The Myth of the Lost Cause :: American America History

The Myth of the Lost moveFollowing the defeat of the alliance and to lift the morale of a shattered people momentum pull together to enshrine the Myth of the Lost Cause which would transform the Confederate pass living and dead, into a veritable hero.In order to come to term with defeat and a look of failure in the eyes of God, Southerners mentally transformed their memories of the antebellum South. It became a superior civilization of great excellence which had been cruelly brought down by the materialistic Yankees.At the head of this revival meeting was the memory of St acewall Jackson, closely followed by Robert E. Lee (who would rise to the undischarged position following his death in 1870). Other generals of the Confederacy who had died during the fight followed, as did those who would pass on later.D.H. mound, a friend of Longstreet published impart WE LOVE, a magazine devoted to Literature, Military History and Agriculture. In 1869 Hill sold out to a Baltimore peri odical, NEW ECLECTIC, which in the same course of instruction became the SOUTHERN MAGAZINE, official organ of the SOUTHERN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. In 1871 it changed its cry to the SOUTHERN MAGAZINE and together with a later periodical, SOUTHERN refugee camp kept the memory of the War alive and fresh in the public mind. Filled with poems and stories of loyalty to the LOST CAUSE sent in by veterans. Hill was Stonewall Jacksons brother in law and he make full the magazine with stories, anecdotes and poems of the now legendary general. Other Confederate heroes received their section of attention from a flood of material supplied by readers commemorating Southern dead and using religion to explain the defeat. Book - writing was fecund in the 70s & 80s mainly from veterans but much on the romanticism of the Cause from women.The most prominent of the writer of the period was John Esten Cooke, who was related by birth and marriage to virtually all the prominent families of Virginia he helped enshrine the Confederate dead into chivalric knights and symbols of the LOST CAUSE. Cookes impressive literary payoff polarized Southern perceptions of the War transforming the stigma of defeat into a badge of esteem that Confederate veterans could wear proudly. His portrayal of the War as a marvelous adventure, in which participation was an honour.When Lee died on 12 Oct. 1870 he was one of a significant number of Confederate heroes running second to Jackson.