in 1865 many sought to remember the South through their own personal immortalisation in reunions. These reunions, particularly those of the Confederate veterans gave them a chance to ‘remember the past and their dead and keep strong bonds of camaraderie’. 234 Veterans of the ill-fated Army of Tennessee met regularly to reminisce the War but also to share memories of the era which they had so fought to keep alive. The sight of ‘the regimental flag, tom and blackened in battle, elicited almost as much emotion from Veterans as did the mention of dead comrades’. 235 These popular ‘veteran reunions’ allowed those who fought in the war to keep the dream of the Confederacy alive and quickly spread into the hearts of the American people. Ethel Moore a contributor to the Veteran, wrote into the paper, ‘in the eyes of Southern people all Confederate veterans are heroes. It is you [Confederate Veterans] who preserve the traditions and memories of the old-time South- the sunny south, with its beautiful lands and its happy people… the South that will go down in history as the land of plenty and the home of heroes’. 236 Ultimately these reunions led to the belief that there was ‘a public need for the myth of the South’ and the memory of the ideals of the past. 237 This also reflected the South’s stubbornness to change, and the Civil War reflected this trait of the South that has continued throughout its history. John Franklin observes the fact that, ‘if the South was unwilling to make any significant concessions toward change during the antebellum years, it saw no reason why defeat at the hands of the North during a bloody Civil War 234 Gary W. Gallagher, The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History , (Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 2000) p.105. 235 Ibid, pp.93-94. 236 Ethel Moore, Confederate Veterans: VI , (October 1898), p.489. 237 Michael O’Brien, The Idea of the American South 1920-1941 , (Baltimore, The John Hopkins University Press, 1979) p.27.
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