Rebels against the Confederacy
North Carolina's Unionists

This book analyzes the secret world of hundreds of white and black Southern Unionists as they struggled for survival in a new Confederate world.

Barton A. Myers (Author)

9781107075245, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 October 2014

288 pages, 6 tables
23.1 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm, 0.54 kg

'Barton A. Myers adds significantly to the extensive scholarship on Confederate residents who opposed their states' participation in the Civil War … readers will be … impressed by the fascinating stories Myers extracted from the many pages of testimony in each claim. The stories illuminate the suffering these North Carolinians experienced as well as their collective role in impeding the Confederacy … By tracing the lives of unconditional Unionists into the postwar South and revealing the 'violence, economic discrimination, and health struggles' these individuals encountered, Myers explains how their weakened and dispersed nature impeded their ability to tell their story. But even more critical was the desire in the region to expunge Southern history of its Unionist experience to maintain the myth of Confederate unity during the conflict. Myers deserves credit for his critical role in reversing this regional amnesia.' Robert C. Kenzer, The Journal of American History

In this groundbreaking study, Barton A. Myers analyzes the secret world of hundreds of white and black Southern Unionists as they struggled for survival in a new Confederate world, resisted the imposition of Confederate military and civil authority, began a diffuse underground movement to destroy the Confederacy, joined the United States Army as soldiers, and waged a series of violent guerrilla battles at the local level against other Southerners. Myers also details the work of Confederates as they struggled to build a new nation at the local level and maintain control over manpower, labor, agricultural, and financial resources, which Southern Unionists possessed. The story is not solely one of triumph over adversity but also one of persecution and, ultimately, erasure of these dissidents by the postwar South's Lost Cause mythologizers.

1. Secession: 'it was perfect madness'
2. Confederate control: 'such a monarchical or tyrannical government'
3. Resistance: 'I never wanted any other flag to wave over my head'
4. Irregular wars: 'a state of insurrection against the laws'
5. Unionists under Reconstruction (and in repose): 'I don't feel safe'
6. Epilogue: 'all classes in the South united as by magic'.

Subject Areas: Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], History of the Americas [HBJK], History [HB]