Critique: The Confederate War by Gary W. Gallagher
According to Gary W. Gallagher, the
reasons for the South’s defeat were not a lack of will, a deficiency in
nationalism, or a flawed military strategy. Although these theories have been
widely suggested by numerous historians, Gallagher argues in The Confederate War, that the
Confederacy lost because they were soundly defeated by a far-superior
enemy. The North had greater human and
physical resources than the South, and most of the war was fought through the
invasion of southern territory. Even
with these difficulties facing the Confederacy, Gallagher provides a sizable
amount of evidence that suggests southerners had and maintained their will for
the war and found their nationalism in Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern
Virginia. Gallagher believes the
military action Lee employed was what was necessary to sustain the support of
his soldiers and of the southern people.
Gallagher presents numerous statistics,
letters, and diary entries that demonstrate the determination of Confederate
supporters. Despite a higher mortality
rate than the Union, threats from Union soldiers occupying vast areas of
southern land, and the realization that European intervention was not going to
happen, many southern soldiers still fought to win and civilians still believed
they would. Even after the summer of
1863, which Gallagher believes is when many historians claim the will of the
South began to deteriorate, many southerners still held out hope for Robert E.
Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia.
Gallagher suggests that it is in this hope for Lee that we find
Confederate nationalism. Apart from all
of the other evidence, including the battlefield victories, letters, diary
entries and reenlistment statistics that Gallagher offers to support his idea
that southerners felt that their Confederacy was a legitimate nation fighting
for its independence, national identification can be seen no further than
Lee. He became their hero, their symbol
for their national identity. He became
that sense of nationalism. With their victories, Lee and the Army of Northern
Virginia gave encouragement to the other soldiers fighting and to southern
supporters, while at the same time showing European nations they were capable
of maintaining their sovereignty. This
is why, Gallagher argues, the South had to perform an offensive war
strategy. The Confederacy needed to
sustain internal support and possibly garner European help, and a defensive or
guerrilla-style warfare was not suitable for their purpose.
Based
on the information provided, Gary W. Gallagher’s interpretations of other
historian’s views on why the South lost the Civil War appears to be accurately
presented in The Confederate War. It was not a loss of will or a lack for nationalism
that led to the Confederacy’s defeat.
They lost simply because they did not have the manpower or physical
resources that the North had. The North
could replenish men and supplies faster than the South could, and the
devastation and controlling of several southern cities further diminished the
few resources they had to begin with. Gallagher’s examples of the Confederate
will to fight by its soldiers and civilians during the Civil War and his belief
that the South found its nationalism in Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern
Virginia is highly plausible and is demonstrative of the type of human behavior
still seen to this day. These people
were defending what they believed to be their country and their institutions
from a northern enemy who had invaded their territory and sought to change
their ways of life. As for Lee,
southerners revered him as their general, and hope for victory rested with him
and his offensive strategy. Southerners
might have lost the war, but they never lost the will to fight or their belief
in their purpose.
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