The Confederate Nation: 1861 to 1865 (52 page)

Justus Scheibert:

Seven Months in the Rebel States during the North American War, 1863,
trans, by Joseph C. Haynes, ed. by Wm. S. Hoole, (Tuscaloosa, Ala., 1958).

James A. Seddon:

Roy W. Curry, “James A. Seddon, a Southern Prototype,”
Virginia Magazine of History and Biography,
LXIII (1955), 122–150.

Raphael Semmes:

Harpur A. Gosnell, Rebel Raider: Being an Account of Raphael Semme’s Cruise in the C.S.S. Sumter (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1948).

Colyer Meriwether, Raphael Semmes (Philadelphia, 1913).

W. Adolphe Roberts, Semmes of the Alabama (Indianapolis, Ind., 1938).

Raphael Semmes, Service Afloat, or The Remarkable Career of the Confederate Cruisers, Sumter and Alabama during the War between the States (Baltimore, 1887).

Edward Carrington Boykin, Ghost Ship of the Confederacy: The Story of the Alabama and Her Captain, (New York, 1957).

Joseph Shelby:

Daniel O’Flaherty,
General Jo Shelby, Undefeated Rebel
(Chapel Hill, N.C., 1954).

R. Casellas, “Confederate Colonists in Mexico,”
Americas,
XXVII (1975), 8–15.

William Gilmore Simms:

Mary C. Simms, Alfred T. Odell, and T.C. Duncan Eaves (eds.),
The Letters of William Gilmore Simms,
5 vols., Columbia, S.C., 1952–1956).

William P. Trent,
William Gilmore Simms
(Boston, 1892).

Jon L. Wakelyn,
The Politics of A Literary Man: William Gilmore Simms
(Westport, Conn., 1973).

John Slidell:

Louis M. Sears,
John Slidell
(Durham, N.C., 1925).

Joseph G. Tregle, Jr., “The Political Apprenticeship of John Slidell,”
Journal of Southern History
, XXVI (1960), 57–70.

Beckles, Willson,
John Slidell and the Confederates in Paris (1862–65)
(New York, 1932).

Edmund Kirby Smith:

Joseph H. Parks,
General Edmund Kirby Smith, C.S.A.
(Baton Rouge, La., 1954).

Robert L. Kerby, Kirby Smith’s Confederacy: the Trans-Mississippi South, 1863–1865, (New York, 1972).

Mason Smith:

Daniel E. H. Smith and others (eds.),
Mason Smith Family Letters, 1860–1868
(Columbia, N.C., 1950).

William Smith:

Alvin A. Fahrner, “William ‘Extra Billy’ Smith, Governor of Virginia, 1864–1865: A Pillar of the Confederacy,”
Virginia Magazine of History and Biography,
LXXIV (1966), 68–87.

G. Moxley Sorrel:

G. Moxley Sorrel,
Recollections of a Confederate Staff Officer
(New York, 1905), new edition with introduction by Bell I. Wiley, 1958.

Alexander H. Stephens:

Henry Cleveland, Alexander H. Stephens, in Public and Private … (Philadelphia, 1866).

Richard M. Johnston and William H. Browne,
Life of Alexander H. Stephens,
(Philadelphia, 1878).

Ulrich B. Phillips (ed.), “The Correspondence of Robert Toombs, Alexander H. Stephens, and Howell Cobb,”
Annual Report of the American Historical Association
(Washington, D.C., 1911), II.

E. Ramsay Richardson,
Little Aleck: A Life of Alexander H. Stephens, the Fighting Vice President of the Confederacy
(Indianapolis, Ind., 1932).

Alexander H. Stephens,
A Constitutional View of the Late War Between the States
…, 2 vols. (Chicago, 1868–1870).

Alexander H. Stephens,
Recollections of Alexander H. Stephens
(New York, 1910).

Rudolph Von Able,
Alexander H. Stephens: A Biography
(New York, 1946).

Kate Stone:

John Q. Anderson,
Brokenburn: the Journal of Kate Stone, 1861–1868
(Baton Rouge, La., 1955).

J. E. B. Stuart:

Burke Davis
, Jeb Stuart: The Last Cavalier,
(New York, 1957).

John W. Thomason, Jr.,
Jeb Stuart
(New York, 1930).

Richard Taylor:

Jackson B. Davis, “The Life of Richard Taylor,”
Louisiana Historical Quarterly,
XXIV (1941), 49–126.

Richard Taylor,
Destruction and Reconstruction: Personal Experiences of the Late War
(New York, 1879) new edition with introduction by Richard Harwell, 1955.

James H. Thornwell:

Benjamin Morgan Palmer,
Life and Letters of James Henry Thornwell
(New York, 1969).

Robert Toombs:

Ulrich B. Phillips (ed.), “The Correspondence of Robert Toombs, Alexander H. Stephens, and Howell Cobb,”
Annual Report of the American Historical Association
(Washington, D.C., 1911), II.

Ulrich B. Phillips,
The Life of Robert Toombs
(New York, 1913).

William Y. Thompson,
Robert Toombs of Georgia
(Baton Rouge, La., 1966).

George Trenholm:

Ethel Trenholm Seabrook Nepveux,
George Alfred Trenholm: The Company That Went to War, 1861–1865
(Charleston, S.C., 1973).

Zebulon Vance:

Richard S. Yates,
The Confederacy andZeb Vance
(Tuscaloosa, Ala., 1958).

Frontis W. Johnson (ed.),
The Papers of Zebulon Baird Vance
(Raleigh, N.C., 1963).

Glenn Tucker,
Zeb Vance: Champion of Personal Freedom
(Indianapolis, Ind., 1966).

Earl Van Dorn:

Robert G. Hartje,
Van Dorn: The Life and Times of a Confederate General
(Nashville, Tenn., 1967).

Leroy Pope Walker:

William C. Harris,
Leroy Pope Walker: Confederate Secretary of War
(Tuscaloosa, Ala., 1952).

Sam R. Watkins:

“Co. Aytch, “A Side Show of the Big Show,
ed. by Bell I. Wiley (Jackson, Tenn., 1952).

Joseph Wheeler:

John P. Dyer, ”
Fight’n Joe” Wheeler
(Baton Rouge, La., 1941).

Louis T. Wigfall:

Alvy L. King,
Louis T. Wigfall: Southern Fire-Eater
(Baton Rouge, La., 1970).

Henry A. Wise:

Clement Eaton, “Henry A. Wise, A Liberal of the Old South,”
Journal of Southern History,
VII (1941), 482–494.

Clement Eaton, “Henry A. Wise and the Virginia Fire-Eaters of 1856,”
Mississippi Valley Historical Review,
XXI (1935), 495–512.

Barton H. Wise,
The Life of Henry A. Wise of Virginia, 1806–1876
(New York, 1899).

William Lowndes Yancey:

Ralph B. Draughon, Jr., “The Young Manhood of William L. Yancey,”
Alabama Review,
XIX (1966), 28–40.

John W. DuBose,
The Life and Times of William Lowndes Yancey
(Birmingham, Ala., 1892).

Alto L. Garner and Nathan Scott, “William Lowndes Yancey: Statesman of Secession,”
Alabama Review,
XV (1962), 190–202.

Malcolm C. McMillan, “William L. Yancey and the Historians: One Hundred Years,”
Alabama Review,
XX (1967), 163–186.

Austin L. Venable, “The Public Career of William Lowndes Yancey,”
Alabama Review,
XVI (1963), 200–212.

Austin L. Venable, “William L. Yancey’s Transition from Unionism to State Rights,”
Journal of Southern History,
X (1944), 331–342.

A good summary of the Montgomery Convention, which spawned the Confederacy, is Albert N. Fitts, “The Confederate Convention;”
Alabama Review
II (1949), 83–101, 189–210. The best eyewitness account is “The Correspondence of Thomas Reade Rootes Cobb, 1860–1862,
“Southern History Association Publications,
XI (1907), 147–185, 233–260, 312–328. On the chief work of the convention the best study is Charles R. Lee, Jr.,
The Confederate Constitutions
(Chapel Hill, N.C., 1963). See also William M. Robinson, Jr., “A New Deal in Constitutions,”
Journal of Southern History,
IV (1938), 449–461.

The convention evolved into the Confederate Congress, and for this body two works are crucial: Wilfred B. Yearns,
The Confederate Congress
(Athens, Ga., 1960) and Thomas B. Alexander and Richard E. Beringer,
The Anatomy of the Confederate Congress: A Study of the Influence of Member Characteristics on Legislative Voting Behavior, 1861–1865
(Nashville, Tenn., 1972). Two related articles which grew out of the quantitative research involved in the latter book are Beringer’s “A Profile of the Members of the Confederate Congress,”
Journal of Southern History
XXXIII (1967), 518–541 and “The Unconscious ‘Spirit of Party’ in the Confederate Congress,”
Civil War History
XVIII (1972) 312–333. Members of the Congress were far less active than soldiers in leaving their memoirs for posterity. Henry Putney Beers in his
Guide to the Archives of the Government of the Confederate States of America
(Washington, D.C., 1968) lists the locations of papers of congressmen on pp. 33–35. Beyond manuscript collections the most significant material is J. L. M. Curry,
Civil History of the Government of the Confederate States, with Some Personal Reminiscences
(Richmond, Va., 1901) and Bell I. Wiley (ed.),
Letters of Warren Akin, Confederate Congressman
(Athens, Ga., 1959). Interpretative studies which attempt to assess the role or nature of the Congress include David M. Potter’s essay, “Jefferson Davis and the Political Factors in Confederate Defeat,” in David Donald (ed.),
Why the North Won the Civil War
(New York, 1962); Thomas B. Alexander, “Persistent Whiggery in the Confederate South, 1860–1877,”
Journal Of Southern History
XXVII (1961), 305–329; and John Brawner Robbins, “Confederate Nationalism: Politics and Government in the Confederate South 1861–65,” Ph.D. dissertation (Rice University, 1964).

On the executive branch of the Southern government the best beginning is a study of the two men at the top, Davis and Stephens. Beside the books written by the men (Davis’
Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government
and Stephens’
A Constitutional View of the Late War between the States…
) and their biographies, there are two fine articles by James Z. Rabun which pretty well define the nationalism-state rights dilemma inherent in Confederate polity in terms of these two officials: “Alexander H. Stephens and Jefferson Davis,”
American Historical Review,
LVIII (1953), 290–321; and “Alexander H. Stephens and the Confederacy,”
Emory University Quarterly,
VI (1950), 129–146. The best summary work on the executive branch is Rembert W. Patrick,
Jefferson Davis and His Cabinet
(Baton Rouge, La., 1944). Also useful are Burton J. Hendrick,
Statesmen of the Lost Cause
(Boston, 1939); Robert D. Meade, “The Relations between Judah P. Benjamin and Jefferson Davis,”
Journal of Southern History,
V (1939), 468–478; and Hudson Strode, “Judah P. Benjamin’s Loyalty to Jefferson Davis,”
Georgia Review,
XX (1966), 251–260.

Interpretations of the Southern government as a nationalist or state rights vehicle seem to fluctuate periodically. Frank L. Owsley in his
State Rights in the Confederacy
(Chicago, 1925) and his article “Local Defense and the Overthrow of the Confederacy,”
Mississippi Valley Historical Review,
XI (1925), 490–525, argues that the Southern nation was doomed by its origins as a state rights confederation. Studies such as Frank E. Vandiver, “The Confederacy and the American Tradition,”
Journal of Southern History,
XXVIII (1962) 277–286, Louise B. Hill,
State Socialism in the Confederate States of America
(Charlottesville, Va., 1936); Raimondo Luraghi, “The Civil War and the Modernization of American Society,”
“Civil War History,
XVIII (1972), 230–250; Frank E. Vandiver
, Jefferson Davis and the Confederate State
(Oxford, Miss. 1964); May Spencer Ringold,
The Role of State Legislatures in the Confederacy
(Athens, Ga., 1966); and Curtis Arthur Amlund,
Federalism in the Southern Confederacy
(Washington, D.C., 1966) speak in some degree to an opposite emphasis. However a thoughtful work by Paul D. Escott on Davis and nationalism soon to be published by Louisiana State University Press reverts to the Owsley prospective.

The standard work on the Southern bureaucracy is Paul P. Van Riper and Harry N. Scheiber, “The Confederate Civil Service,”
Journal of Southern History,
XXV (1959), 448–470. Related articles are Haskell Monroe, “Early Confederate Political Patronage,”
Alabama Review,
XX (1967), 45–61; and Harrison A. Trexler, “Jefferson Davis and Confederate Patronage,”
South Atlantic Quarterly
XXVIII (1929), 45–58.

The Confederate mail service is well studied in August Dietz,
The Postal Service of the Confederate States of America
(Richmond, Va., 1929). Supplementary material is in Walter F. McCaleb, “The Organization of the Post-Office Department of the Confederacy,”
American Historical Review,
XII (1906), 66–74; and Cedric O. Reynolds, “The Postal System of the Southern Confederacy,”
West Virginia History,
XII (1951), 200–279.

In a class by itself as political-administrative history is Robert L. Kerby,
Kirby Smith’s Confederacy: The Trans-Mississippi South, 1863–1865
(New York, 1972). Smith was a general who, in command of the Trans-Mississippi Department, assumed civil duties far beyond the norm and in essence exercised the Richmond government’s prerogative west of the Mississippi. A case study in Smith’s administration is James L. Nichols, “The Tax-in-Kind in the Department of the Trans-Mississippi,”
Civil War History,
V (1959), 382–389.

The standard work on the Davis administration’s fiscal policy is Richard C. Todd,
Confederate Finance
(Athens, Ga., 1954). Other material on the subject is contained in Ralph L. Andreano, “A Theory of Confederate Finance,”
Civil War History,
II (1956), 21–28; John Munro Godfrey, “Monetary Expansion in the Confederacy,” Ph.D. dissertation (University of Georgia, 1976); and three articles by Eugene M. Lerner: “Monetary and Fiscal Programs of the Confederate Government, 1861–1865,”
Journal of Political Economy,
LXII (1954), 506–522; “Money, Prices, and Wages in the Confederacy,”
Journal of Political Economy,
LXII (1955), 20–40; and “Inflation in the Confederacy 1861–1865,” in Milton Friedman (ed.),
Studies in the Quantity Theory of Money
(Chicago, 1956), pp. 161–175.