The Confederate Reader

Carefully chosen and annotated selection of contemporary battle reports, general orders, letters, articles, sermons, songs, travel observations, much more. Wonderful self-portrait of the Confederacy. Illustrated.

Most Americans hold basic misconceptions about the Confederacy, the Civil War, and the actions of subsequent neo-Confederates. For example, two thirds of Americans—including most history teachers—think the Confederate States seceded for “states’ rights.” This error persists because most have never read the key documents about the Confederacy. These documents have always been there. When South Carolina seceded, it published “Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union.” The document actually opposes states’ rights. Its authors argue that Northern states were ignoring the rights of slave owners as identified by Congress and in the Constitution. Similarly, Mississippi’s “Declaration of the Immediate Causes …” says, “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery—the greatest material interest of the world.” Later documents in this collection show how neo-Confederates obfuscated this truth, starting around 1890. The evidence also points to the centrality of race in neo-Confederate thought even today and to the continuing importance of neo-Confederate ideas in American political life. The 150th anniversary of secession and civil war provides a moment for all Americans to read these documents, properly set in context by award-winning sociologist and historian James W. Loewen and co-editor, Edward H. Sebesta, to put in perspective the mythology of the Old South.

This book is a collection of letters, dispatches, and other firsthand accounts of Southern soldiers and civilians from the Civil War's first days to the collapse of the Confederacy.

Winner of the Douglas SOuthall Freeman Award in history, here is the Southern story of the War Between the States in the words of the men and women who experienced it. The stories are enhanced by more than 200 period photos and illustrations. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.