The Confederate Nation: 1861 to 1865 (53 page)

On the interaction of the government and the economy, in addition to the Luraghi article and Hill book cited above, the best analysis is still Charles W. Ramsdell,
Behind the Lines in the Southern Confederacy
(Baton Rouge, La., 1944). Two of Ramsdell’s articles are also important: “The Control of Manufacturing by the Confederate Government,”
Mississippi Valley Historical Review,
VIII (1921), 231–249; and “The Confederate Government and the Railroads,”
American Historical Review,
XXII (1917), 794–810. Also helpful is John C. Schwab,
The Confederate States of America, 1861–1865: A Financial and Industrial History of the South during the Civil War
(New Haven, Conn., 1901). On another aspect of political economy Ludwell H. Johnson’s article, “Trading With the Union: The Evolution of Confederate Policy,”
Virginia Magazine of History and Biography,
LXXVIII (1970), 308–325, is definitive. For materials relating more directly to the Southern economy, see the section on Confederate economy, pages 353–355.

About the judicial history of the Confederacy the standard work is William M. Robinson, Jr.,
Justice in Gray
(Cambridge, Mass., 1941). Since the Confederacy had no supreme court, Rembert W. Patrick (ed.),
The Opinions of the Confederate Attorneys General, 1861–1865
(Buffalo, N.Y., 1950), and J. G. deR. Hamilton, “The State Courts and the Confederate Constitution,”
Journal of Southern History,
IV (1938), 425–448, are important. For case studies of the judicial process involving controversial legislation see Albert B. Moore,
Conscription and Conflict in the Confederacy
(New York, 1924); and John B. Robbins, “The Confederacy and the Writ of Habeas Corpus,”
Georgia Historical Quarterly,
LV (1971), 83–101.

Disloyalty and disaffection in the Confederacy have received thorough study. The standard work is Georgia L. Tatum,
Disloyalty in the Confederacy
(Chapel Hill, N.C. 1934). Within a broader format Carl N. Degler in
The Other South: Southern Dissenters in the Nineteenth Century
(New York, 1974) discusses the phenomenon of Southern Unionism (pp. 99–187). Also important are Frank W. Klingberg,
The Southern Claims Commission
(Berkeley, Calif., 1955); Ella Lonn,
Desertion During the Civil War
(New York, 1928); Bessie Martin,
Desertion of Alabama Troops From the Confederate Army
(New York, 1932); Louise B. Hill
, Joseph E. Brown and the Confederacy
(Chapel Hill, N.C., 1939); and Richard E. Yates,
The Confederacy and Zeb Vance
(Tuscaloosa, Ala., 1958). Among a host of articles which deal with specific instances or locations of disloyalty and/or disaffection are: Horace W. Raper, “William W. Holden and the Peace Movement in North Carolina,”
North Carolina Historical Review,
XXXI (1954), 493–516; Rosser H. Taylor (ed.), “Boyce-Hammond Correspondence,”
Journal of Southern History,
III (1937), 348–354; Hugh C. Bailey “Disloyalty in Early Confederate Alabama,”
Journal of Southern History,
XXIII (1957) 522–528; John K. Bettersworth (ed.), “Mississippi Unionism: The Case of Reverend James A. Lyon,”
Journal of Mississippi History
I (1939), 37–52; Richard Bardolph, “Inconstant Rebels: Desertion of North Carolina Troops in the Civil War,”
North Carolina Historical Review,
XLI (1964), 163–189; Hugh C. Bailey, “Disaffection in the Alabama Hill Country, 1861,”
Civil War History,
IV (1958), 183–194; Meriwether Stuart, “Colonel Ulric Dahlgren and Richmond’s Union Underground, April 1864,”
Virginia Magazine of History and Biography,
LXXII (1964), 152–204; Angus J. Johnston II, “Disloyalty on Confederate Railroads in Virginia,”
Virginia Magazine of History and Biography,
LXIII (1955), 410–426; Frank W. Klingberg, “The Case of the Minors: A Unionist Family within the Confederacy,”
Journal of Southern History,
XIII (1947), 27–45; James Smallwood, “Disaffection in Confederate Texas: The Great Hanging at Gainesville,”
Civil War History,
XXII (1976), 349–360. Barnes F. Lathrop, “Disaffection in Confederate Louisiana: The Case of William Hyman,”
Journal of Southern History,
XXIV (1958), 308–318; Henry T. Shanks, “Disloyalty to the Confederacy in Southwestern Virginia, 1861–1865,”
North Carolina Historical Review,
XXI (1944), 118–135; J. Reuben Sheeler, “The Development of Unionism in East Tennessee,”
Journal of Negro History,
XXIX (1944), 166–203; Ethel Taylor, “Discontent in Confederate Louisiana,”
Louisiana History,
II (1961), 410–428; Ted R. Worley, “The Arkansas Peace Society of 1861: A Study in Mountain Unionism,
“ Journal of Southern History,
XXIV (1958), 445–456; and Donald Bradford Dodd, “Unionism in Confederate Alabama,” Ph.D. dissertation (University of Georgia, 1969). Against this powerful tide, Stephen E. Ambrose in his “Yeoman Discontent in the Confederacy,”
Civil War History,
VIII (1962), 259–268, points out that the Southern plain folk were the backbone of the Southern nation; and Durwood Long in “Unanimity and Disloyalty in Secessionist Alabama,”
Civil War History,
II (1965), 257–273, offers a balanced overview.

State studies include biographies of the governors, the Ringgold work on state legislatures, and the following: John E. Johns,
Florida During the Civil War
(Gainesville, Fla., 1963); E. Merton Coulter,
The Civil War and Readjustment in Kentucky
(Chapel Hill, N.C., 1926); John G. Barrett,
The Civil War in North Carolina.
(Chapel Hill, N.C., 1963); T. Conn Bryan,
Confederate Georgia
(Athens, Ga., 1953); Walter L. Fleming,
Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama
(New York, 1905); Jefferson D. Bragg,
Louisiana in the Confederacy
(Baton Rouge, La., 1941); Roger W. Shugg,
Origins of Class Struggle in Louisiana
(University, La., 1939); John D. Winters,
The Civil War in Louisiana
(Baton Rouge, La., 1963); Arthur R. Kirkpatrick, “Missouri’s Secessionist Government, 1861–1865,”
Missouri Historical Review,
XLV(1951), 124–137; Michael B. Dougan, “Life in Confederate Arkansas,”
Arkansas Historical (Quarterly,
XXXI (1972), 15–35; Edwin C. Bearss,
Decision in Mississippi: Mississippi’s Important Role in the War Between the States
(Jackson, Miss., 1962); John K. Bettersworth,
Confederate Mississippi: The People and Policies of a Cotton State in Wartime
(Baton Rouge, La., 1943); John K. Bettersworth and James W. Silver (eds.),
Mississippi in the Confederacy,
2 vols. (Baton Rouge, La., 1961); Stephen B. Oates, “Texas under the Secessionists,”
Southwestern Historical Quarterly,
LXVII (1963), 167–212; and William E. Parrish,
A Histoty of Missouri,
III,
1860 to 1875
(Columbia, Miss., 1973).

Much of the recent work on the economic history of the Civil War era has focused upon the North. Thus despite the new methodology available to modern economic historians, the best overview of the Southern economy during wartime is still Charles W. Ramsdell’s
Behind the Lines in the Southern Confederacy
(Baton Rouge, La., 1944). Raimondo Luraghi’s article, “The Civil War and the Modernization of American Society,”
Civil War History,
XVIII (1972), 230–250, offers the insight of a comparative analysis and points to a new direction for researchers to take when examining the Confederate South. Luraghi opens the intriguing possibility of perceiving the Confederacy as a case study in economic planning by a landed elite. Actually Louise B. Hill offered part of this insight in 1936 in her
State Socialism in the Confederate States of America
(Charlottesville, Va., 1936), though not with the sophistication of Luraghi’s analysis. Until someone accepts the challenge of Hill’s and Luraghi’s ideas, however, the best work on the Confederate economy is among a number of older studies.

The section of this bibliography covering “Politics,” pages 349–353, notes the articles of Ramsdell, Eugene M. Lerner, Ludwell K.Johnson, and Ralph L. Andreano and books by Richard C. Todd and John C. Schwab. In addition, see Lester J. Cappon, “Government and Private Industry in the Southern Confederacy,” in
Humanistic Studies in Honor of John Calvin Metcalf
(New York, 1941), pp. 151–189; and Edwin B. Coddington, “A Social and Economic History of the Seaboard States of the Southern Confederacy,” Ph.D. dissertation (Clark University, 1939). Paul W. Gates,
Agriculture and the Civil War
(New York, 1965), is the standard on farming in the nation as a whole. Charles P. Roland,
Louisiana Sugar Plantations during the American Civil War
(Leiden, Netherlands, 1957), offers an agricultural case study.

Mary Elizabeth Massey,
Ersatz in the Confederacy
(Columbia, S.C., 1952) explores the shortages and substitutes which characterized the Confederate consumer economy. Two works by Frank E. Vandiver offer good case studies of varied facets of the Southern economy:
Ploughshares into Swords: Josiah Gorgas and Confederate Ordinance
(Austin, Tex., 1952) details the activities of the most significant government war industry; and
Confederate Blockade Running through Bermuda, 1861–1865: Letters and Cargo Manifests
(Austin, Tex., 1947) reveals more about blockade running in general than the title suggests. Other good works on Southern industrial development include Vandiver’s “The Shelby Iron Company in the Civil War,”
Alabama Review,
I (1948), 12–26, 111–127, 203–217; Charles B. Dew,
Ironmaker to the Confederacy: Joseph P. Anderson and the Tredegar Iron Works
(New Haven, Conn., 1966); Kathleen Bruce,
Virginia Iron Manufacture in the Slave Era
(New York, 1931); George W. Rains,
History of the Confederate Powder Works
(Augusta, Ga” 1882); Robert C. Black III,
The Railroads of the Confederacy
(Chapel Hill, N.C., 1952); Angus J. Johnston II,
Virginia Railroads in the Civil War
(Chapel Hill, N.C., 1961); John D. Capron, “Virginia Iron Furnaces of the Confederacy,”
Virginia Cavalcade,
XVII (1967), ii, 10–18; Ralph W. Donnelly, “The Bartow County Confederate Saltpetre Works,”
Georgia Historical Quarterly,
LIV (1970) 305–319; Ralph W. Donnelly, “Confederate Copper,”
Civil War History,
I (1955), 355–370; Richard J. Stockham, “Alabama Iron for the Confederacy: The Selma Works,”
Alabama Review,
XXI (1968), 163–172; and W. Stanley Hoole, “John W. Mallet and the Confederate Ordnance Laboratories, 1862–1865,”
Alabama Review,
XXVI (1973), 33–72.

Three articles by William F. Zornow describe efforts at relief and welfare: “State Aid for Indigent Soldiers and Their Families in Louisiana, 1861-1865,”
Louisiana Historical Quarterly,
XXXIX (1956), 375–380; “Aid for the Indigent Families of Soldiers in Virginia, 1861–1865,”
Virginia Magazine of History and Biography,
LXVI (1958), 454–158; and “State Aid for Indigent Soldiers and Their Families in Florida,”
Florida Historical Quarterly,
XXXIV (1956), 259–265. Related material is in Emory M. Thomas, “Welfare in Wartime Richmond, 1861–1865,”
Virginia Cavalcade,
XXII (1972), i, 22–29.

Foreign trade is covered in the “Foreign Relations” section, on pages 361–364. Nevertheless the Ludwell Johnson article on contraband trade rates mention here, along with William Diamond, “Imports of the Confederate Government from Europe and Mexico
Journal of Southern History,
VI (1940), 470–503; two articles on trade across the Rio Grande are: Ronnie C. Tyler, “Cotton on the Border, 1861–1865,”
Southwestern Historical (Quarterly,
LXXIII (1970), 456–477; and Marilyn McAdams Sibley, “Charles Still-man: A Case Study of Entrepreneurship on the Rio Grande, 1861–1865,”
Southwestern Historical (Quarterly,
LXXVII (1973), 227–240. See also Edwin B. Coddington, “The Activities and Attitudes of a Confederate Businessman: Gazaway B. Lamar
, “Journal of Southern History,
IX (1943), 3–36.

In a class by itself is Ella Lonn’s fine monograph,
Salt as a Factor in the Confederacy
(New York, 1933). Like so many other resources salt grew quickly scarce in the embattled South. Other shortages are detailed in such works as William N. Still,
Confederate Shipbuilding
(Athens, Ga., 1969) which points out the lack of facilities, skilled labor, and raw materials and Richard D. Goff,
Confederate Supply
(Durham, N.C., 1969), which notes among other failures the deficiencies in Southern transportation and production capabilities.

There exists no comprehensive social or cultural history of the Confederacy. Some of the best material is in the letters and diaries of the period, many collections of which have been published. Edmund Wilson conducted a literary critique of some of the better-known writings in his
Patriotic Gore: Studies in the Literature of the American Civil War
(New York, 1962). Also good is Douglas S. Freeman,
The South to Posterity: An Introduction to the Writings of Confederate History
(New York, 1939). The diaries or journals of Kate Stone, John B. Jones, Mary Boykin Chesnut, Phoebe Yates Pember, Robert G. H. Kean, T. C. DeLeon, and Kate Cumming (all cited in the “Biography” section of this bibliography, pages 331–349) are well-known “classics.” In addition, two works of family papers, arranged to form almost epistolary novels, deserve special mention. Robert Manson Myers (ed.),
The Children of Pride: A True Story of Georgia and the Civil War
(New Haven, Conn., 1972), chronicles the experiences of the Charles C. Jones family in Georgia; and Betsy Fleet and John D. P. Fuller (eds.),
Green Mount: A Virginia Plantation Family during the Civil War…
(Lexington, Ky., 1962) displays wartime from the prospective of teen-aged Benjamin Robert Fleet and his family.

About cultural life in the Confederacy the best survey is Clement Eaton,
The Waning of the Old South Civilization
(Athens, Ga., 1968). There is an excellent guide to the literature of the era in Louis D. Rubin, Jr.,
A Bibliographical Guide to the Study of Southern Literature
(Baton Rouge, La., 1969), and the check lists of Confederate imprints by Crandall and Harwell (cited in “Printed Sources, page 328) list works published in the South. Beside the works cited in Ruben’s
Guide
and in Eaton’s text and bibliography, Jon L. Wakelyn’s
The Politics of a Literary Man: William Gilmore Simms
(Westport, Conn., 1973) is an important recent work on Southern
belles-lettres.
Richard B. Harwell has done three books of significance on aspects of wartime culture:
The Brief Candle: The Confederate Theatre
(Worcester, Mass., 1971);
Confederate Music
(Chapel Hill, N.C., 1950); and
Songs of the Confederacy
(New York, 1951). The best summary of the impact of the war upon schools and colleges is Wayne Flynt, “Southern Higher Education and the Civil War,”
Civil War History,
XIV (1968), 211–225.