The Lost Cause Analysis

Religion was very important to the South before the end of the war as well as after the war, and the abandonment felt by the South needed to be explained or justified in the least. Goldfield describes the South’s religious view on defeat as one of redemption and their past was holy and the soldiers were the crusaders where the path to salvation was through defeat. Charles Reagan Wilson carries Goldfield’s view further by stating, “One can label the religious interpretation of the Lost Cause as the myth of the Crusading Christian Confederates.” Peter S. Carmichael believes Protestant Christianity provided the base to form the religious version of the Lost Cause, where the Confederate heroes, men such as Lee and Jackson, inspired social activism
Lloyd A. Hunter writes of the influence this new religion and its core beliefs. It was centered on the Confederacy and the South became the holy ground, and the ideology was the Lost Cause. The Lost Cause, as Hunter describes it, performed a religious function where the symbols of the Confederacy assumed a sacred status and southerners performed formal rituals while expressing their meaning in mythic terms. Found within this new faith is the Protestant evangelicalism is the component of what Hunter believes to be a culture religion and the flags and gray military uniforms become the religious icons found in many Christian churches. Hunter also points to the leaders of the Confederacy who became Christ figures and martyrs while the common soldiers were saints. It is easy to see how the women of the South became Mary as they guard the memorials as if they were the tombs of Jesus. The memorial celebrations become the holy ceremonies celebrating this religion. For Hunter, what is not far away is what he called the sacred doctrine explaining what the South fought for; this was for states’ rights and not slavery. Hunter believes this religious culture is the response to the devastation and loss the South incurred as the South struggled to come to terms with its
The psychological effect of these wounds was unbearable for the South, so there was a need to overcome what they experienced and felt. Jefferson Davis and Edward Pollard constructed a defense of the southern spirit and provided a foundation for southern pride that evolved into the Lost Cause. Historians agree with how the mythology of the Lost Cause was created, but there is a general disagreement as to whether or not the South intentionally created the myth or it was an unintentional creation. William C. Davis introduces an idea worth more study when he brings up the possibility that the South unintentionally created the