Resumo de Civil War Memories Were Filtered Through The Pain Of Losing A Brother At Gettysburg

Warfare on Little Round Top, July 2, 1863,made Lieutenant Colonel Joshua Chamberlain a Northern icon and ahousehold word. But what of his Rebel counterpart in the 15th Alabama?Glenn LaFantasie's Gettysburg Requiem: The Life and Lost Causes ofConfederate Colonel William C. Oates (Oxford University Press, Oxford,2006, $35) reveals that while the Battle of Gettysburg also served asthe defining point of Oates' life, Little Round Top distressed him,unlike Chamberlain, throughout the postwar years. While Oates'Alabamians fought as valiantly as the 20th Maine, they were repelledand lost many men. Oates' younger brother, John, was among thosemortally wounded. LaFantasie asserts that the guilt Oates felt due tohis inability to save his wounded brother haunted him for the rest ofhis life.The author primarily based his research onthe Oates' family papers and a previously published regimental historywritten by the Confederate colonel, while also incorporating regimentalfiles, personal correspondence and Confederate records. He effectivelycombines those primary sources with a significant amount of secondaryworks to present Oates as a complex person who attempted to achieve anaristocratic standing within Southern society. Although he never ownedany slaves and came from a modest farming background, he stillsupported the patriarchal structure upon which slavery was based.The Civil War affected Gates' marriage,shaped his personal relationships and determined his politicalaffiliation. The conflict also left Oates physically impaired. At the1864 Battle of Fussell's Mill. Va., he lost his right arm after a Miniéball shattered its upper portion. After the war, Oates returned toAbbeville and built a successful law practice. Believing theReconstruction policies of the Radical Republicans were too harsh uponhis native South, he later became involved in politics in the attemptto maintain white superiority within the region. Although he neverachieved his ultimate goal of gaining a Senate seat, he served as aDemocratic governor of Alabama and represented Alabama in the House ofRepresentatives.Oates' painful recollection of losing hisbrother at Gettysburg prevented him from wholeheartedly embracing theromanticized version of the war that Lost Cause proponents espoused. Inan attempt to contend with those painful memories. Oates wrote hisregimental history of his beloved 15th Alabama to publicize theirsacrifices, honor and courageous exploits.Throughout the postwar years, Oates andChamberlain continued to battle, this time over their respectiveversions of what happened on Little Round Top. Both wrote letters tothe Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association with widely disparateviews of the fight and what monumentation should be placed on the rockyhill. Their wrangling prompts LaFantasie to ask the reader to rethinkthe previous assertions made by some historians that North and Southsmoothly reconciled in the late 19th century. Instead, LaFantasiepoints out that tension between Oates and Chamberlain regarding thefight at Little Round Top remained into the early 20th century. Oatesbelieved that a monument to the 15th Alabama should be placed on LittleRound Top, but the Memorial Association remained firm that Confederatestatutes would be located at their battle line position, alongpresent-day Confederate Avenue. In the end, Oates lost his second fightat Gettysburg, as no monument for the 15th Alabama was ever placed onLittle Round Top.LaFantasie's treatment is balanced, depictingOates as imperfect, acknowledging the colonels violent tendencies andill-advised decisions on the battlefield. Whereas Mark Perry'scomparative biography Conceived in Liberty: Joshua Chamberlain, WilliamOates, and the American Civil War offers a similar depiction of Oates,Perry's piece contains numerous factual errors. LaFantasie's work,however, provides a significant contribution to Civil Warhistoriography, presenting the reader with a thorough biography of aman whom histoly forgotten.

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