The Civil War: 1861-?

Last night I finished Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War, by Tony Horwitz. I've had the hardcover on my bookshelf for some time now, after having borrowed it from my Mom. A recent glowing recommendation from LB prompted me to pick it up and read the first few pages. Horwitz's humorous tone and interesting writing quickly drew me in, and, to employ an oft-used phrase, I couldn't put the book down. Despite its having interrupted my protracted dalliance with Tolstoy, Confederates is an amusing and at times sad commentary on the aftermath of the Civil War in the present-day South.

Horwitz is a Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent as well as the author of several books. He has been to Bosnia and the Middle East, but in Confederates, he travels to a battleground much closer to home - that of the erstwhile states of the Confederacy during the U.S. Civil War. Horwitz spends the bulk of his time traveling through the states that saw the most important - as well as the bloodiest - battles of the war. He travels the back roads and checks out the local restaurants, seemingly always meeting a friendly, aged museum curator, collector of Civil War memorabilia, or one of a host of "hardcores" - men who spend inordinate amounts of time and effort to time-travel back to the 1860's. Period dress, long marches, poor food, and an insatiable desire to be the part in all aspects produce some colorful characters in Horwitz's narrative, including the evident messiah of hardcore Civil War buffs, one Robert Lee Hodge.

Hodge delights in being as authentic as possible. He is obsessed with accurate period clothing, losing weight to give himself the starved, gaunt look of Johnny Reb, and he ensures an offensive and malodorous presence by not washing over the entirety of his Civil War "vacations" of several days in length, acquiring as much dirt, grime, grease and tobacco juice upon his person and his beard as is possible by both accident and human agency. He has also perfected the "bloat," a near-perfect imitation of a battlefield casualty bloated in death, as depicted in so many post-battle photographs.

Horwitz joins Hodge in a Civil "Wargasm" - a week-long whirlwind trip through the South, hitting as many major and minor battlegrounds, skirmish sites and monuments as possible. Lack of sleep, marching, eating sow belly, sneaking onto the Gettysburg battlefield after dark, sleeping on the ground where countless men bled and perished, Horwitz and Hodge achieve a so-called "period rush" through this experiential time travel of sorts.

The theme of Horwitz's work is that in many ways, the Civil War never ended - neo-Confederates proclaim that the South will rise again, spouting crackpot racist and political propaganda; young southern whites bedeck themselves and their pickup trucks with the Stars & Bars - the old CSA battle flag - while young blacks get infuriated at this symbol of perceived bigotry (neither side seems to have any idea of the actual history behind the flag); Horwitz, a Jew, encounters shockingly rabid anti-Semitism and ignorance from both whites and blacks alike (they are unqualifiably surprised when they discover that he himself is Jewish - "Not all Jews are that bad" seems to be the common refrain).

What is surprising - and rather depressing - is how deep the wounds of the Civil War and Reconstruction are in the deep South and elsewhere to a lesser degree. Widespread lack of knowledge about the actual history is astounding, resulting in several anecdotes that provide the reader with a glimpse of the nearly incomprehensible lunacy masquerading as pure-race propaganda, neo-states' rightism, and the striking juxtaposition between the lack of appreciation of the achievements of the era, and the revisionist hero-worship of genuinely awful human beings. While many of the people Horwitz comes across are laughable in their beliefs, it is at the same time disheartening to learn that such thought persists some 140 years after the fact. Indeed, it seems that this sort of neo-Confederate thought is making a comeback of sorts in recent years.

Horwitz's book is entertaining, however, and quite illuminating. There's actually a good deal of real Civil War history packed in there, along with a few of the more esoteric tidbits from the conflict. Horwitz investigates and confirms or debunks a few of the myths from the time period (the minié ball pregnancy, in which a rifle ball pierced the genitals of a man and entered those of a woman, impregnating her; the beginnings of the Ku-Klux Klan - not quite the same in its original incarnation as the KKK 2.0 which arose in the early 20th century; the first shots of the war not actually being those fired at Fort Sumter but instead a few shots across the bow of a Federal naval vessel trying to enter Charleston Harbor - by mere Citadel cadets; these are just a few of the tasty morsels that Horwitz serves up).

All in all a great read. Eminently readable, funny, informative, and unfortunately bittersweet in its implication for race relations in the U.S. moving forward, I would recommend this without reservation to any Civil War buff. It's also a very accessible piece of social commentary for those not usually inclined to historical study.

Horwitz inspired me to pick up Battle Cry of Freedom last night. This one might take a bit longer to finish.