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Lessons of the Centennial

October 27, 2007 12:36 am

"The Gray Ghost is what they call me. John Mosby is my name."

THESE WORDS, la- conically uttered by an altogether too handsome actor playing John Singleton Mosby, introduced each episode of the 1957-58 television series "The Gray Ghost."

Viewed today, that short-lived series features implausible plots, poor costuming, crude production values and even worse history. To a rapt 7-year-old boy, however, Mosby and his men galloping over the Southern California countryside were Robin Hood-like heroes triumphing over evil in the form of hopelessly inept Yankees. Little did I know it at the time, but what I was watching was a precursor to the nation's observance of the 100th anniversary of the Civil War.

Now, there is a book that chronicles the centennial of the Civil War. Just in time for the sesquicentennial of the war, Robert J. Cook's "Troubled Commemoration" provides an extensively researched, well-written analysis of the successes and failures (mostly failures, in the author's view) of the official observance of the centennial.

Cook, a professor of American history at the University of Sheffield in England, has produced a scholarly, if somewhat expensive ($45), narrative, but one that is accessible to the layman. However, the potential reader should be warned that he or she will encounter more than a little jargon of the historian's trade. (Beware of "consensus," "counter memory" and "the academy.")

"Troubled Commemoration" is really two books in one. The great majority of the text analyzes the official observance of the Civil War centennial as seen through the U. S. Civil War Centennial Commission created by Congress in 1957. It traces the formation of the commission, its mission and its troubled relationship with state commissions and the federal government.

The author deals with products and events not directly resulting from commission activities in much less detail in the latter part of the book. Those include books (Bruce Catton's trilogy, Shelby Foote's "The Civil War, a Narrative"), magazines (American Heritage), movies ("Shenandoah," "The Horse Soldiers"), television shows ("The Gray Ghost," "The Americans"), new visitor centers at battlefields, etc., that were probably more influential than anything the commission did.

While giving these things little elaboration, Cook does connect them to the same motivations and prejudices that guided the commission, including racism. For instance, almost no media took on the causes of the war or dealt with the role of blacks in any serious way.

The purpose of the Centennial Commission was to commemorate the greatest watershed era in American history. Interestingly, Congress authorized it during what we now see as another great watershed era, a time that saw the zenith of the Cold War and the height of the civil rights movement.

Cook shows that the Cold War was a great motivating factor in the centennial in attempting to generate unity and patriotism. At the same time, the civil rights movement both affected and was affected by the centennial.

Cook describes the centennial as being extremely important for the country to display a united front to communism. Both North and South could agree on and honor the bravery and sacrifice on both sides. However, in order to achieve "consensus" between North and South, the commission, under the guidance of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant III, had to overlook the causes and consequences of the war.

Also, it had to ignore the contributions and sufferings of black Americans during the war. Strange as it may seem today, that is exactly what the commission did. Having no black members no doubt facilitated this collective amnesia.

Cook shows that the primary instigators of the centennial observance were Civil War roundtables (primarily Civil War enthusiasts) and Civil War scholars. Between these two groups there was disagreement as to whether the centennial should be a celebration or a scholarly commemoration.

At first the "celebrators" were triumphant. However, the 1961 centennial gathering in Charleston was their undoing as the commission leaders mishandled efforts of the New Jersey delegation to obtain accommodations for a black representative.

After that, the scholars of a more liberal bent, headed by Allan Nevins and James I. "Bud" Robertson, took over. Although they moved the commission away from celebrations and demonstrated more sensitivity to blacks' interests, their efforts were inhibited by even greater concerns over the reaction of Southern state commissions using the centennial as a celebration of a tradition of states' rights.

For their part, civil rights leaders refused to look back nostalgically at the Civil War. Rather, they saw the Emancipation Proclamation and postwar civil rights legislation as unfulfilled promises. To white organizers of the commemorations, especially in the South, their views were unwelcome discordant notes that detracted from the unifying purposes of the centennial.

Perhaps the largest lesson of Cook's book is that the America of the 1960s was a country too embroiled in dealing with the consequences of the Civil War to view that struggle dispassionately, fairly and inclusively.

The author quotes Ohio State historian John Y. Simon, who said in 1965: "The Civil War was a pulsating force in the American present and only the dead past will rest quietly for graveside services of commemoration. Because the centennial had come too soon, the work of the USCWCC cannot be labeled as either a success or a failure, but as an impossibility."

It remains to be seen whether we can do better 50 years later, as legislation for a Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission slowly makes its way through Congress.