Honoring the Civil War Dead: Commemoration and the Problem of Reconciliation (Modern War Studies) - Hardcover

Neff, John R.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0700613668 ISBN 13: 9780700613663

Publisher: University Press of Kansas, 2005

Synopsis

By the end of the Civil War, fatalities from that conflict had far exceeded previous American experience, devastating families and communities alike. As John Neff shows, commemorating the 620,000 lives lost proved to be a persistent obstacle to the hard work of reuniting the nation, as every memorial observation compelled painful recollections of the war.

Neff contends that the significance of the Civil War dead has been largely overlooked and that the literature on the war has so far failed to note how commemorations of the dead provide a means for both expressing lingering animosities and discouraging reconciliation. Commemoration—from private mourning to the often extravagant public remembrances exemplified in cemeteries, monuments, and Memorial Day observances—provided Americans the quintessential forum for engaging the war's meaning.

Additionally, Neff suggests a special significance for the ways in which the commemoration of the dead shaped Northern memory. In his estimation, Northerners were just as active in myth-making after the war. Crafting a "Cause Victorious" myth that was every bit as resonant and powerful as the much better-known "Lost Cause" myth cherished by Southerners, the North asserted through commemorations the existence of a loyal and reunified nation long before it was actually a fact. Neff reveals that as Northerners and Southerners honored their separate dead, they did so in ways that underscore the limits of reconciliation between Union and Confederate veterans, whose mutual animosities lingered for many decades after the end of the war.

Ultimately, Neff argues that the process of reunion and reconciliation that has been so much the focus of recent literature either neglects or dismisses the persistent reluctance of both Northerners and Southerners to "forgive and forget," especially where their war dead were concerned. Despite reunification, the continuing imperative of commemoration reflects a more complex resolution to the war than is even now apparent. His book provides a compelling account of this conflict that marks a major contribution to our understanding of the war and its many meanings.

About this title

About the Author

John R. Neff is an assistant professor of history at the University of Mississippi.

From the Back Cover

"A moving and detailed look at how our ancestors dealt with war deaths and how they worked their feelings into the fabric of their national personality, thereby shaping not only remembrance, but their own understanding of history. A very important work."-William C. Davis, author of The Cause Lost

"A persuasive revision of the 'road to reunion' thesis that has dominated recent historiography."-James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom

"Imaginative, thoughtful, and well written. A superb book."-Phillip Shaw Paludan, author of A People's Contest

"A profoundly thought-provoking work."-Steven E. Woodworth, author of While God Is Marching On

Edition details

• Publisher: University Press of Kansas
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0700613668
• ISBN 13: 9780700613663
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 342