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American Morning

Did the Confederacy Suffer 'An Honorable Defeat'?

Aired July 02, 2001 - 10:49   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: We've got a bit of a historical lesson for you this morning. On this date in 1863, the Battle of Gettysburg was in its second day. And it ended a day later with the Union's devastating defeat of the Confederacy.

A new book out called "An Honorable Defeat" reconstructs the last days of the Civil War from a Southern perspective. The author is historian William C. Davis. And he joins us this morning. He's in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

We sure do thank you for taking the time to talk with us this morning and teach us a little history this morning.

WILLIAM DAVIS, AUTHOR, "AN HONORABLE DEFEAT": A short lesson, Leon.

HARRIS: Well, you say "an honorable defeat." And, as a matter of fact, I get the sense from reading the previews about the book it's -- you give folks an inside look at what was going on around the folks who were key to, I guess, the surrender in this particular case, correct?

DAVIS: That's right. It's really a story about how the Confederacy is going to die. Historians spend a lot of time studying how wars begin, but we often don't look at how they end. And yet that ending can be extremely important for the peace that will follow.

HARRIS: That's a great point because that's one of the reasons why many people believe that there is still a division between North and South in this country.

DAVIS: Well, and indeed there is. And that division traces all the way back in many ways to these sort of -- an indeterminate way in which the South met its end. There were those who wanted to fight on to the very bitter end, to the last man. And there were others within that government who wanted to surrender as a government in the hopes that they would get better terms from the Union, but also that they would leave behind an easier legacy, a softer legacy that might mean for an easier reconstruction with the Union.

HARRIS: Yes, let's get to the specifics on that. You say on the inside the discussion about whether or not the South should fight this out until the bitter end or not, one of the voices that was actually saying surrender would be smart was General Lee. Is that correct? DAVIS: That's right. And I think this is going to come as an enormous surprise to most Civil War students, even Lee biographers, perhaps, that Lee was a pragmatist, like many others in the Confederate government.

And by 1865 at the beginning of the year, I think he certainly saw that the Confederacy's days were numbered. And rather than see this army that he had built and lead and loved for so long eventually battered into submission. He was meeting with others, led by John C. Breckenridge, the Confederate secretary of war, in a scheme to use constitutional means to force the president, Jefferson Davis, to open negotiations for surrender.

HARRIS: You're not going to make very many friends down in this neck of the woods saying that Robert E. Lee was all for surrender.

(LAUGHTER)

HARRIS: And you know that, don't you?

DAVIS: He was -- I'm changing my name as soon as this interview's over. He was -- he was all for fight as long as it was possible. But Lee, I think, had a much more realistic view of the situation than did Davis.

Now, Lee did not stay with the scheme to the end. But he was offering to use his influence to try to persuade Davis that it was better to have a say in the way the Confederates met their fate rather than leave themselves to become the victims of a victorious North.

HARRIS: Explain the Havana angle quickly, if you can, quickly. I was surprised to find there was even -- I didn't know that, for instance, that to get to Texas, most folks went to Cuba first before going to Texas.

DAVID: Well, it was the fastest route because there were no direct rail lines at that time. And by 1865, the Confederacy had been so penetrated -- it had lost control on the Mississippi River, for instance -- that it was extremely difficult to travel from east of the Mississippi to west of the Mississippi. The Confederates had a diplomatic agent in Havana. And it was a logical route for trying to reach Texas.

Davis wanted to get to Texas in order to continue the fight. His secretary of war wanted to get to Texas in order to arrange for the surrender of that last army out there. In the end, what happened, of course, is that Cuba wound up figuring in the story when the Confederate government essentially broke up. And everybody took off to save their own lives. And two of the members of the Confederate government -- the only ones who managed to escape actually wound up making their way to Cuba.

HARRIS: I want to tell you, this book is certainly going to set tongues a wagging down South around the country. We sure do thank you, William Davis, for coming in and talking with us this morning about "An Honorable Defeat." Good luck with the book. DAVIS: My pleasure, Leon.

HARRIS: It's very interesting.

DAVIS: Thank you.

HARRIS: Take care.

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