Focus on the interactions of soldiers with their natural environments and their mental and physical health. Her first book, common soldiers in the environment won the wily silver prize for best first book on the civil war, and she is conducting an early study on jubal early. Welcome Kathryn Shively meier. [applause] kathryn thank you for having me. Im delighted to be here. I think you will see some connections between my talk on jubal early and the earlier talk we heard on richard taylor. The confederate general jubal early was one of the influential losers in American History. [laughter] kathryn known for a petulant personality, early loss at the Shenandoah Valley in 1864, contribute to overall confederate defeat. Yet, scarcely missing a beat after the confederate surrenders in spring 1865, he 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 robert e. Lee died in 1870. Incredibly, as early as 1866, he earned accolades from many southern and northern newspapers for his proficiency as a general and as a military historian. By 1869, the former confederate general hill proclaimed jubal early near to the hearts of this other people than any other man. The story of how jubal early orchestrated his comeback from failure in the shenandoah provides us with new insights 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 directly from jubal earlys pleading in the four years that he roamed in exile from 18651869. Every time a breathless student of the civil war utters the phrase the confederacy was defeated 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. Explanations. Indeed, early persuaded some northerners of his thesis, even if they denounced his proslavery position. We will begin with a brief review of earlys rise and fall as one of Robert E Lees lieutenants. He boasted a promising resume for a confederate general, as a former west pointer with experience in the mexican market war. Mexicanamerican war. Before civil war, he practiced law and he served as a wake in a wig big that week in the Virginia 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, primarily 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 bestowing on 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. Newspapers portrayed him with reasonable accuracy as cantankerous and a partial to drink. Nor was it a secret that early maintained a mistress with whom he fathered four children. In other words, early was rather bad when measured against victorian social norms. In june 1864, robert e. Lee once again demonstrated considerable confidence in early by promoting him to Lieutenant General and dispatching him on independent commands with the army of the valley, the old second court Stonewall Jackson. Early was the drive Union Soldiers from the valley and relieve pressure from the petersburg richmond 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. Middleton yegors town, and frederick offered cash. But as many of you know, chambersburg pennsylvania , called his bluff and calvary under John Mccausland burned a large portion of the city on july 30, 1864. When Union Major General philip sheridan, the planted 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 time, it feels his fall from his fall from grace. Theps bristled against ridicule. I cannot commit that the commanding general is irresponsible for the struggling of his men in battle, insisted a rebel how freeman cal varyman. If he doesnt know how to stop it, he is unfit for his position. Meanwhile, desperate at petersburg, lee stripped early of most of his men, leaving a diminished army of the valley to face a final defeat at waynesboro on march 2, 1865. Earlys woes that winter had been compounded by sheridans actions targeting the valley crops, livestock and slaves under general grants orders, which we heard about this morning. The destruction of civilian property sparked fury in some shenandoah residents, such as sarah and fife who said oh, how the mighty have fallen. General early used to be a very great man. And yet, lee still spoke highly of early, calling him an officer of great 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 so essential to success. Thus early missed the surrender at appomattox. Instead he lay him with the chills and fever 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 and then finding mexico this favorable, 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 peerreviewed. 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. And provided details to lend the veracity and 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 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 general lee always have the greatest anxiety to strike a grant. The two generals also shared a pet thesis in this period, which conferred with the early s 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 unsurpassedrked by 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 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 not to mention 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. A fact that makes early appear more credible. Early used the same strategy in his memoirs. The first was accompanied by an appendix, titled, statistics. In this document, early employed the 1860 u. S. Census and quoted figures from secretary of War Edwin Stanton to demonstrate beyond a doubt that confederate s had been grossly outnumbered by federals for the war, including the 1864 shenandoah campaign. Throughout both memoirs, early also 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 s diary, 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 because grant misidentified general kelly as having routed the troopers, to give one example. And in earlys narrative, he similarly 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 unabashedlyalso corrected those who were friendly to. 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 is still going to correct your fiction. The findings but net rent 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 also 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 west point graduate, experience soldier and left trusted subordinate him qualify to lead troops. In addition, he proved extraordinarily good at conveying eyewitness accounts of the military events he had witnessed, a skill perhaps honed by years of writing military reports. Though his talent is evidence in numerous passages in but the though hish talent is evidence in numerous passages the discussion of , fredericksburg when he was a commander under Stonewall Jackson, it will serve as our example. Ed his account to fredericksburg with the reminder of the physical presence of his physical presence, in the fredericksburg 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, early 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 he found the enemy of steered by a equity and heavy obscured by a thick wood. It is difficult to not be impressed with the fatigue and anxiety of his position, when all of a sudden at noon on december 13, he met with conflicting orders