A Confederate Catechism

This informative little booklet, set out in a helpful question and answer format, offers concise, yet insightful, answers to frequently asked questions about the War Between the States. Topics covered include the cause of Southern secession, the role of slavery in the sectional dispute, the usurpations of Abraham Lincoln and malignity of the Northern radicals in prosecuting the war against the South, the true nature of the Union as a league of sovereign States, and much more. Also included are two additional essays discussing the colonial history of Virginia and the influence of Northern propaganda on the writing of the history books.

Lyon Gardiner Tyler was born on August 24, 1853 at Sherwood Forest Plantation in what is now Charles City, Virginia. He was the thirteenth child of former U.S. President John Tyler and First Lady Julia Gardiner Tyler. Although he was still a young child when the War Between the States began in 1861, Tyler nevertheless developed his post-war zeal for the principles for which the South contended through the influence of his father, who was a member of the Confederate Congress and a staunch States rights advocate. Tyler graduated from the University of Virginia in 1875 and served as the seventeenth president of William and Mary College from 1888 to 1919, being credited for restoring the financial stability of the institution in the wake of the Civil War. Two of Tyler's sons from his second marriage were still alive as of 2014, making their grandfather the earliest former President with living grandchildren. Tyler died on February 12, 1935 in Richmond, Virginia and was buried in Hollywood Cemetery.