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Explores the crucial role of rhetoric and oratory in creating and propagating a “Lost Cause” public memory of the American South Enduring Legacy explores the vital place of ceremonial oratory in the oral tradition in the South and analyses how rituals such as Confederate Memorial Day, Confederate veteran reunions, and dedication of Confederate monuments have contributed to creating and sustaining a Lost Cause paradigm for Southern identity. Towns studies in detail secessionist and Civil War speeches and how they laid the groundwork for future generations, including Southern responses to the civil rights movement, and beyond. The Lost Cause orators that came after the Civil War, Towns argues, helped to shape a lasting mythology of the brave Confederate martyr, and the Southern positions for why the Confederacy lost and who was to blame. Innumerable words were spent—in commemorative speeches, newspaper editorials, and statehouse oratory—condemning the evils of Reconstruction, redemption, reconciliation, and the new and future South. Towns concludes with an analysis of how Lost Cause myths still influence Southern and national perceptions of the region today, as evidenced in debates over the continued deployment of the Confederate flag and the popularity of Civil War reenactments.

There was never a Confederate Memorial Day celebration, a Confederate veterans’ reunion, or a Confederate monument dedication without the program including at least one oration by a local dignitary, often a Confederate general or other high-ranking officer, or a local soldier who was always portrayed as a hero of the conflict. Occasionally, the orator of the day was a minister who had been a Confederate chaplain or who was well respected in the local area. Generally, there were several speeches: an introductory, welcoming address by the city’s mayor or the president of the local monument association or veterans’ group that

There is no question that Confederate ceremonial events and the rituals and rhetoric that created the cult of the Lost Cause made a deep and abiding impression on the white citizens of the post–Civil War South. A typical example of these celebrations and their impact on their communities occurred in Augusta, Georgia, in 1887. A newspaper reporter described the event: “The celebration of Memorial Day this year will certainly be on a grand scale, the Survivors’ and Ladies’ Association having entered into the movement with great earnestness and in thorough accord. All the railroads have arranged reduced rates, and

Concurrently with their defense of the right of secession and the rights of states, Lost Cause orators defined, described, and defended the mythology of the Civil War. Southerners had not believed they could lose in their struggles with the North, as they believed God was on their side and that they were correct in their belief in secession, rights of states, and slavery—but they did lose the war, secession was forever laid to rest, and slavery was abolished. In short, the region that had for generations prided itself on its manhood, military heritage, and political leadership skills found itself

Lost Cause rhetoric included not only defense, glorification, and justification of the Confederacy and the Old South and its war heroes, but also the clearly connected and relevant mythology of what happened to the region after Appomattox. The Civil War may have been the great epic event of southern history, but the decades that followed were almost its equal. The narrative of tradition, defeat, wartime glory, and inevitable disaster had to be rounded out with the additional stories of the black days of Reconstruction, the satisfaction of Redemption, the patriotic appeal of Reconciliation, and, based on all that, the New

Perhaps in no other Western nation of modern times has the practice of public speaking played such a predominant role in the life of a nation as in the United States. Beginning with the earliest Puritan sermons and continuing into the twenty-first century, much of the history of America can be read through a study of political oratory and legislative speeches, religious sermons, public lectures, courtroom pleadings, ceremonial addresses, and biographies of the men and women who left their mark from the public platform. Ephemeral though they may be, and targeted to a specific audience at a specific time and

Since before the beginning of recorded history, the human race has acknowledged the need to celebrate and honor the important aspects of culture—its religion, its heroes, its victories, and its defeats; archaeological findings and anthropological research conclusively show this human trait. As Victor Turner writes: “People in all cultures recognize the need to set aside certain times and spaces for celebratory use.” According to Bernard Lewis, a culture’s “remembered history” is “preserved in commemorative ceremonies and monuments . . . and in the words associated with them.” James Mayo observes that “rituals temporarily add definitions to place, and communities

Not only do these essays throw a focused light on Lincoln's best-known works such as the Gettysburg Address and his second inaugural address, but they also examine lesserknown speeches like his address to the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois, in 1838 and his 1852 eulogy on Henry Clay. In the fourth essay, Stephen Cushman shows readers the manner in which Ihe language in the Gettysburg Address and in Lincoln's second inaugural address shaped and reflected the wave of mourning that swept the nation as Americans tried to deal with the grief and shock over the incredible number of war deaths.