I am a scion of the Great Commonwealth of Virginia, the Old Dominion, and the son of an avowed Civil War buff so you can probably imagine that my childhood featured a lot of information about the American Civil War. In School I didn’t learn any history after 1865 until I was fourteen. The period between Jamestown and the end of the Civil War was the high point of Virginian hegemony and the school system was perfectly happy to dwell within that temporal space for as long as possible. During my childhood I was frequently taken to battlefields to play - I’ve been to Chancellorsville, the Wilderness, Gettysburg, and many smaller sites more times than I can count. I even have a favourite obscure American Civil War site (it’s the Confederate Breastworks in West Augusta County, Virginia - although more for its scenic views and lovely hiking trail than its historical importance). Few historical events loomed as large in my life as the American Civil War and this has given me a complicated relationship with it.
I was spared the worst of neo-Confederate Lost Cause mythmaking in part thanks to the fact that my father is from Washington, DC, and therefore a fairly die hard Unionist rather than a Confederate sympathiser, but this barrier was not absolute. The insidious tentacled reach of the Lost Cause penetrates deep into ones psyche no matter how strong your barriers against it, and I have had to unlearn several “facts” about the American Civil War over the years. I was even taught, and then thankfully un-taught, core Lost Cause myths in school. While I abhor the Lost Cause and everything it stands for, I am also fascinated by it. Arguably the greatest rebuttal to the idea of “history is written by the victors”, its impact on American history and contemporary society is immense. To really understand how America came to be where it is, and the horrors white Americans committed to bring us here, you have to understand the Lost Cause. In this series I hope to possibly unpick one potential avenue for the Lost Cause to perpetuate itself by on dipping my toes into the immense pool of wargames on the American Civil War and examining them through a lens of not just how fun they are as games but also what they can tell us about how we choose to remember the American Civil War. Before we get into the details of the project, though, I should probably define the Lost Cause and give a general outline of the kinds of things I’m looking for in these games.
I’m not going to give an exhaustive account of the Lost Cause here - an entire sub-field of research is devoted to this topic and they have produced a whole library’s worth of books on the subject. Instead I will provide a brief summary of the Lost Cause and the salient points most relevant to the overall scope of this project - more specific aspects will be brought up in the relevant blog posts as needed.
The Lost Cause is a pseudohistorical narrative that dramatically reframed the reasons behind and the narrative of the American Civil War with the purpose of absolving the Confederacy of its crimes and furthering its ideals of white supremacy in the post war period. The Lost Cause derives its name from two books written by Edward A. Pollard, The Lost Cause: A New Southern History of the War of the Confederates (published in 1866) and The Lost Cause Regained (published in 1868). Pollard was an avowed White Supremacist who had worked at the Richmond Examiner throughout the war. However, while Pollard gave the movement its name it is important to note that there was no singular author of the Lost Cause. Ex-Confederates made substantial contributions, sometimes through their memoirs or, in the case of Confederate General Jubal Early, through numerous speeches and contributions to newspapers and magazines. Organisations formed in the wake of the war to commemorate those who fought, such as the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the Daughters of the Confederacy, also made significant contributions to the Lost Cause. In some cases even academics contributed as the narrative became the dominant one in post-war America. That’s not to say there was no push back, the memoirs of Union generals and their allies, especially in the nineteenth century, usually pushed back against the Lost Cause narrative. However, the Lost Cause ultimately won the post war conflict over the war’s narrative, even convincing some Union generals to its side in the process. Until at least the 1960s the Lost Cause was the predominate, although not exclusive, story of the American Civil War and it persists in certain circles today.
So what was the story they were trying to tell? The Lost Cause is more of a loose network of White Supremacy and neo-Confederate sympathies than a singular canon but there are some principles that are shared across the vast majority of Lost Cause narratives. These are:
The American Civil War was Not About Slavery - Probably the most fundamental principle of the Lost Cause, this rejects the very obvious fact that the reason for the secession of the southern states and the entire reason for the war was the desire of the south to retain their “peculiar institution”. Ignoring the many times that secessionists stated their purpose for leaving the United States, the Lost Cause blames the war on Northern aggression or, more commonly, frames it as a dispute over “States Rights”.
The South Was Fighting For Its Freedom - Closely related to the above, particular the idea of the war being about States Rights, this has an extra layer of recasting the Confederacy as a noble fight against a larger, oppressive neighbour. A doomed last stand of the underdog standing up for traditional values against the brutality of an industrialised North, this sympathetic picture of the Confederacy has long endured in popular media and is perhaps the most literal reason for the name Lost Cause. This argument will sometimes go so far as to suggest that it was a good thing the South lost because it did bring about the end of slavery, but they will quickly add that slavery would have ended naturally within a few years (it wouldn’t have) and the cost of the war was far greater than leaving the South alone would have done.
Slavery Was Good Actually - This one largely predates the actual Civil War but retained significant vigor after the defeat of the Confederacy and in particular was a potent contributor to Jim Crow rule in the South. According to this argument, black people liked being slaves and the Antebellum South was a blissful time of happy cohabitation between the races who each had the decency to know their place. The new postwar order was chaos until Jim Crow was instated to restore some sort of order. Some readers may notice that elements of this argument may be in conflict with some of those above - don’t get too exercised about this, the Lost Cause has more in common with conspiracy theories than it does with actual history. Internal logic is not necessary to sustaining its myths.
The Cult of Lee - The Lost Cause has three individuals it holds up as its saintly pillars: Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, Jefferson Davis, and, most importantly, Robert E. Lee. Jackson is the Cause’s martyr, dying a heroes death in the war during the high point of Confederate victories. Davis, in his role as die hard secessionist and first (and only) president of the Confederacy, represents the cause of secession as a whole. However, it is Robert E. Lee, the Confederacy’s most successful general, who has risen to truly saintly status. The Lost Cause instilled a genuine religious worship of Lee in the war’s aftermath, one that even infected non-Southerners. Lee is the Lost Cause’s God.
Those are four of the core principles for understanding the Lost Cause and its impact on American society. However, there are several more niche arguments, some of them derived from the above main principles, that are a little more likely to show up in wargames. Several of these will be discussed as they become relevant, but I thought I would highlight a few now as something to keep an eye out for.
The War Was Fought in Virginia - The sanctification of Lee and Jackson has gone hand in hand with emphasising the theater they fought in as they both served in the Army of Northern Virginia. The Lost Cause has reinforced the primacy of this theater while neglecting the Western Theater, where famous Union generals like Grant and Sherman cut their teeth and earned their reputations. In Lost Cause historiography the Virginia theater is what matters most and this allows them to emphasise how superior generals like Lee and Jackson were to Union rivals like McLellan, Hooker, and Burnside. Of course, at the same time, some Lost Cause narratives will describe Lee and Jackson as amazing generals who were ultimately let down by their fellow generals, like Johnson and Hood. There are many ways to peel a neo-Confederate onion.
The South Lost Because of Industry - A popular explanation for why the Confederacy lost, and part of the narrative of a doomed underdog, is that most of America’s industry was in the North. The Union simply had more men, more money, and more guns and the South never had any hope of victory no matter how superior their generals or their soldiers were. This of course ignores that the Union had by far the harder job: invading and occupying most of the South against sustained hostile opposition and in a thorny political climate. Make no mistake, the South could have won and it took a mix of talent and luck on the part of numerous Union generals and politicians to bring about the end of slavery in the United States. However, the notion that Union victory was inevitable persists and an overemphasis on resources and industry while ignoring the political challenges facing the United States is a potential pitfall for wargames.
So given all of that, what is it I’m proposing to do? Well, I have drafted in a few victim --I mean… “volunteers” to join me as we play through a range of wargames on the American Civil War. I will be selecting games from a range of designers at different scales and from different series trying to get a snapshot of the major battles and campaigns of the war. We will be playing the war in approximately chronological order - I say approximately because while we will be keeping within a given year (i.e. playing all of 1862 before moving on to 1863) we may jump around a bit to better fit series or related battles in individual theatres together. The plan is not to play every game on the American Civil War, or even near it, but rather to get a decent sample of the kinds of games that are out there with a bias towards games that are supposed to be good - we are still trying to have fun after all!
After we play each game we will be recording a podcast in association with the YouTube channel/podcast Homo Ludens where my opponent - game designer Pierre Vagneur-Jones - and I will chat with host Fred Serval about the game, what we liked, what we didn’t, etc. Pierre and Fred are also largely unfamiliar with the American Civil War so this will be a good opportunity to balance out my intense familiarity with the conflict with the opinions of two people who are kind of learning as we go. I will also be writing blog posts about the games - either impressions or reviews as merited - and I may also write about a couple of games that I play solitaire rather than with Pierre. Also, since any project like this requires substantial research, I’ll be reading histories of the American Civil War and the Lost Cause and posting reviews of them on the blog as well.
In addition to content about each game I will be attempting to draw together broader themes as we explore the games and I will publish my thoughts on this blog. These posts will probably only start to appear once we have a few games under our belt and I can start looking at the scope of games from a wider view. Don’t hold your breathe is what I’m saying, we’ll be at this a while!
So that’s the plan, for now at least. As we all know no plan completely survives contact with the enemy so I expect this will face revisions as we get deeper into it. We will also be announcing the next game at the end of each podcast, so if you want you can play along with us and let us know what you think about the games!
We decided to start the project with the war’s first major battle and a venerable classic, Manassas by Rick Britton, first published in 1980. It seemed only fitting to start the project with an old school hex and counter game about the war’s first major battle. I wrote a very long review of this masterpiece of a game, which I recommend you read. You can also listen to Pierre and I discuss the game with a surprise guest host!