Defiant to the End

The U.S. civil war was a time of great strife for both the Union and the Confederacy and during the four years of war that tore the U.S. apart hundreds of thousands of men lost their lives defending what they perceived to be liberty. When the dust has settled and the dream that was the Confederacy is but ash in the wind, one might think that some epiphany of error might cross the minds of the southern generals after their defeat and many of the truths which were held about both slavery and the strength of the south were proven false. However as demonstrated by Richard Taylor, formerly a prominent general of the confederate army, by relaying his views in his memoirs their is no such thoughts of any such errors in judgement and the belief is only that a once proud and noble nation is brought low by the ravishing's of an unforgiving and pitiless tyrant nation.

At the foremost of the injustices that have fallen on the fair southern country side in the wake of their defeat is the "carpet baggers" which Taylor describes in great philosophical detail often pulling both historical and biblical references to describe the transgressions committed by these raggle-tailed guttersnipes. The carpet baggers are the true pestilence upon the land and they are spurred onward by the radicals that hold sway in congress and have no interest in returning to the peace held before the war. Through the writings of Taylor, he makes it clear that he believes that the only end to madness that continues to both slander, because the horrors did not end on the country side and the press baselessly claim that slavery was the only cause of the war to destroy southern credibility in the north and abroad, and besmurtch the former mighty confederacy is when such radicals have left office. Though he viewed him as a closed minded and hot blooded man, as he was a self-made and educated man and thus lacked the poise and articulation that formally educated gentlemen posses, he regarded Johnson's presidency with general good feeling because he attempted to continue some of the practices of Lincoln, whom he held in high regard, and reign in the howling, foaming, maniacs that rule congress and continue to plunder the south's treasures, to slake their own boundless greed.

The next area which was of great concern to Richard Taylor, was the state of the black population that remained in the south. The emancipated blacks were little more then children in Taylor's eyes but he personally held them no ill will and strongly favored education of the blacks. He felt it a foolish notion to elevate the blacks to the same standing as the white, because he was without doubt a white supremacist, but he saw no reason to return to slavery as that was not even possible after the war. The true horror was committed by the southern whites who killed blacks whenever they could find them and though these actions should be condemned, the men that commit them are but sad wretches as well and were only filled with anger because of the injustice enacted upon them by the tyrannical nation which knows no mercy in victory. Though he would be viewed as a very enlightened southerner for his time Taylor was a firm believer that the root of all the problems was that the former Confederate statesmen were being disallowed to retake their seats and govern the south in the southern way and under their guidance the blacks would be happier too.

Through his memoirs Richard Taylor has demonstrated that the south and its former slave holding aristocracy is nothing if it is not stubborn. With the blood of tens of thousands of Unions soldiers red upon their hands, they cannot be but awe-stricken by the reprisal of their conqueror. The myth of the lost cause took root almost the moment the Confederacy lost the war because the south will remain defiant to the last and war will garner no guidance to the men that direct them because the pride of such men will not allow for lessons from the dead, because such lessons might lead to the acknowledgement of guilt and that all the water in the sea could not scrub the blood from their hands.






Taylor, Richard. Destruction and Reconstruction. New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1955.