"Hollow Victory": Federal Veterans, Racial Justice and the Eclipse of the Union Cause in American Memory

Abstract:The American Civil War represents an unusual case of the victors ultimately failing to write their story into the history books. Although triumphant Unionists initially constructed a robust and purposeful narrative of the southern "rebellion," their efforts to sustain it were thwarted by the emergence of a sentimental brothers' war tale that excised the active role played by African Americans in the defense of the republic. This article probes the contribution of Federal veterans to the dissemination and demise of the Union cause in American memory, attributing their complicity in its downfall less to racism than to their pride in the United States' rapid rise to great power status.