fifteenbib.html

XV. Southern Religious Thought

Farmer, James Oscar, Jr. The Metaphysical Confederacy: James Henley Thornwell and the Synthesis of Southern Values. Macon: Mercer University Press.

Holifield, E. Brooks, The Gentleman Theologians: American Theology and Southern Culture, 1795-1860. Durham: Duke University Press, 1978.

Wilson, Charles Reagan. Baptized in Blood: The Religion of the Lost Cause, 1865-1920. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1980.

_________. "The Religion of the Lost Cause: Ritual and Organization of the Southern Civil Religion, 1865-1920." Journal of Southern History 46 (1980) 219-38.

"The Stainless Banner," as the Second National Flag of the Confederacy was called, became a symbol of the South's belief that it was fighting for a holy and a pure cause. Although such claims no longer bear scrutiny, such a belief formed the foundation of the "Religion of the Lost Cause." It may be instructive that the Confederate Congress added a red bar on the side of the Second National Flag just a month prior to the surrender of Lee at Appomattox. Although the stated purpose was to prevent the above flag from being mistaken from a flag of surrender, the scarlet stain it created suggests a growing awareness of God's judgement on the South's sin.

Today, much of the near-religious fervor associated with the "Stainless Banner" has been transferred to the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia.

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