Baptized in Blood

Recently Received: Baptized in Blood: The Religion of the Lost Cause, 1865-1920, by Charles Reagan Wilson, Publisher: University of Georgia Press.

In losing the Civil War, Southerners lost the ability to create their own distinctive political identity. This did not mean, however, that their dreams died; instead they altered course and set about creating a distinctive cultural identity within the larger American political union. This cultural identity was based in part on a combination of traditional religious beliefs which for years had sustained both slavery and secession and the myth of a “Lost Cause,” a veneration of the failed secession. Together these forces created a new civil religion that sustained Southern culture and helped forge a new cultural identity.

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