Southern History of the War: The First Year of the War

Richmond, VA: West & Johnston, 1862. Second Edition. Corrected and Improved Edition. Hardcover. Good. [8], 389, [3] pages. Frontis and other illustrations. Occasional footnotes. Appendix. Chronology. Bookplate of previous owner inside rear board. Some foxing. Some water stains noted (no pages stuck). Rear board weak. Boards worn & stained. Corrected and Improved Edition stated on title page. Edward Alfred Pollard (February 27, 1832 - December 17, 1872) was a Virginian journalist and author. Pollard was a Confederate sympathizer during the American Civil War and wrote several books on the causes and events of the conflict. During the American Civil War, he was one of the principal editors of the Richmond Examiner (along with Robert William Hughes), which supported the Confederate States of America, but was hostile to President Jefferson Davis. Pollard is most famous for authoring The Lost Cause in 1866, followed up by The Lost Cause Regained in 1868. These two works, written after the war, gave two different descriptions of the causes of the war and the nature of southern society. The earlier work saw the war as being between two opposing ways of organizing society and saw slavery as a key part of the nobility of the South and a key basis of the difference between the societies. Excerpt from Preface: It is scarcely necessary to state that the following pages have been written without anything like literary ambition. They have been composed by the author, with but little aid, within the short period of three months, and in the midst of exacting occupations in the editorial department of a daily newspaper. He does not pretend to have written a brilliant or elaborate book; but he does claim to have composed, without seeking after literary ornaments, or taxing his style with intellectual refinements, a compact, faithful and independent popular narrative of the events of the first year of the existing war. The author has but little of obligation to express, except to his publishers, Messrs. West & Johnston, of Richmond, to whom he would make a public acknowledgment for their generous encouragement, liberality and enterprising endeavors, which have enabled him, under many inauspicious circumstances, to complete his work.