The won cause
Subtitle: black and white comradeship in the Grand Army of the Republic
By: Barbara A. Gannon
Series: Civil War America; Civil War America
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Chapel Hill
Language: eng
Number of pages: 282
ISBN-13: 9780807834527
Subjects: Race relations; History; Veterans; Grand Army of the Republic; Societies
Description: "According to the conventional view, the freedoms and interest of African American veterans were not defended by white Union veterans after the war, despite the shared tradition of sacrifice among both black and white soldiers. In The won cause, however, Gannon challenges this scholarship, arguing that although black veterans still suffered under the contemporary racial mores, the GAR honored its black members in many instances and ascribed them a greater equality than previous studies have shown. Using evidence of integrated posts and veterans' thoughts on their comradeship and the cause, Gannon reveals that white veterans embraced black veterans because their membership in the GAR demonstrated that their wartime suffering created a transcendent bond -- comradeship -- that overcame even the most pernicious social barrier -- race-based separation. By upholding a more inclusive memory of a war fought for liberty as well as union, the GAR's "won cause" challenged the lost cause version of Civil War memory"--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [253]-269) and index.
Table of contents: title: The only association where black men and white men mingle on a foot of equality; title: Comradeship tried : the GAR in the South; title: The African American post; title: The black GAR circle; title: Heirs of these dead heroes : African Americans and the battle for memory; title: Memorial Day in black and white; title: Where separate Grand Army posts are unknown, as colored and white are united : the integrated post; title: Community, memory, and the integrated post; title: Comrades bound by memories many; title: And if spared and growing older; title: Liberty and union, now and forever, one and inseparable : what they remembered they won; title: The won cause at century's end; title: A story of a slaveholding society that became a servant of freedom : the won cause in the twentieth century; title: Epilogue: all one that day if never again : the final days of the GAR; title: Appendix 1: African American GAR posts; title: Appendix 2: Integrated GAR posts.