The Lost Colony of the Confederacy (Williams-Ford Texas A&M; University Military History Series)
by Eugene C. Harter
Category: History

The Lost Colony of the Confederacy is the story of a grim, quixotic journey of twenty thousand Confederates to Brazil at the end of the American Civil War. Although it is not known exactly how many Confederates migrated to South America -- estimates range from eight thousand to forty thousand -- their departure was fueled by bitterness over a lost cause and a distaste for an oppressive victor. Encouraged by Emperor Dom Pedro, most of these exiles settled in Brazil. Although at the time of the Civil War the exodus was widely known and discussed as an indicator of the resentment against the northern invaders and the strict measures imposed by the federal government after the peace at Appomattox, The Lost Colony of the Confederacy is the first book to focus on this mass migration. Eugene C. Harter vividly describes the lives of these last Confederates who founded their own city and were called Os Confederados by the Brazilians. They retained much of their Southernness and lent an American flavor to Brazilian culture. The cultural province they established still exists as testimony to the hardiness of Southern ways. First published in 1985, this work details the background of the exodus and describes the life of the twentieth-century descendants, who have a strong link both to Southern history and to modern Brazil. The fires have cooled, but it is useful to understand the intense feelings that sparked the migration to Brazil and other areas of the globe. Southern ways have melded into Brazilian, and both are linked by the unbreakable bonds of history, as shown in this revealing account.