Southern Rights: Political Prisoners and the Myth of Confederate Constitutionalism

by Mark E. Neely Jr.

Book Overview

On the day Fort Sumter surrendered to Confederate authorities, General Braxton Bragg reacted to a newspaper report that might have revealed the position of gun emplacements by placing the correspondent, a Southern loyalist, under arrest. Thus the Confederate army's first detention of a citizen occurred before President Lincoln had even called out troops to suppress the rebellion. During the civil war that followed, not a day would pass when Confederate...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813918944
• ISBN13: 9780813918945
• Release Date: October 1999
• Publisher: University of Virginia Press
• Length: 212 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.5" x 9.6"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Superlative history

This companion work to Neely's The Fate of Liberty continues the investigation of the incarceration of prisoners, this time in the South. Gleaned from very obscure records by a man with the patience of Job in finding them, Southern Rights provides a unique glimpse into the South and how it treated civil liberties during the war. We have heard so much about Lincoln's dealings in this area but little about Jefferson Davis's. You will be surprised. I find Neely's writing engaging, although you should have an interest in the topic first. Casual reading for the uninitiated it is not. But it does avoid the turgid rhetoric that is far too common in academic works. Highly recommended and different.