Confederate Veteran Magazine – Old Magazine Articles

Why The Rebels Fought
(Confederate Veteran Magazine, 1918)

Fed-up with decades of articles and editorials declaring that he and his Confederate comrades fought tirelessly for four years in order to preserve and advance the cause of slavery, elderly Southern veteran, James Callaway, put pen to paper in order explain that this was not the case. Equipped with numerous passages from A Soldier’s Recollections and an artificial Lincoln quote, Calloway argued that it was Northern aggression that swelled the Confederate ranks.

Christianity in the Confederate States
(Confederate Veteran, 1922)

In the war society of the South, religion played a leading roll… The Methodist and Presbyterian churches cut themselves away from their Northern brethren and cast their fortunes with the Southern cause… The churches of the South entered so whole heatedly into the cause of the war that they were invariably closed by the Union commanders. Throughout the war many revivals, special prayer meetings, and fasts were held for the success of Southern arms… The army was swept by religious fervor. All regiments departing for the front were consecrated. Many clergymen joined the army as chaplains… .

Click here to read about the chaplains in the Confederate Army.

The Confederate Chaplains
(Confederate Veteran Magazine

A chaplain’s proper place in the Confederate Army was well defined in theory at least, but in fact each of us was a law unto himself and stayed wherever he liked. He belonged to the medical staff. But the medical staff in a campaign is divided… The regulation spot was with the surgeons.

Click here to read about the chaplaincy within the American military during World War II.

Confederate Doctors and their Many Problems
(Confederate Veteran Magazine, 1922)

A few paragraphs on the difficulties faced by the medical establishment of the Confederacy as a result of the Union naval blockade of Southern ports. We were surprised to learn that the scarcity of quinine and other medicinal aids forced the doctors of the South to embrace herbalism.

Click here to read about the heavy influence religion had in the Rebel states during the American Civil War.

The Camp Slaves
(Confederate Veteran Magazine, 1922)

By the time this small paragraph appeared in the 1922 pages of Confederate Veteran Magazine the vast majority of their readership was living on their Confederate pensions. This article serves to remind the subscribers that there were numerous faithful Negroes who were also deserving of same. The author recounts a few stories of the devotion he witnessed.

General E.M. Law at Gettysburg
(Confederate Veteran, 1922)

Aside from baring an uncanny resemblance to an actor who wouldn’t be born until 1958 (Kevin Bacon), Confederate General E.M. Law (1836 – 1920) would be remembered for taking charge of Hood’s division after that commander was wounded at Gettysburg.

The North Carolina Presence at Gettysburg
(Confederate Veteran Magazine, 1930)

This article, from Confederate Veteran Magazine, presented the drama of events as they unfolded on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg with an eye to specifically telling the tale of the North Carolina regiments and the part they played as the battle was taking shape. The author, Captain S.A. Ashe (author of the 1902 book, The charge at Gettysburg) explained thoroughly which Confederate and Federal units arrived first at Gettysburg and at what hour, while indulging in just a little Monday morning quarterbacking:

If General Longstreet, with his very fine corps, had struck the Federals early the next morning, there probably never would have been a third day at Gettysburg.

With the First Texas Regiment at Gettysburg
(Confederate Veteran, 1922)

Attached is a Gettysburg reminiscence by one W.T. White, veteran of the First Texas Regiment who had documented his experience on Little Round Top in his earlier writings, but preferred to dwell on some other glorious moments on this page.

As a result of their charge up Little Round Top, the boys of the Twentieth Maine sent the First Texas Infantry to the bottom of the hill leaving 25 dead, 20 missing and 48 wounded.

The Confederate Error on the First Day
(Confederate Veteran Magazine, 1923)

Alabama native John Purifoy was a regular contributor to Confederate Veteran Magazine and he wrote most often about the Battle of Gettysburg; one of his most often sited articles concerned the roll artillery played throughout the course of that decisive contest. In the attached article Purifoy summarized some of the key events from a rebel perspective. In the last paragraph he pointed out the one crucial error Lee soon came to regret- take a look.

‘Black Mammy”
(Confederate Veteran Magazine, 1918)

Those sensitive beta-males in the editorial offices of Confederate Veteran were teary-eyed and waxing winsome that day in 1918 when they saw fit to recall one particular long-standing Southern institution that was gone with the wind:

The most unique character connected with the days of slavery was the old black mammy, who held a position of and confidence in nearly every white family of importance in the South… She was an important member of the household, and for her faithfulness and devotion she has been immortalized in the literature of the South.

‘Boy Soldiers of the Confederacy”
(Confederate Veteran Magazine, 1922)

The two page article attached herein served to alert the 1922 subscriber-base of Confederate Veteran Magazine that Boy Soldiers of the Confederacy (1905) – was no longer in print and isn’t that too bad and just in case no one shared the reviewers feelings on this matter, she recalled some of the Civil War experiences of the boys who fought throughout that war.

Read about a boy who fought for the Union…

The Rebel Conscription Problem
(Confederate Veteran Magazine, 1918)

It has been said that the Confederate States passed the most drastic conscript law on record, which may be true; but it is a mistake to suppose that this law was successfully executed.

The [Conscription] act, April 16, 1862, embraced men between eighteen and thirty-five years; the second, of September 27 1862, men between eighteen and forty-five; the third and last, of February 17, 1864, men between seventeen and fifty.

Click here to read about the American South during the Great Depression.

The Myth of Lee’s Sword
(Confederate Veteran Magazine, , 1922)

Responding to the old tale that General Lee offered his sword in surrender at Appomattox, and that the magnanimous General Grant, flush with victory, kindly refused this gesture of humiliation – this anonymous contributor to Confederate Veteran Magazine penned an article that exposes the old saw to be incorrect:

And General Grant says specifically in his memoir (Volume II, Chapter 25, pages 344-346): ‘No conversation, not one word, passed between General Lee and myself either about private property, side arms, or kindred subjects. The much talked of surrendering of General Lee’s sword and my handing it back, this and much more that has been said about it, is pure romance.’

Corn and the 1st Arkansas Regiment
(Confederate Veteran Magazine, 1918)

Appearing in the pages of Confederate Veteran Magazine some forty-three years after the bloody end of the American Civil War was this reminiscence by a Confederate veteran recalling the important roll that corn played during the war and throughout American history:

I am an old Southern planter, past eighty-five years of age, in perfect condition as to mind and health, have lived on cornbread all my life, and feel that I can speak intelligently on the much-mooted cornbread question.

During the war I commanded the 1st Arkansas Regiment, consisting of twelve hundred men, and during the four years we never saw a piece of bread that contained a grain of wheat flower. We lived entirely on plain corn bread, and my men were strong and kept the best of health…

Two Civil War Poems
(Confederate Veteran Magazine, 1922)

Looking back on the American Civil War from a vantage point of fifty-seven years, these two versifiers, both highly schooled in Southern lore, penned these Dixie ditties for their South-land readers of Confederate Veteran Magazine.

Read an article about how Victorian fashion saved a life during the Civil War.

Rebel Victory at Secessionville
(Confederate Veteran, 1930)

Nathan George Shanks Evans (1824 – 1868) was the Confederate general in charge of the rebel forces at the Battle of Secessionville, South Carolina. Attached you will find his two page report written upon the conclusion of that battle on June 19, 1862.

This battle marked the first major attempt by the Union Army to take the Rebel city Charleston, South Carolina.

Click here to read about the heavy influence religion had in the Rebel states during the American Civil War.

How the Confederacy Armed Themselves
(Confederate Veteran Magazine, 1922)

This two page article will answer some of your questions as to how the South was able to procure the necessary weapons needed to sustain their army as long as they did:

The Southerners were a ‘gun-totting race, so that there were enough firearms for the first round of the struggle at Bull Run.

Click here to read a similar article on this subject.

Robert E. Lee’s Favorite General
(Confederate Veteran Magazine, 1930)

Attached is an excerpt from Confederate Veteran Magazine in which one of the readers recalled the time when a touring English officer paid a visit to General Robert E. Lee (1807 – 1870) during the post-war period and asked him who was the greatest military genius of either side during the War between the states? Lee gave his answer without hesitation – some may be surprised to know his answer while others among you might not.

Click here to read about the Confederate conscription laws.

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