Janet,
I'm not sure we are a "shining light to the world"
anymore or have been
for a long time. Our credibility has been on a
downhill slide since
Viet Nam. I'm more apt to remember Percy's analogy
of the old, rusting,
roller coaster at the beginning of Love in the
Ruins: "now [is]the
blessing [on the U.S.A.] or the luck is over, the
machinery clanks, the
chain catches hold, and the cars jerk forward?" (I
love that passage.)
-David
Quoting janetcantor37--- via Percy-L <
percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org>:
> How lovely to read this now. But how sad
because I am beginning to
> think that this is becoming obsolete thinking
these days. There is
> more race rancor in our conversation today
than I can remember since
> the 60's. It shouldn't be this way. I wish it
were not so. We have a
> great country. I hope we don't lose it
because we are asleep at the
> switch. It is a country worth saving, a
shining light to the world. I
> wonder what Percy would be saying about
current attitudes?
> Janet Cantor
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Jim Forest <
jhforest AT gmail.com>
> To: Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical
Discussion
> <
percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org>
> Sent: Thursday, June 19, 2014 6:04 AM
> Subject: [percy-l] Walker Percy on the Cil
War
>
>
>
> from the March 29, 1957 issue of Commonweal
>
>
https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/american-war
>
> The American War
>
> by Walker Percy
>
> WHAT ARE THE reasons for the current revival
of interest in
> the Civil War? That there is such a revival
is undeniable. Books on the War
> pour off the presses every week?some of them,
incidentally, of a very high
> order, such as Bruce Catton's This Hallowed
Ground and Shelby Foote's Shiloh!
> What is at once noticeable about the current
literature is its frankly
> non-political character and the absence of
the old rancor. The race issue may
> be still very much an issue, but Northern and
Southern historians
> have achieved
> a common view of the War itself. When Catton
from Michigan and Foote from
> Mississippi write about the battle of Shiloh,
it sounds like the same battle.
> Catton is never more eloquent than when he is
appraising Lee's generalship;
> Foote is just as impressed by the fighting
qualities of the Northern soldier.
> Indeed, from this distance the underdog
psychology probably kindles
> the reader's
> enthusiasm more readily than do the social
issues?and perhaps this is just as
> well.
>
> The general impression outside the South
seems to be that it
> is the rest of the country which has
rediscovered the Civil War, that
> the South
> has never stopped looking back. This is
mistaken, I believe, and is due to an
> understandable optical illusion. The truth
is, at least in my
> experience, that
> the Southerner never thinks about the Civil
War?until he finds himself among
> Northerners. Then, for some reason-perhaps
because the Northerner insists on
> casting him in his historical role and the
Southerner is perfectly willing to
> oblige, or because, lost in the great cities
of the North, he feels for the
> first time the need of his heritage?he breaks
out the Stars and Bars. I
> remember traveling from Alabama to summer
camp in Wisconsin in the twenties.
> The train would stop in Chicago to pick up
more boys. We from Alabama
> had heard
> as little about the Civil War as the Boer War
and cared less, but every time
> the Illinois boys got on in Chicago the War
started, a real brawl yet not
> really bad-tempered. The same sort of thing
must have happened during
> the World
> War I when an Alabama division suddenly found
itself in a donnybrook with the
> Fighting 69th at Plattsburg.
>
> The truth of it is, I think, that the whole
country, South
> included, is just beginning to see the Civil
War whole and entire for
> the first
> time. The thing was too big and too bloody,
too full of suffering and hatred,
> too closely knit into the fabric of our
meaning as a people, to be
> held off and
> looked at-until now. It is like a man walking
away from a mountain.
> The bigger
> it is, the farther he's got to go before he
can see it. Then one day he looks
> back and there it is, this colossal thing
lying across his past.
>
> A history of the shifting attitudes toward
the War would be
> enlightening. There would probably emerge a
pattern common to such great
> events, a dialectic of loss-recovery: the
long period of recollection, of in
> tense partisan interest which is followed by
a gradual fading of the
> Event into
> a dusty tapestry. (Lee and Grant at
Appomattox taking their place beside
> Washington Crossing the Delaware.) Then under
certain circumstances, there is
> the recovery. Perhaps Washington will never
be recovered, having been
> ossified
> too long in grammar school tableaus. But
Lincoln and Grant and McClellan and
> even the legendary Lee, who after all are
closer in time to
> Washington than to
> us, have come very much alive. Why, then,
their recovery, and what
> exactly has
> been recovered?
>
> WHAT HAS been recovered, it seems clear, is
not the politics
> or the sociology of the War, nor even the
slavery issue, but the
> fight itself.
> The tableau I remember from school was the
Reconciliation, Grant and
> Lee in the
> McLean house, Lee healing the wounds at
Washington College. Little was said
> about the War, except that it was tragic;
brother fighting against brother,
> etc. Undoubtedly this was the necessary if
somewhat boring emphasis for the
> textbooks. Now, after ninety years of
Reconciliation, we can take a
> look at the
> fight itself.
>
> What a fight it was! The South is a very big
place, yet
> there is hardly a district that didn't have
its skirmish, its Federal gunboat
> sunk in a bayou?where some old-timer won't
tell you, "Yes, they came
> through here." It is startling to realize
that there were more casualties
> in the Civil War than in all the American
forces of World War II, and
> more than
> in all other American wars put together. Of
3,000,000 men under arms,
> 2,300,000
> for the Union, 750,000 for the Con federacy,
618,222 died, with total
> casualties probably going well past a
million. For sheer concentrated fury,
> there are few events even in modern warfare
to equal that terrible
> September 17
> at Antietam Creek when over 20,000 men
fell?or the May-June of '64
> when, beginning
> with the battle of the Wilderness, Grant lost
on the average of 2,000
> men a day
> for 30 days, culminating in the slaughter at
Cold Harbor when over 8,000 men
> fell in about ten minutes! There were
murderous battles in the West which one
> never heard of, like Stone's River with over
25,000 casualties.
>
> Yet terrible as it was, it is impossible to
read of the Army
> of Northern Virginia or of the Army of the
Potomac without being caught up in
> the tremendous drama. The armies were big
enough so that the action
> took place
> on an epic scale, yet the War was, as much as
were the Punic Wars, a personal
> encounter of the opposing leaders. Lee was
very much aware of this
> grim beauty
> when the fog rose over Fredericksburg showing
Burnside's entire army facing
> his, battle flags flying. "It is
> well that war is so terrible,? he said; "else
we should grow too fond of
> it." But what gave the Civil War the tragic
proportions of the Iliad
> was the fact, apparent after Shiloh, that
the American soldier,
> Union and
> Confederate, was not going to be beaten until
he could literally fight no
> longer or was killed. When his leader was
great, he was almost
> invincible; when
> his leader was mediocre, he was still superb.
Pickett's charge is justly
> famous, but just as heartbreaking was the
Union assault on
> Longstreet's position in the sunken road at
Fredericksburg.
> The difference was that where Pickett?s men
had every confidence in Lee,
> Couch's men knew very well that Burnside was
wrong. Yet they attacked all day
> long, and only stopped when the field was
piled so high with dead that they
> could no longer run over them.
>
> AS IN ALL tragedies, a great deal seemed to
de pend upon
> fate. Small mischances become as important as
Thetis?s oversight when she
> dipped Achilles?all but his heel?into the
Styx. A Confederate
> courier loses some
> battle orders; they are found wrapped
around three cigars and
> brought to McClellan; the direct result is
the battle
> of Antietam. One can't read of that war
without playing the
> fascinating game of
> what-if.... What if Jackson had lived through
Chancellorsville? What if
> McClellan had listened to Phil Kearny
(instead of the Pinkerton detectives)
> during the Seven Days? What if Jeb Stuart had
tended to business at
> Gettysburg?
> Lee was always just missing his Cannae and
Lincoln's generals were
> always just
> short of ordinary competence?until he got
Grant.
>
> Besides the great failures, there were the
great successes,
> the heroes' deeds which are always
irresistible to the human spirit
> and so pass
> over immediately into the legend of the race.
There was Chancellorsville when
> Lee, facing Hooker's 85,000, divided his
battered army of 43,000,
> sent Jackson
> to the left, leaving him in front of Hooker
with 17,000 men?and attacked and
> very nearly destroyed the Army of the
Potomac. There was the Union's
> "Pap" Thomas's assault on Missionary Ridge at
Chattanooga and the
> subsequent demoralization of Bragg. And there
was the fateful decision at
> Spotsylvania when, after taking a fearful
mauling, Grant, instead of falling
> back toward Washington as the army had been
doing for the past three years,
> retreated south, sliding around Lee's right.
>
> Therein lies the tragedy. If Lee had been a
little more or a
> little less?if he had gotten his Cannae or if
he had only been just competent
> and been whipped by McClellan in '62?the
results would still have
> been notable,
> but they would not have approached the terror
and piteousness of
> what actually did happen. The
> summer of 1864 has a Gotterdammerung quality.
With the issue hardly in doubt
> after Gettysburg, the fighting nevertheless
increased in fury with both sides
> attacking steadily, without the usual
remissions between battles.
>
> YET WITH all the horror, or perhaps because
of it, there was
> always the feeling then, and even now as we
read about it, that the things a
> man lived through were somehow twice as real,
twice as memorable as the peace
> that followed. Peace is better than war, yet
it is a sad fact that
> some of the
> heroes of the War, like Grant and Longstreet
and many a lesser man, found the
> peace a long descent into mediocrity. In
> the ordeal the man himself seemed to become
more truly himself, revealing his
> character or the lack of it, than at any time
before or after. If a man was
> secretly cowardly or secretly brave, stupid
or shrewd, that was what he was
> shown to be. The War infallibly discovered
his hidden weakness and his hidden
> strength. Hooker the braggart was reduced to
impotence simply by having Lee's
> small army in front of him (and
understandably, for the veterans of
> the Army of
> the Potomac used to say to replacements fresh
from victories in the West:
> "Wait till you meet Bobby Lee"). Grant the
ne'er-do-well matured in
> defeat and became a noble and sensitive human
being by having Lee at
> his mercy.
> It is no wonder that there was the
temptation, especially in the
> ruined South,
> to enshrine those four years as the four
years of truth and to discount all
> other times, even the future.
>
> Then there were the thousand and one lesser
encounters, any
> one of which, if it had happened at another
time, would have its own
> literature
> and its own historians: the Confederate
raiders, Farragut's capture of New
> Orleans, the battle of the ironclads,
Forrest's miniature Cannae at Bryce
> Crossroads, James Andrews' stealing the
> Confederate train, and so on. It was the last
of the wars of
> individuals, when
> a single man's ingenuity and pluck not only
counted for some thing in itself
> but could conceivably a:ffect the entire
issue. Forrest himself is quite
> unbelievable. It is as if Launcelot had been
reborn in Memphis. He
> carried into
> battle a cavalry saber sharpened to a razor
edge and actually killed men with
> it. He actually did fool a Yankee commander
into surrendering by parading a
> single cannon back and forth in the distance
as they parleyed. He
> actually did
> have twenty-nine horses shot from under him.
>
> THERE IS an ambiguity about this new interest
in the Civil
> War. On the one hand it is the past
recaptured, the authentic recovery of the
> long agony during which this nation came to
be what it is. Yet there is also
> the temptation to yield to an historical
illusion by which the past seems to
> gain in stature and authenticity as it
recedes and the present to be
> discounted
> because it is the here and now. We sense the
illusion in the words of the
> old-timer, "Yes, they came through here," in
which it is somehow
> implied that this place has existed in a long
trivial aftermath after its one
> day of glory. Perhaps the North is in for a
mild case of the same romanticism
> which the South recovered from over fifty
years ago.
>
> The increased emphasis upon the fighting at
the expense of
> ideology is probably good. One does well,
anyway, not to apply ideology too
> closely to that war. James Truslow Adams can
talk about the March of
> Democracy
> and Bruce Catton can call the Union army a
truly revolutionary army
> and perhaps
> they are right. Perhaps the War was really
and truly fought over
> slavery. But the
> other case can be made too. It is difficult
to see the yeoman farmers who
> largely made up the Army of the Tennessee and
the Army of Northern
> Virginia as
> Southern Bourbons. The South had some reason
to regard the fight as a
> continuation of the American Revolution.
After all it was her soil which was
> being invaded and her independence which was
being denied. The South
> might even
> have the better of the constitutional
argument; yet what won out seems to
> transcend all the arguments. For it is that
extraordinary thing, the American
> Union.
>
> * * *
> Jim & Nancy Forest
>
> Kanisstraat 5 / 1811 GJ Alkmaar / The
Netherlands
>
> Jim's books:
www.jimandnancyforest.com/books/
>
> Jim & Nancy web site:
www.jimandnancyforest.com
>
> Photo albums:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimforest/sets/
> Photo collections:
www.flickr.com/photos/jimforest/collections/
> On Pilgrimage blog:
http://jimandnancyonpilgrimage.blogspot.com/
> A Tale of Two Kidneys blog:
http://ataleof2kidneys.blogspot.com/
> In Communion site:
www.incommunion.org
> Forest-Flier Editorial Services:
http://forestflier.com/
>
> * * *
> --
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>
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