A Southern Writer and the Civil War

The Confederate Imagination of William Gilmore Simms

By (author) Jeffery J. Rogers

Not available to order

Publication date:

18 February 2015

Length of book:

222 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9781498502023

Historians of the American Civil War have debated a wide range of questions raised by the war and its outcome. None have been more vigorously argued as those surrounding its outcome. One of the leading explanations for Confederate defeat has been the argument that the Civil War South lacked a national identity. Related to and supporting this argument is the contention that the Civil War South failed to produce a distinct and vibrant literary culture. These contentions have been challenged by a growing body of literature which argues that the Civil War South did produce a sense of cultural and national identity. This book adds to this counter current through an examination of the Civil War experiences and writings of the Antebellum South's leading literary figure. Surprisingly, given William Gilmore Simms' well-known status prior to the war, his life and work during the course of the war itself has been understudied. This examination reveals the depth and extent to which Simms not only supported the Confederate war effort but how Simms conceptualized and articulated a vision of Confederate nationalism.

Introduction: Simms, Nationalism, and the Civil War South
Chapter One: From Southern Sectionalist to Southern Nationalist
Chapter Two: Simms and the Formation of the Confederacy
Chapter Three: Embracing the Storm: Simms and the Revolution of 1861
Chapter Four: The War at Woodlands: Simms on the Southern Homefront
Chapter Five: Simms and the Literary Confederacy
Chapter Six: “Art Ready for Battle:” The Poetry of War
Chapter Seven: To the End
Chapter Eight: Conclusion: Simms and Confederate Nationalism

Lexington Books is to be congratulated on publishing an excellent book by Professor Jeffery J. Rogers . . . [This book] is a fine contribution to the extensive writing during 2011 to 2015 in the United States on the Civil War. . . .One can only hope that the new book by Professor Rogers will be followed by more studies of Simms writings during the Civil War.