Silver prize for best first book on the civil war and she is currently conducting a biographical study of jubal a. Early. Welcome Kathryn Shively meier. [applause] you forr meier thank having me. Im delighted to be here. I think you will see some connections between my talk on talksearly as the earlier you heard on richard taylor. Confederate general jubal a. Was one of the most influential losers in American History. Known for a petulant personality, early lost the Shenandoah Valley to Philip Sheridan in 1864, contributing to the overall confederate defeats. Seized control of the historical narrative to substantially redeem his reputation and position himself as chief authority on robert e. Lees army of Northern Virginia when lee died. Jubal earned866, accolades from northern and Southern Newspapers for his proficiency as a general and the cherry historian. By 1869, a former confederate general proclaimed early nearer to the hearts of the southern people than any other man. The story of how early orchestrated his comeback from failure in the shenandoah provides us with new insight as to why confederates lost the war, but won the battle for historical interpretation. Several of the most entrenched x confederate arguments about the civil war often termed the lost cause arose from his special pleading after he arose from selfemployed selfimposed exile. Every time they utter the phrase that the confederacy was solely because of solely because of inferior manpower and materials, earlys ghost threads another plume into his grave. When one and critically lee, or the fateful confederate ladies of the Shenandoah Valley, more feathers. I propose that if we want to understand earlys lost cause arguments and why they dominated historical interpretations of the civil war for nearly 150 years, we must consider how he established his authority. In my talk this morning i will begin by briefly describing jubal earlys wartime reputation, his defeat in the shenandoah, and the public outcry. Then the bulk of my talk will examine how he rehabilitated his public respectability and advanced his historical authority. To do so he employed the following strategies. First, he capitalized on his personal ties to his revered mentor, robert e. Lee. Second, he got primary sources and numbers to produce ironclad arguments, which he reinforced with peer review. Third, he conveyed convincing military expertise. And forth, he promoted his motive as selfless and pure. [laughter] kathryn it should become apparent that his he intertwined at the story of his personal defeat with confederate defeat, a process that reveals much about the construction and reception of collective memory. Lost cause arguments grew out of deeply personal apologia. In the immediate aftermath of the civil war, contemporaries, including northerners, accepted the arguments that convinced them or contorted with their own expeditions. Comported with their own explanations. Indeed, early persuaded some northerners of his thesis, even if they denounced his proslavery , prosecession positions. We will begin with a brief review of earlys rise and fall as one of lees foremost lieutenants. Early boasted a promising resume for a confederate general, as a former west pointer with experience in the seminal and mexicanamerican wars. Before the civil war, he practiced law and he served as a whig in the house of delegates. As an elected member of the secession convention, he hoped to avoid war by voting to remain in the union, but then became a stalwart confederate. His civil war military career, in the army of Northern Virginia, from 18611864, proved strong with a few missteps as he slowly, too slowly for his taste, advanced from regiment to core command. Lee liked early, this towing on him the nickname my battled man. He interested him with difficult assignments, second only to Stonewall Jackson. But public opinion, which lauded jackson in life and death, was not so favorable toward jubal early. Newspaper anecdotes portrayed him with reasonable accuracy as cantankerous, irreligious, and partial to drink. Nor was it a secret that early maintained a mistress with him maintained a mistress and fathered 4 children. In other words, early was rather bad when measured against victorian social norms. In june 1864, robert e. Lee once again demonstrated considerable at early by promoting him to Lieutenant General and dispatching him on independent commands with the army of the valley, the old second court Stonewall Jacksons old second quarter. Early was the drive Union Soldiers from the valley and relieve pressure from the petersburgrichmond front. The 1864 Shenandoah ValleyCampaign Began well for early. He defeated Union General david hunter on june 10, 1864 at lynchburg, before proceeding down the Shenandoah Valley, going north, to clear it of federals. Early continue to fill the instructions by crossing the potomac into maryland, where early defeated a small federal force on july 9. He then threatened the u. S. Capitol on july 11, before withdrawing back to the valley. During his u. S. Invasion, he gained notoriety for issuing a ransom order on towns in maryland and pennsylvania. Yegors town, frederick offered cash. But as many of you know, chambered for pennsylvania attentive to call his bluff and calvary under John Mccausland burned a large portion of the city on july 30, 1864. When Union Major GeneralPhilip Sheridan, the planted hunter, supplanted hunter, earlys fortunes changed. In 1864, sheridan whipped early at various battles, blamed on earlys calvary. He thought themselves sound, that he was completely unprepared for the confederate cutter blow at cedar creek counter blow at cedar creek. In a testament to impress plan and, early routed approximately two thirds of the federal forces before his men paused to plunder camps. They succumbed to sheridans famous counterattack. What could have been earlys greatest triumph fizzled to defeat. In an address to troops published widely in the newspaper, early berated his men for the failure. Soldiers of the army of the valley, i have the mortification of announcing to you that by your mistake a serious disaster occurred. Early deflected all blame at the early has both but fall and winter had been compounded by actions targeting crops, underock, and slaves general grants orders, which we have heard out several times before this morning. The destruction of civilian property start strikes. In some shenandoah residents, resource, how the mighty have fallen. He still spoke highly of early, calling, an officer of rate intelligence, good judgment, and undoubted bravery. On march 30, 1865 lee tactfully removed early from his duties, with these words, i have reluctantly arrived at the conclusion that you cannot command the support of the people and full confidence of the soldiers, which is so a central to success essential to success. Thus early missed the surrender at appomattox. Instead he was lay ill in his hometown of rocky mount virginia before embarking to escape the collapse of the confederacy. Via texas, the caribbean and finally mexico, which he reached in december 1865. Then finally mexico does favorable after several months, he resumed his travels back to the caribbean and finally to canada where he remained from july 1866 to the spring of 1869. When he finally returned to virginia. While in exile, he composed two memoirs, a number of newspaper articles, and a large volume of personal correspondence aimed at redeeming his personal reputation and constructing his authority. It is at this point we now turn our attention during the few months that he resided in mexico, he produced his first memoir, which we will call the memoir. There are two of them. This was a recollection of the final year of the war with a focus on the 1864 Valley Campaign. He then published it from canada in 1866. It was the first memoir produced by an important general on either side. It was also the start of earlys highly influential literary career. In canada, between 18671868, early produced a second complete memoir of the civil war, the narrative of the war between the states, which we will call the narrative. The memoir made up the last portion of the narrative. Early ultimately chose to have the narrative published posthumously, a book and to his literary career, though he had written them essentially in the same time. His niece, ruth early, published the narrative in 1912, 18 years after her uncle passed away. True to the original, save the omission of a handful of provocative footnotes that had appeared in the memoir. These two texts were special among earlys ample postwar writings. They restored his reputation, established his authority and dominated his legacy. We will talk about how he accomplished these feats, but first we have to realize that early was writing in a time in which historical standards varied dramatically. Earlys approach to history likened that of a small but distinguished groups of contemporary historians that the sized primary sources, p review, and what they called impartiality, a truth sound, not made. Indeed, earlys has convincing claims with and parties expertise the hold of the many ways the modern scholarly standards. For those that have ever read anything written by early, the first thing you notice about his memoirs is that the tone is remarkably restrained, by his standards. For those unfamiliar with his writings, here is the unrestrained early in a private letter. I think i could scalp a yankee woman and child without winking my eyes. In contrast, his memoirs read for the most part is just the facts, the conspicuous difference leads us to his first strategy. He enlisted lees mentor ship while lee still lived. He offered advice on softening the tone and let details for authenticity. Lee attempted to produce his own history of the army of Northern Virginia, but he never finished it, nor did he publish his own memoirs. Thus lees unique involvement 3thus lees unique involvement with earlys work conferred on these texts an unusual air of authority. I think i need hardly say that in addition to being commander of the army of Northern Virginia, lee was tremendously celebrated in his time. To underscore the two mens deep connection, early frequently at the sized in his memoirs emphasized in his memoirs lees private feelings. For example, of the 1864 Overland Campaign he wrote, i happened to know that generally always had the greatest anxiety to strike a grant. The two generals often shared a pet thesis in this period, which conferred with the Early Redemption project. Lee hoped he could get the world to understand the odds against which the confederacy fought. Or as he put it in his april 10, 1865 farewell address to the troops appomattox, after 4 years of service, march by unsurpassed courage and fortitude, the army of Northern Virginia has been forced to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources. Similarly, early hoped to explain away his defeat in the shenandoah by emphasizing inferior numbers. In the memoir, early said that the long odds he faced in the valley against sheraton sheridan were those faced by the confederacy during the whole war. Conveniently, this thesis enabled early to mitigate his formerly rough critique of his soldiers. In the memoir, he admitted i read a sharp lecture to my troops, but i have never attributed the result to a want of courage on their part. Taking another cue from the farewell address, early looked to repair his fractured relationship with his command. Importantly, this explanation for earlys defeat, not imagine larger confederate defeat, had substantial basis in fact that could be corroborated by primary sources and numbers. And so we moved to earlys second strategy, employing primary evidence and numbers usually displayed in tables, those are really convincing, to prove that early had not been out generaled, but simply outnumbered in the valley. Early first signaled that he would take this approach in his prominent 1866 newspaper dual with Philip Sheridan. Back and forth with the generals over casualties, captured artillery, the tone went into something savage went sheridan called early worse than a coward. Early rebutted, he was no gentleman. And as a military commander, a pretender. As Gary Gallagher has pointed out, the earliest numbers warmer accurate earlys numbers were more accurate than sheridans. Can he is the same strategy in his memoirs. The first was accompanied by an appendix, titled, statistics. In this document, early employed in the 1860 u. S. Census and quoted figures from secretary of War Edwin Stanton to demonstrate beyond a doubt that confederate had been grossly outnumbered by federals for the war, including the 1864 shenandoah campaign. Throughout both memoirs, early frequently called to attention reports by Union Generals that overemphasized the strength of rebel armies. Mcallen was famous for this, so naturally he became one of earlys frequent targets for humiliation, but early also lambasted generals like nathaniel p banks, i like this quote, it is wellknown that banks always thought things with largely magnifying glasses when Stonewall Jackson was about. Similarly, early used primary sources to show that his command of the historical narrative of the Valley Campaign surpassed his contemporaries. Considering that he wrote his memoir while on the lam, this achievement is notable. His first memoir made use of his aide, the tenant the lieutenant, chief topographical engineer captain jedediah hodgkinss notes, and a bevy of annual reports published by the u. S. Government printing office. How he managed to get all this stuff, to carry it with them on horseback as he rode out of the confederacy and made it to mexico, i do not know, but he did have all these things. Once he settled in canada, he began soliciting reports, diaries and other communications from numerous officers he had served with, particularly his general mcdaniel, his papers are here in the special collections, and his brother, captain samuel early. Jubel then use the same network of peers to read his draft and provide feedback on the veracity of his details. Early excelled at using primary documents to undermine his opponents authority and underscore his own. For example, he quibbled with grants report on operations in the shenandoah, leaving the u. S. General and chief lewis with this fax fats, because grant misidentified general kelly as having routed the troopers, to give one example. And in earlys narrative, he summarily dressed down the joint committee on the conduct of the war, as it gave a most preposterous account of atrocities committed upon the union dead and wounded after the battle of first manassas. Relying on his personal knowledge and authentic official reports, early convinced the reader that even federal surgeons left with a wounded could bear testimony to the falsehood of the report. Early did not confine his use of primary sourced zingers to his enemies, he also corrected those family toward him. In a revealing exchange with the man we heard about this morning, captain cook, early quibbled over a footnote from cooks book published in 1870, an account usually regarded as fiction. Early will still correct fiction. The offending footnote read, many officers of high character persistently declared that the troops at cedar creek were ordered a halt by general early. The writer was not present, cook admitted. In a letter, early challenged cook on the facts, demanding he reveal sources. In response, cook admitted that he had based the sentence on rumor, i only remember that in the winter of 1864 when i was with the army at petersburg, the report was prevalent and repeated on many occasions. I also like early sent him a copy of the memoir so he would not make mistakes in the future. In addition to this compelling primary source work, early excelled also at conveying his military expertise. This is the third strategy we were set to discuss and for those his attention is waning, the second to last point in the lecture. As previously mentioned, earlys qualifications as it was pointer as it was pointe framed him as qualified to lead troops. In addition, he proved extraordinarily good at conveying eyewitness accounts of the military events he had witnessed, is go perhaps honed by years of writing military reports. Though his talent is evidence in numerous passages in but the memoirs, the discussion of fredericksburg when he was a commander under Stonewall Jackson, it will serve as our example. Early open his account to fredericksburg with the reminder of the physical presence of his physical presence, in the fredericksburg will cap. Locale. He consumed three full pages with descriptions of roads, rivers, topography, so you could not doubt he had been. As in any good military report, he detailed his orders from his commanding officer, jackson, on december 12, 1862, to move to Hamilton Crossing which i did by marching nearly all night. Upon arrival, he founded the enemy up scared obscured by a thick wood. It is difficult to not be impressed with the fatigue and exciting of anxiety of his position, when all of a sudden at noon on december 13, he met with conflicting orders to action. Moments after a staff officer told him to hold his troops he was met with the news that archers brigade had been penetrated and would be captured unless there was instant relief. Early discarded jacksons orders to meet this is serious emergency and proceeded blind into ground was unacquainted with. Sure enough, the enemy had turned the lanes right, causing chaos. He was forced to make independent decisions while responding to contradictory communications. When he finally had the opportunity to rise himself to the front, he had to rescue some of his own men who had strayed into enemy artillery range, before sending for reinforcements. This successful repulse of the federals ended as the assault began. Earlys capacity to capture such exquisite detail set his memoirs apart from most other accounts. In addition, both earlys memoirs, this is so important, where written exceptionally close to the event that they conveyed. His memory of the events was sharper than many and perhaps most of his contemporaries, who wrote their memoirs in the 1870s, 1880s and 1890s, a point early emphasized when arguing with them. He also demonstrated an affidavit for discrediting others experiencing while reinforcing his reliability as narrator. He wrote, some officers fail to preserve that clearness of judgment and calmness of the nerves which is so necessary to see things as they really are during an engagement. This, he claimed, is what led to so many conflicting reports on the same matter. He continued, it requires a very discriminating judgment to enable a commanding general to sift the truth out of the great mass of exaggerated reports made to him. Early was, of course, that kind of talented commanding general. It goes without saying. He managed to cast himself in a sympathetic light, presenting his redemption project as selfless rather than selfserving. This is rather stunning, considering eva lee referred to earlys memoirs as the project necessary for your own vindication. To start, in early cost narrative, he counted public indictment of his chafing personality with humility. I was never blessed with popular or captivating manners, and the consequence was that i was often misjudged and thought to be hottie and disdainful in my temperament. Yet, those new me best liked me best. He even thought to correct unflattering physical descriptions, which emphasized his arthritic stoop. He provided a more flattering portrait of a man of 170 pounds, hair as straight as an indians, with smooth and moderate eyebrows. I dont know about you, but that really helps to correct my image of early. He also sought compassion for his physical defect. His hunch was the result of rheumatism contracted in mexico, which is true, and it has often been result of actual pain, to which i have often been subjected the last 19 years. More important than anything he could say about himself, his self exile procured for him a claim to morality in victorian culture that he underlines last. Historian Francis Clark has cited evidence as genteel manliness. Through prolonged misery and poverty, early position himself as a martyr to the confederate cause. Repeatedly in correspondence with his brother sam, early imparted anxiety for a country, embarrassment about his need for money, and agony from rheumatism. His letters became so pitiful they are difficult to read. In may, early described himself as so much crippled up that i move about with difficulty and am more bent than i have ever been. In july, his mood had taken a turn for the morrows. Perhaps it may be better to be killed off by the climate so there might be an end to my troubles in this world. Our august, his unease over borrowing money had morphed into the morose. The generals martyrdom was by no means a private affair. Visitors to canada noticed and spread news of his agony. After seeing early hobble about on his cane, Elizabeth Harris lamented how indignant it makes her winter thinks of the conduct of that enemies and their desire to humiliate our noble heroes by forcing them to leave their native land. Support of newspaper editors also presented his case for martyrdom. Charles button framed earlys exile in religious terms. General early has made a sacrifice of self for the crucifixion of his love. He remains in exile while some of those who reviled him for his opposition to secession has been duly pardoned. Early was more difficult to cram into that pious mold, his truly miserable exile was the closest he came to write just in the publics eye. Shrewdly, early set his wanderings in contrast to where his heart truly resided, the Shenandoah Valley and his ruined country, both of which he had labored valiantly to defend. Symbolically, the three merged early, the valley, and the confederacy into a holy triad that became difficult to disentangle. In one loved the shenandoah and confederacy, how could one be against jubal early . In praising winchester as a peculiarly sacred spot, second only to that of his birthplace and his mothers grave, early demonstrated the death debt depth of his commitment to the valley. He likened his current stiff location dislocation to a pilgrimage of selfsacrifice. It is sad indeed to be separated from my country and still sadder to be separated from the most acre cause for which men have ever fought, but, he assured, there is some comfort in knowing the struggle on the part of so much heroism of the part of our soldiers in so many virtues in its women has not been all in vain. Speaking of women, the women of the shenandoah became an important focal point of earlys attempts to present himself as a humble martyr. In his memoir, he claimed he had earlier Order Chamber for brandon retaliation. On these ladies, he heaped epithets, believing the ordeal in the valley fell with the most crushing effect upon them. In the newspapers he also credited shenandoah ladies with standing by his reputation in defeat when others have forsaken him. To the latest Memorial Association of winchester, he wrote, when many of my countrymen judged me harshly, the ladies of winchester, who knew the tremendous arts against which i fought, attached no blame to me. Moreover, he prays their efforts to reenter the confederate dead whose bodies have been left out a federal efforts to create National Military cemeteries. Early praised, i know that many of those buried by the ladies sell while fighting under my command, among them being a number of valley and personal friends, and this sad and touching tribute to their memories affects me very deeply. His ability to tap into the work of Memorial Associations reinforced his altruistic claims to bolstering the reputation of the confederacy rather than his own. He and the ladies shared the common purpose of constructing a positive confederate historical narrative in the face of perceived northern neglect. To further solidify this bond with the sacred work of the ladies Memorial Associations and to underscore his generosity, early donated all proceeds of his published memoir to the Memorial Associations. He also published at least hundreds, maybe as many as 1000 copies of the book at his own expense and donated the proceeds again to the ladies. Considering his crippling poverty in exile, during which he was entirely dependent on family, friends, and strangers for survival, his refusal to keep any profit for himself was notable. His large is lit credence to the veracity of his account. As one historian explained, at mid19th century, the best believed personal narratives were by authors who could not profit from their work. Early therefore appeared a man who would spread the truth whatever the cost to himself. The editor of the daily virginian picked up on this narrative, characterizing early as a true patriot, who sought neither vindication nor profit. In short, earlys calculation paid off. He may have suffered temporary poverty, but donating the revenue of his book to the ladies remade him a selfless public figure, irrespective of what the book contained. Critical reception of the 1866 memoir was remarkably positive, as testing to the quick success of earlys redemption project. A New York Times yes, Northern Special correspondent exclaimed that reading the account changed his negative perception of early, which he believes most northerners had previously shared. Southern newspapers and periodicals he preys on early in the late 1867. The Richmond Times declared that earlys statue should rest next to those of lee and jackson at the state capital. The richmond whig wanted to nominate early for governor of virginia. A contributor to the old guard spoke feelingly of earlys journey to redemption. Now that general early has prepared the history of his last campaign with great care and minuteness, it will despair the dispel the clouds which hang over his military reputation. Moreover, the article remarks on the significance of earlys exile. Jubal early unrelenting and on surrendered wandered sulkily and sickly from that ancient commonwealth, which he loved more than life. The piece touched all the major aspects of earlys redemption project, absolving him from blame, vindicating his maligned personality, and heaping morals on his martyrdom. The fact that early did not publish the narrative to the second memoir in his lifetime only added to his legacy. Once lee died, early demonstrated less and less restraint. This did not earn him universal acclaim. An influential confederate memoirist described the prevailing view of early the historian as one of fear. No man ever took up his turn to write a line about the great conflict without the fear of jubal early before his eyes. That early reserved the narrative which had been written in the more moderate tone of his exile was greatly to his benefit. The new yorkbased review of books and life summarized the accomplishments year after it was published. That a man who graduated him west point and mexican wars was wellequipped to write as an expert of the civil war would have been conceded by all, it began, and early would have applauded the deference to his military expertise. But what have but what would have particularly turned him was that the general could write about the war and uncolored by prejudice. Is stamped general early as a rare and notable soul. The southern Atlantic Quarterly assessment likewise declared early as singularly free from a controversial spirit and that you never thought you would hear that phrase attached to early his dominant purpose always being to give a straightforward account of events and occasionally to explain why more was not accomplished. And finally, the southwestern historic quarterly concurred that earlys tone is calm and judicial. It is, in fact, hardly judicial to show that he ought against tremendous arts of men and resources. Thus did earlys central thesis prevail. Jubal ]early achieved stunning success in rehabilitating his public image and establishing himself as the major force with which to be reckoned on military history of the army of Northern Virginia. He was summarized as having a mission to vindicate the truth of history. Early may have lost the Shenandoah Valley and his country lost the war, but he won control of the historical narrative by meticulous effort. Thank you. [applause] sunday on American History tv, at 6 00 p. M. Is john f. Kennedy were from the Smithsonian American Art Museum collection of images. The wonderful thing about the candidates, the number of photographers or writers away. They didnt care how they were photographed, whether the cult was on, this or that. If they made themselves accessible to the ,edia, they would he published and it was a groundswell. Theres no question about it immediate coverage of jfk was the first time we had ever seen anything like it. Will be followed 8 00 by looking at Ronald Reagans relationship with Pope John Paul interesting, john paul ii and something cable to reagan when he was chopped, saying, i am praying for you. Reagan can touch to the cable dutch the default worlds most exclusive prayer society. If theyre worried about a between the pope and the president , now theyve got to really worry about it. American history tv, weekend, every weekend, on cspan3