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8/3/2019 The Making of a Confederate Book Review

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Charles M. SimeltonHistory 343 Civil War and ReconstructionBook Review

The Making of A Confederate

In The Making of A Confederate we read about Walter Lenoir who was a member of a

well known North Carolinian Family who had a wealth that depended on their Slaves and how

much land they owned. We learn quickly that Lenoir was not really for the secession movement

that was underway in the South. On Page 50 It says ... Walter argues, the states should

proclaim a policy of armed neutrality and align itself with the other border slave states. This is

interesting to me because there were many in North Carolina who felt this way. He went on to

say on Page 51 that he had only a faint hope that North Carolina would remain neutral in a

military showdown between the Federal government and the Confederate government. Walter

was actually for being neutral until Lincoln mobilized an army after Fort Sumter this to Walter

was a deceleration of war in his opinion.

Close to the start of the Civil War Lenoir lost his wife and his only child in the years

before the war. He thought about moving from North Carolina to Minnesota. He wanted to get

away. That wasnt possible because the Civil War changed what his plans were not to mention

the rest of the war changed what he thought of the South. From the moment Lincoln called for

troops after the firing on Fort Sumter Lenoir and other Carolinians who viewed that as a war

declaration convinced their selves of the righteousness of the Confederate cause he like many


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others took up arms for the Confederacy. Lenoir signed up in January of 1862 he was thirty-eight

years of age. He would see Action for the first time on the 9th of August 1862. Then just three

weeks later he would fight in the final battle of the Second Bull Run he fought with his unit at

Ox Hill. This would be Lenoirs last stand. He would suffer two leg wounds. He survived the

wounds but the doctors of the Confederacy would amputate his right leg just below his knee. It

was interesting to me because I learned that there was no anesthesia they just went on and sawed

the leg off. That is gruesome enough for me. I realized that I couldnt fight in those times. I

respect every soldier in this war for their toughness.

After his brief stint he would return back to North Carolina. On Page 110 he felt that the

more he thought about it the holier the war became. To me this says that he no longer stood

behind being against secession but he was now passionate about the confederate cause. He

remained positive that the confederacy would win the war. After the war he would fall into what

most of the Southerners would feel was the Lost Cause Theory. Lenior spent his years after the

war angry and upset with his inability to gain back the wealth of his family by selling much of

his land. He would blame the Yankees rules and emancipation of the slaves for the problems the

South was now going through. This was the sentiments of many of the Southerners. When

Barney lost his leg he looked to his slaves to help take care of him. He relied on them. This is a


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different turn for someone who wanted to let them go because he had no need for them. He

wanted to let them go but he couldnt because the South stated that No Negro could be set free.

The discussion about class in this novel Professor Barney didnt take away from the

centrality of Race and Slavery. Lenoir didnt really like slavery he never thought of slavery as a

positive. Professor Barney wrote that Lenior viewed slavery as both wrong and necessary.

(205) Lenior to me didnt really fall in line with his antislavery rhetoric. When Lenior visited the

Midwest he said he found the antislavery attitude fanatical for him.(41) Then in 1963 he

would encourage his brothers to purchase slaves.

Barney pointed out that Lenior was utterly dependent on his slaves. (110) To the

Southerner who subscribed to the Lost Cause thought felt that slavery had not been what the

conflict was about but the Antebellum Southern society was beneficial for all who were in the

conflict including slaves. To the Southerners the emancipation that came from the yankee was

only hatred and not for any concern for the slaves. Lenior felt that the freed people would now

suffer.

To me the thought of the Lost Cause sounds like what I have heard from family and

friends from the South. That the Civil war wasnt about slavery at all it was about preserving

culture it was about being allowed to be who they were to preserve the Antebellum South.


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Culture from the North and the South are not similar even today. In the South it is more about

manners and women not really as independent as the Northern counterparts. This could be

because the South took a biblical culture as where the North went on in to a new age theory

where it wasnt always about what the Lord says. We see that in todays society. Lenior didnt

actually fight for the Antebellum South until he experienced the war and I feel it was his

dependency on his slaves that made him understand what the South understood. He was in my

opinion blinded by the confederate ideology that the Yankee wanted to destroy the Southern

values and wanted to destroy the South. I honestly feel in my heart that the North wanted to free

the slaves because it was the right thing to do not because it would destroy and tear apart the

South. The South felt that the North was upset because they werent able to trade with the British

like the South could.

This was a novel I enjoyed reading it made me think about the process that the

confederate soldier went through. It was better because we dealt with a soldier who wasnt really

for secession and who wasnt really for slavery and we got to see the transformation in to the

passionate Confederate. The making of a Confederate isnt necessarily about where you live or

where you are from. It is about you ideals. It was about maintaining that Antebellum South and

It was about preserving core values. Maybe the Confederation cared about the slaves just as

much as the Union did but they chose a different way to show it. They felt that what was best for

the slaves was to remain slaves. Maybe if the South would have treated the slaves better and did


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not treat them like property, but like human beings; maybe this war wouldnt have been fought. I

side with the North on this account because the South may have felt they knew what was best for

the slaves but when we look at African Americans now they are some of the most successful

people in the world. That leaves me with this one last question: where would we be as a nation

had slavery not been abolished?

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