Redemption: The Last Battle Of The Civil War

The American Civil War has become a point of controversy and argument when discussing key events in shaping America. The arguments that arise when discussing the war tend to focus on whether the Confederate was constitutionally justified in seceding, or whether the North had the right to prevent the secession. However, when discussing the America Civil War and the idea of separation, it is important to be mindful that separation did not simply end at the state level. Letters written by Jesse Rolston, Jr. and Jedediah Hotchkiss portray two significantly different attitudes toward the war, despite the fact that the writers both fought for the Confederate States and give accounts of the same battle, one of which ended in the Confederate’s favor. When examining the documents, both writers express different viewpoints on life on and off the battlefield. This significant difference represents a division amongst the Confederate army.

During this time the only thing predictable about politics in Reconstruction was its unpredictability. Colfax massacre being one of the bloodiest encounters of Reconstruction, serves as the base to Nicholas Lemann's book. Redemption is a story that shows the violent overthrow of Reconstruction in Louisiana and Mississippi in the 1870s. Brief knowledge is known to historian, but very little is known by the general public. In Lemann’s demonstration of the Civil War and Reconstruction, "redemption" is a very ironic term, and a huge play on words. Redemption was a term white supremacists used to commemorate the destruction of what they thought to be the vile imposition. Lemann’s way of embracing the white supremacist nomenclature, he made the paradoxes and the contradictions much more vivid.

The Civil War was one of America’s most brutal battles in history. Majority of which being white, male soldiers. Over the years, many historians have argued the actual involvement of blacks during the civil war era. Many claiming that they were doing nothing more than assisting the actual, white soldiers in combat such as, nurses, and wagon drivers, not actually picking up the gun and shooting alongside in battle. Most people look over the fact that almost ten percent, or 180,000, of the Union army were African American. Though a small fraction of the amount of total soldiers during the war, their involvement is still significant. These soldiers recruited and voluntarily, committing the same acts of bravery of any Caucasian solider, due to the prejudice against them, they were pushed to the back burner and treated with disrespect, virtually diminishing their extensive courageous acts. Nevertheless these soldiers made an impact in world changing war.

In Nicholas Lemann’s story Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War, it shows a theme of leadership through the main character of the story, and Adelbert Ames effectively demonstrates the required traits of a main character and a leader. The book focused on a lot of events that happened in the Reconstruction era. It tells about both the political characteristics and the social characteristics that are unraveled throughout the reformation of the South and giving the African Americans the right to vote along with other political freedoms. Throughout the story, Adelbert Ames successfully demonstrates the qualities of a great protagonist and a leader. Adelbert Ames shows the theme of leadership and how his change in his ambition and morality would make him a better leader in his life.

In Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War, Nicholas Lemann describes how reconstruction failed because of the violent strategies and intimidation of white southerners to African Americans, which took place mainly in Southern states like Mississippi and Louisiana. Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation to free slaves in the south in 1863. Later on, the thirteenth amendment was ratified to abolish slavery in 1865. Even though these documents were completed, African Americans were still fighting for their rights and went through hardships to keep their rights with the help of a few leaders. White Southerners believed that racial hierarchy was the natural order and that’s the only order they will go by.

The era of Reconstruction was a fourteen-year period following the Civil War filled with political and constitutional strife, extreme suffering, grand political ambitions and huge turns in race relations and human rights (Blight 32). During this period, many Americans realized that remembering the war “became, with time, easier than struggling over the enduring ideas for which those battles had been fought” (Blight 31). To people such as Frederick Douglass, a reborn United States could not

The Civil War is known as a turning point in America, the road to ending slavery, while first turning a nation against each other.

The novel primarily utilizes a traditional view point. The author views reconstruction in a negative light and as a time when power-hungry Radicals used their political power to punish the south, in contrast to the president’s attempts to revive, instead of change, the South.

As a country, America has gone though many political changes throughout its lifetime. Leaders have come and gone, and all of them have had their own objectives and plans for the future. As history has taken its course, though, almost all of these “revolutionary movements” have come to an end. One such movement was Reconstruction. Reconstruction was a violent period that defined the defeated South’s status in the Union and the meaning of freedom for ex-slaves. Though, like many things in life, it did come to an end, and the resulting outcome has been labeled both a success and a failure.

On March 2, 1861 Texas became the seventh state to join the new Confederacy. Texas played a part in the war which this and all future generations of Texans can be justly proud of. Its people gave their full measure of courage and devotion to the cause. Texas forces distinguished themselves throughout the war in numerous ways, however one of the most significant was the state proving itself to be all but impregnable to the Union. During the course of the Civil War, the Union tried four times to take a foothold in the State of Texas.

The Other Civil War: American Women in the Nineteenth Century was written by Catherine Clinton. Catherine Clinton is the Denman Professor of American History at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Clinton grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, and later studied sociology and African American History at Harvard University, graduating in 1973. Clinton maintains strong research interest in US history, specifically women’s history. She had published many popular books that examine different perspectives toward women’s contribution during the nineteenth century, how African-American women played a major role during the American Revolution. As we speak for women, Catherine Clinton pointed out that women were left out entirely in US’s history, their

The Civil War ends in 1865 with the Confederacy on the losing end. Several questions need to be answered; what were the causes of the Confederate defeat, Union claimed victory after four long years of war, why had it taken so long, could the South have won the war, and if the Rebels had won would a reunion have been possible?

The last battle of the American Civil War ended with bone-weary and bloodied Americans. This time marked the confounding challenges of peace between the Americans, the North and the South. However, the destiny of the Southern confederate states remained undefined. Now the only actions necessary were to reintegrate the Southern states into the Union and agree to the construction of the southern economy. As mentioned by Lincoln in his Second Inaugural Address, the Northern and Southern states should unite

It is obvious the northern and southern states did not see eye to eye when it came to the topic of slavery. The American Civil War, fought from the years 1861 to 1865, was a war between the Northern States, also known as the “Union” and the southern states, also known as the “Confederacy”. During most of the nineteenth century, the Federal government had been gaining more power at the expense of the states. The actions of Congress and the government during the years before the civil war: The Three Fifths Compromise, the Missouri Compromise, the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the election of Abraham Lincoln as president; are some of the many contributing factors that made the southern states feel they were losing control. The resentment and fear generated by this type of government growth was an important factor in the South’s decision to secede from the Union. Aside from the deep-rooted sentiments about slavery and the socio-economic differences of the North and the South; the American civil war was fought over a balance of power and wealth distribution.

The Columbian University journalism professor Nicholas Lemann’s aim of writing this book is to look at the brutal campaign of fraud and violence during the mid-1870s that ultimately led to the restoration of conservative, white governments in some southern states. The author focuses on the reconstruction of Mississippi. He stirs memories of the murderous Southern resistance and to civil rights movements 90 years later. Lemann writes at an era when neo-Confederate sympathies have cropped up again in southern politics, and amid several reports of the suppression of the minority voting throughout the country. Mr. Lemann presents the last battle of the Civil War.