In 1937, in his ground-breaking The Collapse of the Confederacy, the African American historian Charles H. Wesley (1891-1987) took a bold step in rewriting the history of the Confederate South by asserting that the new nation failed because of underlying internal and social factors. Looking beyond military events to explain the Confederacy’s demise, Wesley challenged conventional interpretations and argued that, by 1865, the supposedly unified South had “lost its will to fight.” Though neglected today by scholars and students of the Civil War, Wesley ranked as one of the leading African American historians, educational administrators, and public speakers of the first half of the twentieth century.

Practically all Civil War historians agree that after the fall of Atlanta in September 1864 and Lincoln's triumphant reelection in November, the South had no remaining chance to make good its independence. Well aware that Appomattox and Durham Station were close at hand, historians have treated the war's final months in a fashion that smacks strongly of denouement: the great, tragic conflict rolls on to its now-certain end. ø Certain, that is, to us, but deeply uncertain to the millions of Northerners and Southerners who lived through the anxious days of early 1865. The final months of the Confederacy offer fascinating opportunities-as a case study in war termination, as a period that shaped the initial circumstances of Reconstruction, and as a lens through which to analyze Southern society at its most stressful moment. The Collapse of the Confederacy collects six essays that explore how popular expectations, national strategy, battlefield performance, and Confederate nationalism affected Confederate actions during the final months of the conflict.

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A revisionist history of the radical transformation of the American South during the Civil War examines the economic, social and political deconstruction and rebuilding of Southern institutions as experienced by everyday people. By the award-winning author of Confederate Emancipation.

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Excerpt from The Collapse of the Confederacy In taking up for consideration the factor of leadership, it may be stated, first of all, that the sharpest controversies arising out of the creation and the subsequent downfall of the confederacy have to do with the question of Jefferson Davis' capacity to direct southern affairs. It is not too much to say that practical ly every issue that confronted the south from 1849 to 1865 is most intimately connected with his name. The problem of the expansion of slavery westward; the attitude that the southern states should take toward the abolition propaganda; their atti tude toward the republican party; the momentous decision in favor of secession; the relations of the confederate government to the states within it, to the army that fought for it, to the for eign powers that might have recognized it, and to the federal government that at last overwhelmed it, can only be studied in connection with the positive and powerful in uence which Mr. Davis exerted upon the course of events as a leader of southern thought.2 It should be made clear that the south had had every opportunity to study and to learn to know the man that she chose to carry her through the secession crisis. Ever since the days of the Prentiss debate in Vicksburg courtyard in 1843, he had been a marked man. It must therefore be taken for granted that when his name was brought forward in the Montgomery convention the majority of the delegates, at least, were con vinced that taking everything into consideration he was the best qualified man available for the presidency. The question arises, what type of man was. Mr. Davis. In the light of his presecession record? About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."