War Time Destruction and Post War Politics in the South, 1861-1867 - Dr. Paul Paskoff

West Baton Rouge Museum Podcast

Presented by Dr. Paul Paskoff. This talk examines the physical destructiveness of the Civil War and the effects of the conflict on the politics of the immediate postwar years in the South. As the main theater of combat, the territory of the Confederacy bore the brunt of the war’s destructive energies. Reports, passed down from generation to generation, of looting and ruin at the hands of soldiers in both armies, paint a picture of the ruin of the South’s farms and plantations and the destruction by cannon and fire of many, even most, of its cities and towns. Those accounts have considerably exaggerated the extent and significance of the war’s physical destructiveness in the South, thereby distorting the history of the conflict. The war also supposedly contributed to the transformation of southern politics during and immediately after the fighting because of many white voters’ disillusionment and alienation from the dominant planter class, whose members supposedly avoided military service. Dr. Paskoff will explain assertions to that effect are mistaken and have also helped to distort the history of the Civil War. Recorded May 7th, 2015