The Confederate Nation: 1861 to 1865 (54 page)

On the Confederate press the best work is J. Cutler Andrews,
The South Reports the Civil War
(Princeton, N.J., 1970). A number of articles are also significant: J. Cutler Andrews, “The Southern Telegraph Company, 1861–1865: A Chapter in the History of Wartime Communications,”
Journal of Southern History,
XXX (1964), 319–344, and “The Confederate Press and Public Moral
e Journal of Southern History,
XXXII (1966), 445–465; C. Richard King, “Col. John Sidney Thrasher: Superintendent of the Confederate Press Association,”
Texana,
VI (1968), 56–86; Peter Langley III, “Pessimism-Optimism of Civil War Military News: June 1863-March, 1865,
“Journalism Quarterly,
XLIX (1972), 74–78; Richard Barksdale Harwell, “John Esten Cooke, Civil War Correspondent,”
Journal of Southern History,
XIX (1953), 501–516; Harrison A. Trexler, “The Davis Administration and the Richmond Press 1861–1865,”
Journal of Southern History,
XVI (1950), 177–195; Emory M. Thomas, “Rebel Nationalism: E. H. Cushing and the Confederate Experience,”
Southwestern Historical (Quarterly,
LXXIII (1970), 343–355; Robert Neil Mathis, “Freedom of the Press in the Confederacy: A Reality,”
Historian,
XXXVII (1975), 633–648; Thomas H. Baker, “Refugee Newspaper: The Memphis
Daily Appeal,
1862–1865
“Journal of Southern History,
XXIX (1963), 326–344; Lawrence Huff, “Joseph Addison Turner: Southern Editor during the Civil War,”
Journal of Southern History,
XXIX (1963), 469–485; and Bell I. Wiley, “Camp Newspapers of the Confederacy,”
North Carolina Historical Review,
XX (1943), 327–335.

There are a number of studies of religion in the Confederacy. Among older works perhaps the Reverend J. William Jones,
Christ in the Camp
… (Richmond, Va., 1888) is the best summary. More recent material on religion in the army includes John Shepard, Jr., “Religion in the Army of Northern Virginia,”
North Carolina Historical Review,
XXV (1948), 341–376; and Sidney J. Romero, “The Confederate Chaplain,”
Civil War History
I (1955), 127–140. The best modern study of the topic is James W. Silver,
Confederate Morale and Church Propaganda
(Tuscaloosa, Ala., 1957). In addition to Silver’s book a series of articles by W. Harrison Daniel are essential: “Southern Protestantism—1861 and After,”
Civil War History,
V (1959), 276–282; “Protestantism and Patriotism in the Confederacy,”
Mississippi Quarterly,
XXIV (1971), 117–134; “Southern Presbyterians in the Confederacy,”
North Carolina Historical Review,
XLIV (1967), 231–255; “Virginia Baptists, 1861–1865,”
Virginia Magazine of History and Biography,
LXXII (1964), 94–114; “Southern Protestantism and the Negro, 1860–1865,”
North Carolina Historical Review,
XLI (1964), 338–359; “Southern Protestantism and Army Missions in the Confederacy,”
Mississippi Quarterly,
XVII (1964), 179–191; “Protestant Clergy and Union Sentiment in the Confederacy,”
Tennessee Historical Quarterly,
XXIII (1964), 284–290; “The Christian Association: A Religious Society in the Army of Northern Virginia,”
Virginia Magazine of History and Biography
LXIX (1961), 93–100; and “Bible Publication and Procurement in the Confederacy,”
Journal of Southern History,
XXIV (1958), 191–201. Other helpful studies include Bertram W. Korn, “The Jews of the Confederacy,”
American Jewish Archives,
XIII (1961), 3–90; Samuel Horst,
Mennonites in the Confederacy: A Study in Civil War Pacifism
(Scottdale, Pa., 1967); J. Treadwell Davis, “The Presbyterians and the Sectional Conflict,”
Southern Quarterly,
VIII (1970), 117–133; Ernest Trice Thompson,
Presbyterians in the South,
II,
1861–1890
(Richmond, Va., 1973); and Haskell Monroe, Jr., “The Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America,” Ph.D. dissertation (Rice University, 1961).

About women in the Confederacy, besides the personal narratives cited above, there are three basic studies. Mary Elizabeth Massey,
Bonnet Brigades: American Women and the Civil War
(New York, 1966), is a somewhat traditional work based upon solid research. More interpretative is Anne Firor Scott,
The Southern Lady: From Pedestal to Politics, 1830–1930,
(Chicago, 1970). Also sound is Bell I. Wiley,
Confederate Woman
(Westport, Conn., 1975), which contains sketches of a few well-known Confederate women and a summary essay which justifies the title.

The art and science of medicine in the wartime South is the subject of Horace H. Cunningham,
Doctors in Gray: The Confederate Medical Service,
revised edition, (Baton Rouge, La., 1960). Cunningham’s
Field Medical Services at the Battles of Manassas
(Athens, Ga., 1968) is also first rate. On medicines themselves, see Norman H. Franke, “Official and Industrial Aspects of Pharmacy in the Confederacy,”
Georgia Historical Quarterly
XXXVII (1953), 175–187; and “Pharmacy and Pharmacists in the Confederacy,”
Georgia Historical Quarterly,
XXXVIII (1954), 11–28.

The Confederate experience generated among many Southerners higher degrees of urban consciousness. Although no general study of Confederate urbanism exists, for the examples of individual cities see Emory M. Thomas,
The Confederate State of Richmond: A Biography of the Capital
(Austin, Tex., 1971); Louis H. Manarin (ed.),
Richmond at War: The Minutes of the City Council, 1861–1865
(Chapel Hill, N.C., 1966); Gerald M. Capers,
Occupied City: New Orleans under the Federals, 1862–1865
(Lexington, Ky., 1965); Kenneth Coleman,
Confederate Athens, 1861–1865
(Athens, Ga., 1968); and E. Milby Burton,
The Siege of Charleston, 1861–1865
(Columbia, S.C., 1970).

Although the Confederates wrote much of their own social history in personal narratives, two secondary works are important to the study: Bell I. Wiley,
The Plain People of the Confederacy
(Baton Rouge, La., 1943) and Mary Elizabeth Massey,
Refugee Life in the Confederacy
(Baton Rouge, La., 1964).

One other work of intellectual history deserves attention, although it defies classification. Michael Davis,
The Image of Lincoln in the South
(Knox-ville, Tenn., 1971) is a fine bit of scholarship which delivers more than it promises.

Ironically the most intriguing aspect of the black experience in slavery is one of the least studied: the experience of blacks within the Confederacy. The best commentary on this subject is Clarence L. Möhr, “Southern Blacks in the Civil War: A Century of Historiography,”
Journal of Negro History,
LXIX (1974), 177–195. The standard bibliographical guide to black history, James M. McPherson, et. al.,
Blacks in America
(Garden City, N.Y., 1971), reveals few works on this topic. The general study of slavery which best integrates the ante-bellum and bellum experience is Eugene D. Genovese,
Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made
(New York, 1974). Möhr has begun rectification of the scholarly oversight in his “Georgia Blacks During Secession and Civil War, 1859–1865,” Ph.D. dissertation (University of Georgia, 1974). Paul D. Escott has contributed, “The Context of Freedom: Georgia’s Slaves During the Civil War,”
Georgia Historical (Quarterly,
LVIII (1974), 79–104. Otherwise the best work on black Confederates is still Bell I. Wiley,
Southern Negroes, 1861–1865
(New Haven, Conn., 1938). Other studies include Herbert Aptheker,
The Negro in the Civil War
(New York, 1938); Dudley T. Cornish,
The Sable Arm: Negro Troops in the Union Army, 1861–1865
(New York, 1956); James M. McPherson,
The Struggle for Equality: Abolitionists and the Negro in the Civil War and Reconstruction
(Princeton, N.J., 1964); James M. McPherson,
The Negro’s Civil War: How American Negroes Felt and Acted during the War for Union
(New York, 1965); and W. E. B. DuBois, “The Negro and the Civil War,”
Science and Society,
XXV (1961), 347–352—all of which emphasize the experience of black people who escaped the slave South during the war. James H. Brewer,
The Confederate Negro: Virginia’s Craftsmen and Military Laborers, 1861–1865
(Durham, N.C., 1969) is good on impressed and industrial slaves. Yet beyond Möhr, Brewer, Wiley, and Genovese, the literature of Confederate slavery is pretty thin. See Herbert Aptheker, “Notes on Slave Conspiracies in Confederate Mississippi,
“ Journal of Negro History,
XXIX (1944), 75–79; Bernard H. Nelson, “Some Aspects of Negro Life in North Carolina during the Civil War,”
North Carolina Historical Review,
XXV (1948), 143–166; Robert D. Reid, “The Negro in Alabama during the Civil War,”
Journal of Negro History,
XXXV (1950), 265–288; Joe G. Taylor, “Slavery in Louisiana during the Civil War,”
Louisiana History,
VIII (1967), 27–33; Edmund L. Drago, “How Sherman’s March Through Georgia Affected the Slaves,”
Georgia Historical Quarterly,
LVII (1973), 361–375; C. Peter Ripley, “The Black Family in Transition: Louisiana, 1860–1865,”
Journal of Southern History,
XLI (1975), 369–380; and John W. Blassingame,
Black New Orleans, 1860–1880
(Chicago, 1973).

About the use of slaves as military laborers, see Ernest F. Dibble, “Slave Rentals to the Military: Pensacola and the Gulf Coast,”
Civil War History,
XXIII (1977), 101–113; Tinsley L. Spraggins, “Mobilization of Negro Labor for the Department of Virginia and North Carolina 1861–1865,”
North Carolina Historical Review,
XXIV (1947), 160–197; Bernard H. Nelson, “Confederate Slave Impressment Legislation, 1861–1865,
“ Journal of Negro History,
XXXI (1946), 392–110; and Harrison A. Trexler, “The Opposition of Planters to the Employment of Slaves as Laborers by the Confederacy,”
Mississippi Valley Historical Review,
XXVII (1940), 211–224.

Fortunately there is an outstanding work on the Confederate scheme to employ black troops, Robert F. Durden,
The Gray and the Black: The Confederate Debate on Emancipation
(Baton Rouge, La., 1972). Durden’s work, which emphasizes a documentary approach, supplants earlier studies: Thomas R. Hay, “The South and the Arming of the Slaves,”
Mississippi Valley Historical Review,
VI (1919), 34–73; Nathaniel W. Stephenson, “The Question of Arming the Slaves,”
American Historical Review,
XVIII (1913), 295–308; and Charles H. Wesley, “The Employment of Negroes in the Confederate Army,”
Journal of Negro History
IV (1919), 239–253. Other material about white response to the black circumstance in the Confederacy includes Bell I. Wiley, “The Movement to Humanize the Institution of Slavery during the Confederacy,”
Emory University Quarterly,
V (1949), 207–220; Bernard H. Nelson, “Legislative Control of the Southern Free Negro, 1861–1865,”
Catholic Historical Review,
XXXII (1946), 28–46; and Bill G. Reid, “Confederate Opponents of Arming the Slaves, 1861–1865,”
Journal of Mississippi History,
XXII (1960), 249–270.

Southern blacks who lived in or fled to areas controlled by federal troops encountered some form of governmental policy dealing with the transition from slavery to freedom. The literature of this experience is growing. The best beginning is Willie Lee Rose’s book
Rehearsalfor Reconstruction: The Port Royal Experiment
(New York, 1964). Two other important books on the subject are Peter Kolchin,
First Freedom: The Responses of Alabama’s Blacks to Emancipation and Reconstruction
(Westport, Conn., 1972), and Louis S. Gerteis,
From Contraband to Freedman: Federal Policy Toward Southern Blacks, 1861–1865
(Westport, Conn., 1973). A number of articles relate case studies: Cam Walker, “Corinth: The Story of a Contraband Camp,”
Civil War History,
XX (1974), 5–22; William F. Messner, “Black Education in Louisiana, 1863–1865,”
Civil War History,
XXII (1976), 41–59; Martha M. Bigelow, “Freedmen of the Mississippi Valley, 1862–1865,”
Civil War History,
VIII (1962), 38–47; Martha M. Bigelow, “Vicksburg: Experiment in Freedom,”
Journal of Mississippi History,
XXVI (1964), 28–44; Robert D. Parmet, “Schools for the Freedmen,”
Negro History Bulletin,
XXXIV (1971), 128–132; J. Thomas May, “Continuity and Change in the Labor Program of the Union Army and the Freedman’s Bureau,”
Civil War History,
XVII (1971), 245–254; Felix James, “The Establishment of Freedman’s Village in Arlington, Virginia,”
Negro History Bulletin,
XXXIII (1970), 90–93; and Sing-Nan Fen, “Notes on the Education of Negroes of Norfolk and Portsmouth, Virginia, During the Civil War,”
Phylon,
XXVIII (1967), 197–207. Also useful is Henry Swint (ed.),
Dear Ones at Home: Letters from Contraband Camps
(Nashville, Tenn., 1966).

Cornish’s
Sable Arm
is the basic work on blacks in the Union Army. Important, too, are John Hope Franklin (ed.),
The Diary of James T. Ayers, Civil War Recruiter
(Springfield, 111., 1947); Thomas W. Higginson,
Army Life in a Black Regiment
(Boston, 1870); Benjamin F. Quarles,
Lincoln and the Negro
(New York, 1962); and V. Jacque Voegeli,
Free but Not Equal: The Midwest and the Negro during the Civil War
(Chicago, 1967). The following articles are useful: Lary C. Rampp, “Negro Troop Activity in Indian Territory, 1863–1865,”
Chronicles of Oklahoma,
XLVII (1970), 531–559; James I. Robertson, Jr., “Negro Soldiers in the Civil War,”
Civil War Times Illustrated,
VII, vi (1968), 21–32; Mary F. Berry, “Negro Troops in Blue and Gray: The Louisiana Native Guards, 1861–1863,”
Louisiana History,
VIII (1967), 165–190; Brainard Dyer, “The Treatment of Colored Union Troops by the Confederates, 1861–1865,”
Journal of Negro History,
XX (1935), 273–286; Roland C. McConnell (ed.), “Concerning the Procurement of Negro Troops in the South during the Civil War
“Journal of Negro History,
XXXV (1950), 315–19; C. R. Gibbs, “Blacks in the Union Navy,”
Negro History Bulletin,
XXXVI (1973), 137–139; Albert E. Cowdrey, “Slave into Soldier: The Enlistment by the North of Runaway Slaves,”
History Today,
XX (1970), 704–715; and Richard H. Abbott, “Massachusetts and the Recruitment of Southern Negroes, 1863–1865,”
Civil War History,
XIV (1968), 197–210.