Confederate Shop
Not far from my home is a cemetery. One of the graves is marked “Maryland Virginia.” I was intrigued by the story behind this headstone. The story brought to light some interesting insights into broader matters.
The stone was not some out of place monument to the two states bordering the Potomac, but a grave marker. A young man, Maryland Virginia Griffith, was born in Virginia 1897 to an old Maryland family which settled in Virginia after the Civil War, hence the name. When the Great War broke out, and sucked the U.S. into the maelstrom, he enlisted in the U.S. Army. One month before the armistice, he was killed in action at Verdun. He was twenty-one years old. And his grandfather had been a Confederate soldier, so within two generations, the Griffiths went from fighting against the United States Army, to dying in combat as part of that army. How did that happen?
How does a nation cure a rift, bind the wounds, and get back to the business of functioning as a country. This essay will explore how that was done, and draws some lessons that will be of use today.
The agreement on the table at Appomattox had been fairly straightforward. Confederate forces were to stop fighting and go home. The seceded states were to accept that slavery was dead. They were to annul or retract their secession ordinance and acknowledge that secession was not allowed (1). With that, they were to resume their former lives and loyalty to the Union. In exchange, ex-Confederates were not to be tried for treason as long as they abided by the agreement (2).
Immediately after the war, the entire country suffered from a great deal of pain. 620,000 dead, tens of thousands of severely wounded. The South had suffered billions of dollars in property damage. Worse, they were disfranchised and Republicans gave the reliably-Republican former slaves were given the right to vote. These latter two conditions were new and they rankled a bit, but southerners stored up the precedent and bided their time.
The fact that their states were still occupied, they were not allowed to vote, and the fresh memories of the men killed and wounded tended to grate on southerners. Confederate memorial services and speeches tended to be bitter partisan affairs. In an article in 1866, “The Christian’s Duty to His Enemies,”(3) Rev. Robert Lewis Dabney told readers that when another sins against you, there is a loss (damnum in Latin), guilty (reatus), and depravity (pravitas vel macula) of having done wrong and profited by the sin. The Christian can (and should) forgive the first. The reatus and pravitas are not up to the victim to forgive. After having suffered the hundreds of thousands of deaths, the billions of dollars in damage, the Southerners could and should forgive the damnum but they could not remit Northern reatus and pravitas. The southern Christian’s duty, during Reconstruction, was to hold a mirror up to the northern conscience to help northerners restore themselves to a right relationship with virtue and with God. Reconciliation was not Dabney’s goal, at least not just then. Confrontation was.
At a highly partisan commencement address at Davidson College in 1868, Dabney informed the young graduates “God appoints to the brave and true the stern task of contending, and falling in a righteous cause.”(4) To inspire young southern men, Dabney cited Confederate general and Davidson College alumnus, Stephen Dodson Ramseur. The last time Dabney had seen Ramseur, he was on the battlefield of Cedar Creek with a handful of his soldiers, fighting against overwhelming odds. Dabney urged his audience, let us resolve, he said, “to endure as he fought, and you will be secure against all the degradations of defeat.” Finally, Dabney urged his charges, “We have no need, sirs, to be ashamed of our [Confederate] dead: Let us see to it that they be not ashamed of us.”(5)
At a memorial service in Charleston, South Carolina for Gettysburg dead being reinterred, Rev. John L. Girardeau called Confederate soldiers “heroes of a defeated but glorious Cause.”(6) Girardeau posited “three Divinely ordained institutes, … Family, the State, and the Church.” Against these was a countervailing force, “a spirit abroad in the earth,” under the control “of the Arch-foe of God and man,” a spirit Girardeau called “Radicalism.”(7) “This ruthless, leveling Spirit” sees man as the all-encompassing idea and “wages war against the Family, the State and the Church” with “Titanic audacity.”(9) Girardeau was not seeking reconciliation.
Later, anger faded and Americans got on with being a nation. David Blight’s work, Race and Reunion, addresses the larger context of Reconstruction and intersectional reconciliation. According to Blight, adherents of two competing legacies struggled to define what the war would mean: the emancipationist legacy, the idea that the war was a struggle to end human bondage, and those who wanted to put the sectional strife behind them and emphasized the war as a struggle to keep the Union together. Blight called this the conciliationist legacy. Lincoln and the US Congress repeatedly denied the emancipationist impulse in 1861-2, but after the war, rebuilding a reconciled Union after the war required careful cultivation. Northerners and southerners tried, with varying degrees of success to bury the hatchet and reconcile the sections.
Military reunions after the war evolved with the time. The earlier reunions were sometimes bitter partisan affairs. The later occasions much more reconciliationist. Confederates started expression their joy at remaining in a united country. Union and Confederate units would conduct joint veterans’ reunions. Veterans on each side would extol the courage of men on both sides. To assess how successful this approach was at binding up the wounds of the nation, a few case studies of the famous and the not so famous will help.
Let us return to the grave of young Maryland Virginia Griffith. Franklin Louis Griffith was a pro-southern Maryland man, who fought for the Confederacy in Maryland units. In April 1861 at the start of the war, his wife gave birth to a boy. Griffith named his son R. Sumter Griffith. Sumter became a doctor and moved to Basic City, Virginia. His son he named Maryland Virginia Griffith. It seems Sumter Griffith raised his son on tales Franklin’s Confederate exploits. Maryland Virginia Griffith was also raised to be a loyal American. Because of the reconciliationist legacy, young Maryland Virginia grew up loving the United States, even though his father’s given name recalled the Late Unpleasantness. When the Great War broke out, Maryland Virginia Griffith joined the US Army and fought for the nation his grandfather had fought against. Young M. V. Griffith died at the Battle of Verdon, just after his 21st birthday. If he had been told that his grandfather was a traitor and that, as a result he himself was tainted, would Maryland Virginia have volunteered to serve in the U.S. Army in France? It seems unlikely. Reconciliation won over Maryland Virginia Griffith, who made the ultimate sacrifice for the United States.
Not far away is another case study. James B. Roden was born in Dublin, Ireland. He emigrated to New Orleans. When the war broke out, he enlisted in the 7th Louisiana Infantry, under Colonel Harry Hays. Hays led the 7th through Jackson’s Valley Campaign, serving with distinction at the Battle of Port Republic. At some point, it seems young James Roden was wounded. During his convalescence in the Valley, he fell in love with a local girl. They married and after the war, James and his bride had a son in 1867, whom they named Harry Hays Roden, after James’ beloved commander. Harry Hays Roden grew and lived in the Valley. When he had a son, he named him Harry Hays Roden, Jr. Later, when the United States called again, Harry Hays Jr., joined the U.S. Navy, rising to the rank of Master Chief Petty Officer in the Construction Battalions (“CBs” or “Seabees”). Again, within two generations, a family’s young men went from fighting against the United States to fighting for the United States. Such were the fruits of reconciliation.
Some case studies of more famous men will also illustrate the point. Nathan Bedford Forrest was and is a controversial figure. Northerners hated him because he was so skilled and successful. In the summer of 1864 Sherman famously remarked, “that devil Forrest must be hunted down and killed if it costs ten thousand lives and bankrupts the federal treasury.”(9)
N. B. Forrest’s great grandson attended West Point, graduating in 1928. He joined the Army Air Force and rose to Brigadier General. Nathan Bedford Forrest III was killed in action in over the North Sea after a bombing raid in Germany in September 1943. Forrest’s B-17 was badly damaged, but he staid at the controls so his crew could bail out (10). The plane exploded before Forrest himself could bail out. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. This act was remembered on a roadside marker in Memphis near his great grandfather’s grave. When N. B. Forrest’s grave was exhumed in 2020, this plaque was removed, so the public notice of this sacrifice for the U.S. will now be forgotten.
Stonewall Jackson left no male heirs. Jackson’s daughter continued the family line and her grandson, Thomas Jonathan Jackson Christian attended West Point (Class of 1939). Tom Christian obviously knew about his great grandfather’s service since it was included in his name. After commissioning, he too joined the Army Air Corps and became a fighter pilot, flying P-51 Mustangs. Col T. J. J. Christian was killed in action on August 12, 1944 near Boisleux-au-Mont, France. (11)
Not every famous descendant of Confederate veterans died in the service. Some made names for themselves and survived the war. Carl Henry Nimitz was a German immigrant who served as captain of the Confederate Gillespie Rifles, including duty as the enrollment officer. (12) The Nimitz’s maintained their heritage. Nimitz spoke fluent German. Carl’s grandson, Chester Nimitz attended the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis and was commissioned in 1905. Nimitz served with distinction in the submarine force and rose in rank. In 1942, The JCS designated Nimitz as "Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas," where he served with skill for the remainder of the Second World War. While Carl Nimitz was not famous, his grandson certainly was, serving well and faithfully the United States.
Chesty Puller was probably the most famous Marine in the world. Chesty Puller was the grandson of Major William Puller, a Confederate cavalry officer killed fighting under J.E.B. Stuart, “a gallant death of which Lewis [Chesty] was often told.”(13) Major Puller’s Sergeant Major, Willis Eastwood of West Point, Virginia told Chesty that Yankee artillery fire had killed his grandfather at Kelly’s Ford in 1863. Yankee cavalry had also caused the death of Chesty’s grandmother as well, when they burned her house in midwinter. Chesty’s mother told Chesty, “You must be proud of the Confederacy, but it’s a mighty good thing that the United States won that war, as terrible as it was. We couldn’t live, except as one people.”(14) Like many southerners, Chesty’s family had not been told their ancestor was a traitor, and been received back into the United States. The Pullers warmly reciprocated those feelings, and love of country inspired Puller to serve the United States well and faithfully.
The Pattons of Virginia (and later, California) provide a final example of the fruits of reconciliation. George S. Patton’s grandmother was very unreconstructed (15). His great uncle, Waller Tazewell Patton had his lower jaw shot off leading the 7th Virginia in Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg (16). Four of the Patton boys took part in the Confederate victory at New Market. Patton’s grandfather George S. Patton, Sr. commanded the 22nd Virginia Infantry, rose to brigade command and was killed at 3rd Winchester in September 1864 (17). After Patton’s grandmother moved to Los Angeles, Col. George H. Smith (a cousin) joined the family there. George S. Patton II (George Patton, Jr.’s father) attended VMI 1873-1877. George S. Patton, Jr. followed his father and grandfather to the Institute. Patton went on to serve with distinction in the First World War and especially in the Second World War. His German opponents rated Patton the most capable Allied general. (18)
These families were won over by the conciliatory treatment of their Confederate forebears. Their grandfathers fought for the Confederacy. When their time came to serve, they served the United States well and faithfully. These were the fruits of reconciliation. These men honored their Confederate forebears, but, having subsequently declared their loyalty to the United States, they were steadfastly loyal, in peace and conflict, even giving their lives in defense of their country. The Pattonses, Nimitzes, and Forrests were famous. The Griffiths and the Rodens were not as well-known. All were won over by a policy of reconciliation after the war.
Today, however, the cultural Taliban reject reconciliation demand the removal of all things Confederate. Today’s southerners are told their forebears were traitors and were disgraceful. Military installations must be renamed. Monuments must be removed, and even destroyed. The removal of statues means that today’s citizens will not read of the faithful service of their progeny. They will not learn how a conciliatory policy can aid in binding up the nations wounds. Men like Maryland Virginia Griffith, Nathan Bedford Forrest III, and Thomas Jonathan Jackson Christian died in the service of the United States, due in part to the success of reconciliation. Patton and Nimitz were among the most successful of the officers who served the United States and survived their war. Now, however, we wish to turn our backs on reconciliation and malign Confederate forebears. Having received the benefits of bringing the nation together, we refuse to pay the price that made that possible.
In the 1880s, a northern politician named A. S. Salomon decried the decorating of Confederate soldiers’ graves. It seems however, the Salomon did not serve in battle during the Civil War. Ambrose Bierce, who did serve in battle as an officer in the 9th Indiana Infantry and was wounded in Kennesaw, Georgia. When Bierce heard that a man who had never served in the front lines was complaining about decorating the graves of dead southerners, Bierce wrote this poem, which might be useful to today’s chickenhawk cultural Taliban:
To E. S. SALOMON,
What Salomon! such words from you,
Who call yourself a soldier? Well,
The Southern brother where he fell
Slept all your base oration through.
Alike to him—he cannot know
Your praise or blame: as little harm
Your tongue can do him as your arm
A quarter-century ago.
The brave respect the brave. The brave
Respect the dead; but you—you draw
That ancient blade, the ass's jaw,
And shake it o'er a hero's grave.
Are you not he who makes to-day
A merchandise of old renown
Which he persuades this easy town
He won in battle far away?
Nay, those the fallen who revile
Have ne'er before the living stood
And stoutly made their battle good
And greeted danger with a smile.
What if the dead whom still you hate
Were wrong? Are you so surely right?
We know the issues of the fight—
The sword is but an advocate.
Men live and die, and other men
Arise with knowledges diverse:
What seemed a blessing seems a curse,
And Now is still at odds with Then.
The years go on, the old comes back
To mock the new—beneath the sun
Is nothing new; ideas run
Recurrent in an endless track.
What most we censure, men as wise
Have reverently practised; nor
Will future wisdom fail to war
On principles we dearly prize.
We do not know—we can but deem,
And he is loyalest and best
Who takes the light full on his breast
And follows it throughout the dream.
The broken light, the shadows wide—
Behold the battle-field displayed!
God save the vanquished from the blade,
The victor from the victor's pride!
If, Salomon, the blessed dew
That falls upon the Blue and Gray
Is powerless to wash away
The sin of differing from you,
Remember how the flood of years
Has rolled across the erring slain;
Remember, too, the cleansing rain
Of widows' and of orphans' tears.
The dead are dead—let that atone:
And though with equal hand we strew
The blooms on saint and sinner too,
Yet God will know to choose his own.
The wretch, whate'er his life and lot,
Who does not love the harmless dead
With all his heart and all his head—
May God forgive him, I shall not.
When, Salomon, you come to quaff
The Darker Cup with meeker face,
I, loving you at last, shall trace
Upon your tomb this epitaph:
"Draw near, ye generous and brave—
Kneel round this monument and weep
For one who tried in vain to keep
A flower from a soldier's grave." (19)
Sources:
1 Of course, no constitutional question can be settled by force of arms.
2 When President Johnson wanted to know when U.S. Grant was going to arrest Robert E. Lee, Grant informed the president that Grant had given Lee his word that he would not be molested and that he (Grant) would resign before violating that agreement.
3 Anonymous, “The Christian’s Duty to His Enemies,” The Southern Presbyterian Review, December 1866, 493-508.
4 R. L. Dabney, “The Duty of the Hour,” Land We Love, December 1868, 115 & 118.
5 R. L. Dabney, “The Duty of the Hour,” Land We Love, December 1868, 118.
6 Girardeau, pg. 10-11.
7 Girardeau, 13.
8 Girardeau, 14. The use of the terms “Titanic audacity” here is significant. It was the term used by the antebellum theologian James Henley Thornwell in his critique of antebellum northern humanistic theologians and their European progenitors who saw theology as “a thoroughly anthropomorphic category.” In other words, the idea of God was contained within the idea of man. Thornwell, Collected Works, vol. 3, pg. 13. Girardeau was the editor of Thornwell’s collected writings, which were published around the time of this speech.
9 Michael Lee Lanning, The Civil War 100: The Stories Behind the Most Influential Battles, People and Events of the War between the States, (Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, 2007), 83.
10 https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Biographies/Display/Article/108538/brigadier-general-nathan-b-forrest-iii/, accessed May 6, 2024.
11 https://www.americanairmuseum.com/archive/person/thomas-jonathan-jackson-christian, accessed May 6, 2024.
12 E. B. Potter, Nimitz, (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1976), 23-24.
13 Burke Davis, Marine! The Life of Lt. Gen. Lewis B. (Chesty) Puller, USMC (Ret.), (NY: Bantam Books, 1962), p. 7.
14 Davis, Marine! 10-11.
15 Carlo D’Este, Patton: A Genius for War (NY: Harper Collins, 1995), 13.
16 D’Este, Patton, 14-15.
17 D’Este, Patton, 17.
18 Alan Axelrod, Patton (NY: Palgrave MacMillian, 2006), 127.
19 “Prattle,” San Francisco Examiner, June 5, 1887, p. 4, col. 3. Ambrose Bierce, “To E. S. Salomon” [1903], in Bierce, Phantoms of a Blood-Stained Period: The Complete Civil War Writings of Ambrose Bierce, ed. Russell Duncan and David J. Klooster (Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2002), p. 334.
