The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History Quotes

“Confederate soldiers were consistently brave, white Southern women were unquestioningly loyal, and “the cause” was indisputably noble.”
― Gary W. Gallagher, The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History

“Charles Maddox noted that “when I am told that the flag means ‘nigger on top,’ and that I can’t stand under it and cast my ballot without asking a nigger’s permission, then I think it is time to rescue the flag from the infamy that threatens”
― Gary W. Gallagher, The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History

“An ex-officer from the 39th Georgia recalled the May 1863 Confederate defeat at Baker’s Creek, Mississippi, by reminding his comrades how they “stood shoulder to shoulder a single regiment, and received the charge of a whole division of Federals.” Although the regiment broke and ran at Baker’s Creek, surrendered at Vicksburg, and performed poorly in several engagements during the Atlanta Campaign, the former officer insisted that “the 39th never failed to come up to the full measure of her duty…not one page of her history we would hide from review.”
― Gary W. Gallagher, The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History

“This Negrophobic Reconstruction myth has been so dominant that a man as intelligent and humane as Shelby Foote commented negatively about Reconstruction in Ken Burns’s Civil War television series.”
― Gary W. Gallagher, The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History

“The Civil War, therefore, presented three issues: (1) however flawed the circumstances, human freedom was at stake; (2) the territorial and political integrity of the United States was at stake; and (3) the survival of the democratic process—republican government of, by, and for the people—was at stake.”
― Gary W. Gallagher, The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History

“There is simply no evidence tending to show that the South would have voluntarily abandoned slavery. The evidence is that the Southern states had openly abridged the Constitution of the United States, especially the Bill of Rights, in behalf of the institution.”
― Gary W. Gallagher, The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History

“The Southerners, he concluded, “seceded over one thing and fought over one thing, slavery.”
― Gary W. Gallagher, The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History

“the purpose of the legend was to foster a heroic image of secession and the war so that the Confederates would have salvaged at least their honor from the all-encompassing defeat.”
― Gary W. Gallagher, The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History

“Few former Confederates suffered more at the hands of Lost Cause writers than James Longstreet,”
― Gary W. Gallagher, The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History

“No former Confederate did more to shape Lost Cause writings in the late nineteenth century than did Jubal A. Early.”
― Gary W. Gallagher, The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History

“Maddox declared that secession had not been “a question of the union” but “simply fought about ‘niggers’!” He reminded listeners that “we fought for the supremacy of the white race in America; for civilization against abolition theories; the cause of truth against abolition prejudice; and the cause of common sense against the foulest errors that will ever astonish posterity.”26”
― Gary W. Gallagher, The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History