased from the Lost Cause narrative of their "War Between the States" because they don't muster up to their version of history. One of the most noted Confederate generals of the Civil War, James P. Longstreet, has been largely erased from that history. There are only two statues to Longstreet: one in his hometown of Gainesville, Georgia & another installed nearly a decade ago at Gettysburg (a statue depicting the battlefield general and nothing more). Today, Longstreet might seem known more for being the scapegoat after Lee's failure at Gettysburg rather than his many battlefield successes against Union forces. Sure, he was no Stonewall Jackson (who I argue was the Confederacy's best battlefield general), but he was certainly the next most capable of Lee's generals.

So, why only two statues to Longstreet? Was the screw up at Gettysburg that bad, threatening to tarnish the great Lee's reputation that Southerners punished Longstreet by overlooking him time after time as hundreds of Lost Cause monuments started springing up throughout the South? Why was Longstreet constantly overlooked in favor of other less capable Southern generals and leaders?

The answer, which should be instructive to Americans today as we debate the Lost Cause monuments, has more to do with Longstreet's post-Civil War resume. He became a Republican, breaking bread with the enemy to support Republican policies such as interracial democracy--supporting equal rights for the freed people. Thus, Longstreet became persona non grata in the post-Civil War South among supporters of the Confederacy.

General William Mahone, CSA

Read the following article by Jane Dailey (University of Chicago) about another of Lee's right hand men, General William Mahone, who has been erased from the Southern Lost Cause narrative of "The War Between the States." It lays out the similar fate that both Mahone and Longstreet have faced at the hands of the architects of the Lost Cause narrative.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-confederate-general-who-was-erased-from-history_us_599b3747e4b06a788a2af43e?ncid=engmodushpmg00000003

Those who built the Lost Cause monuments to Confederate generals and leaders, who bent history for their own purpose, certainly understood what they were doing in the early 20th century when they erected monuments to further their "War Between the States" narrative: "Interracial political cooperation had to be forgotten if [the southern architects of the Lost Cause] were going to sell white supremacy and solidarity as timeless and natural, and not as the result of a 30-year campaign [JIM CROW] to render black southerners political and economic dependents and social unequals. How we remember our past directly influences the possibilities for our future. This is why [early 20th century] white Democrats erased as much as they could of the history of interracial democracy in the South, after they [purposely] destroyed it."

Note: I have chosen to make a few changes [brackets] to the article's conclusion to more clearly set the historical & political context.