Lost Causes

"Civil War historians have built a voluminous catalog of common soldier studies and a burgeoning literature on veterans. Bradley Clampitt's history of Confederate demobilization adds to that historiography by examining the interlude between soldier and veteran for the first time in a comprehensive way. In doing so, he reveals how defeat and discharge from the military reinforced Confederate identity. Southern veterans who marched home in the spring and summer of 1865 had survived severe trauma-combat, camp life, privations, homesickness, death of comrades, destruction of homelands-before the catastrophe of defeat added to that litany of suffering. They had endured the crucible of war and now confronted the unknown, where an uncertain future greeted them. Suddenly civilians again, the men grappled with the consequences of their service and momentarily ambiguous place in southern society. Clampitt examines the mental state of the returning former soldiers, suggesting that images of intense material shortages and the devastation of war conditioned the minds of the men as they coped with loss and confronted a revolutionized society. Three themes dominated their thoughts upon homecoming-immediate economic survival, a radically altered relationship with freedpeople, and life under Federal rule-all against the backdrop of fearful uncertainty. Clampitt presents a detailed examination of their demobilization experiences, tracing the most common routes home and methods of travel before scrutinizing the interaction between veterans in blue and gray and between Confederate veterans and southern civilians. Finally, he chronicles the widespread lawlessness that plagued the immediate postwar South and the returning soldiers' roles in that turmoil. Ultimately, Clampitt concludes, the war and defeat solidified Confederate soldiers' common principles and rendered them perpetual Rebels: loss and demobilization reinforced that identity and hardened the recalcitrant, unapologetic attitudes of southern veterans, who remained "Confederate" despite permanent demobilization and the demise of the Confederacy. Clampitt's study is a welcome addition to the history of Confederate veterans and is certain to be of widespread interest to scholars of the war and its aftermath"--