The update will take some time more because 1) I'm on vacation and want to rest and 2) I have writer's block and am looking for a way to integrate all I want to discuss in the update. It will be focused on the Confederate homefront, meaning there will be discussions of the effect of the defeat, changes in Confederate leadership, the peace movement and Unionist guerrillas, and the overall economic situation and hardship. If there are any comments regarding that, I would be interesting in reading them. @
joea64 had several interesting thoughts regarding how the defeat might affect Davis and Lee especially.
But please do not try to hurry me or direct me. I find that annoying and frankly disrespectful. As
@Darth_Kiryan helpfully said, authors like to work at their own peace. In any case I suppose the matter was already settled by mod intervention. Regarding what was being discussed, I find the idea of a John Brown series intriguing, though I agree it's difficult to see how it can be done without either portraying John Brown as a madman or as a saint. ITTL there is technically more material to work with, since Brown and his followers (which did include some escaped slaves) spent a couple of weeks roaming Virginia before being defeated in a climatic last stand.
Well, to move away from that, I do wonder if the south would ever have something of a modern day Germany like education of the most shameful parts of their history, perhaps reading Uncle Tom's Cabin or Twelve Years a Slave would become mandatory down there one day?
I have always held that large scale, Federally directed efforts to "de-confederationalize" the South would be rather anachronistic. It simply does not seem that the US, even a radical one, would be willing to expand the Federal bureaucracy and powers so massively and commit itself to a permanent direction of education in the scale of post-war Germany. Nonetheless, I do think that something resembling a national education program could be enacted, that would emphasize nationalism and the "Americanness" of all, Northern and Southern, Black and White, as a way to heal the country. Ultimately, I believe it'll take some time for the country to face the complex legacy of the war, and in the meantime I think most will settle for a "clean Confederate Army" myth where the sacrifice and bravery of the Southern soldier is praised but the cause itself condemned.
I said earlier that, while I never saw it so a9 don't know for sure, since it's fromthe freedmen point of view something like
The Wind Done Gone, with stories told from the ex-slaves' point of view and being much more sympathetic to them.
Perhaps the Lone Ranger would have a black man, rather than an Indian, as a sidekick. Although relations with the natives made it important to have a Tonto, so maybe a trio.
Probably more African Americans in Hollywood earlier, which will cause a change in itself.
I am really interested in the idea of alternate versions of popular Civil War-related media, even if it might stretch disbelief. I already said that I was imagining a version of Gone with the Wind where the main conflict is about Scarlett and Rhett realizing the Confederate cause is a bad one, deflecting to the Union and then becoming scalawags. Also, one of Little Women where the family's abolitionism is emphasized. There are a lot of interesting possibilities.
Speaking of outlaws, I wonder how Jesse James and those of the James Gang are impacted by tis bloodier Civil War. Perhaps Frank would be killed in battle; it's possible the James Gang would never form. (Jesse was pretty young, but if it goes on long enough and they get desperate enough he could end up fighting at age 17 or even 16.)
TTL's Lone Ranger might feature more mention at times of bandits who are ex-Civil War soldiers for the Confederates; surely not every one, but probably a few.
They all took part in the bush war in Missouri. So it's quite likely that they end up dead in battle or hanged by the Union as partisans.
I think that both Ride with the Devil and The Outlaw Josey Wales are fantastic movies, but they're obviously very limited in the stories they are trying to tell (and nearly all of the characters are Southerners).
The Outlaw Josey Wales is one of my favorite movies for the record. I watched it with my dad, who is a big fan of westerns, and I really liked it. But I agree that it is ultimately a limited tale.
By the way,
@Athelstane, I'm glad you commented because I was going to ask for your opinion about something I read (and the opinion of everybody here, of course). I was reading a reddit thread where the use of Wehrmacht, Luftwaffe, and other German terms in English-language historical writing was discussed, and it was mentioned that it's partially because of a certain fascination with the Nazis that makes the German terms carry certain implications that "German Army" or "German Air Force" seemingly do not. I'm bringing this up because it was mentioned how when people talk of the Civil War they talk of the "Union government" and the "Union Army" instead of the "American government" and the "American Army". This seems to make a distinction, as if to say that during the Civil War there were indeed two distinct governments instead of the United States on one side and the traitors who rebelled against it on the other. It seems to legitimize the Confederates somewhat and take the sting of being traitors off them. Paging
@Drunkrobot too, in case he has some thoughts to share regarding this.