Southern Historical Society facts for kids
Seal of the Southern Historical Society, designed by Robert A. Brock in 1888.
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| Motto | Latin: Deo vindice |
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| Formation | April 15, 1869 |
| Founder | Dabney H. Maury |
| Founded at | New Orleans |
| Headquarters | Richmond, Virginia |
The Southern Historical Society was an organization founded to preserve the Confederate view of the American Civil War and to promote the Lost Cause of the Confederacy. The society was organized on May 1, 1869, in New Orleans.
History
The Southern Historical Society was founded on April 15, 1869, in New Orleans, by Maj. Gen. Dabney H. Maury. He and the eight other founding members donated family papers, books, and artifacts to the society to form its initial collection. Its first publication began in 1876, continuing until 1959. The society organized on May 1, 1869; signatories included Gen. Braxton Bragg, Maj. J. E. Austin, Maj. Gen. Dabney H. Maury, Maj. B. M. Harrod, Lieut. Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner, Capt. S. H. Buck, Col. A. L. Stuart, Capt. George Norton, and Mr. C. L. C. Dupuy.
Its stated object was "to collect reliable data of the workings of the late Confederate Government, and the battles, sieges and exploits of the war." Benjamin Morgan Palmer, its president, wrote also in July 1873 that:
It is due to the noble men who fell martyrs to the "Lost Cause" that a faithful history of the events of the four years of bloody war be truthfully recorded, and an impartial view of the motives that actuated them be handed down to posterity with the seal of an impartial and unbiased history. . . . The country has been flooded with partisan histories, in many of which the pretended historian has wandered as far from truth as if he had been writing a work of fiction, and in all of these every incident favorable to the Southern character has been suppressed, and the plainest facts so warped that the actors themselves would not recognize them. It is high time steps were taken to record the events of those years as they occurred . . . .
The first officers were Benjamin Morgan Palmer, New Orleans, president; Braxton Bragg, Louisiana, vice-president; Robert E. Lee, Virginia; John C. Breckinridge, Kentucky; and Alexander H. Stephens, Georgia
As originally organized, the organization had a president and secretary-treasurer (the only paid positions). Vice-presidents for each former Confederate state, plus the border states of Maryland, Kentucky and the District of Columbia, were to gather material relating to their areas. Such would document Southern military and civilian viewpoints largely related to the Civil War, offering a Southern perspective on the conflict and opposing a supposed bias of Northern historians. The society reorganized on August 14, 1873, in Montgomery County, Virginia, after which it continued to provide a Confederate perspective to southern history.
The organization's purpose, according to modern historians, was to promote the myth of the Lost Cause in its publications. Historian Alan T. Nolan quotes from the advertisement for subscriptions to the organization's publication, and comments: "Writing whose purpose is to 'vindicate' the 'name and fame' of the South's 'great struggle' plainly proceeds from an advocacy premise". Historian Gaines Foster said it was an "avowedly" historical organization, which "eventually became important in the Confederate tradition"; in their publications a group of Virginian pro-Confederacy writers "refought the war," he wrote.
Legacy
The society established itself at Richmond, which became the home of the American Civil War Museum. It was an influence on the Sons of Confederate Veterans and on activists in favor of public display of the Confederate battle flag. Historians use the society's journal as a source for Civil War research as well as an example of how historical memory can be shaped to serve external goals.
Notable members
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