ConfederaternRainbowrnby Clyde WilsonrnThe Jewish Confederatesrnby Robert N. RosenrnColumbia: Universih’ of South CarolinarnPress; 517 pp., $39.95rnClear the Confederate Way: The Irishrnin the Army of Northern Virginiarnby Kelly /. O’CradyrnMason Cit, lA: Savas Publishing Co.;rn’>4S pp., $26.95rnFire and Roses: The Burning of thernCharleston Convent, 1834rnby Nancy Lusignan SchultzrnNew York: Free Press; 317 pp., $25.00rnAs we all know, during the Civil War,rnan expansive, democratic, progressive,rnmultiethnic North defeated a bigotedrnand reactionar) South, so that governmentrnof the people, by the people, andrnfor the people should not perish from thernearth. Ijike so manv commonly held beliefsrnabout the war (which are now beingrnenforced as official, indisputable truths),rnthe picture is jaundiced. (In this respect,rnrather, it is like many other officialrnuntruths: For example, that the warrnwas fought for the benefit of the slaves,rnthat Andersonville was worse than Northernrnprisons, or that Confederates werernicious barbarians who made war onrnwomen.)rnMost know about Meagher’s UnionrnIrish brigade and its heroic charge atrnFredericksburg. Kelly O’Crady shedsrnsome interesHng light on a familiar stor’:rnCen. Meagher never exposed himself tornfire; while, so far from being an exhibihonrnof Irish-American adherence to thernUnion cause, the Fredericksburg debaclerncaused a great decline in Irish supportrnfor the war. And Meagher was not muchrnof an Irish patriot—unlike John Mitchel,rna true Irish nadonalist, who served thernConfederacy and gave it the lives of twornsons. Pope Pius IX, at the instigation ofrnthe heroic Confederate priest John O’Bannon,rnstrongly condemned and curbedrnUnion recruiting. As a Dublin newspaperrnobserved in 1861, “We cannot butrnrecollect that in the South our countrvmenrnwere safe from insult and persecution,rnwhile ‘Nativeism’ and “Knownothingism’rnassailed them in the North.”rnIn fact, the Northern cause was big onrnWASP supremac}. The North had arnstrong Cromwellian streak, which causedrnit to decry Catholicism and non-WASPSrnin general. (German Protestants werernokay.) And this sentiment was strongestrnin Northerners who tended toward abolitionismrnand harsh anti-Southern attitudes.rnOne of the reasons many peoplerndisliked Southerners, as evidenced by thernsources of the time, was that the werernconsidered not WASP enough. Morernpeople disliked slaveholders because ofrntheir close association with .Africans, notrnbecause the evils of slavery. In fact, thernmost fundamental goal of the war (and ofrnReconstriction) was to keep blacks out ofrnthe North.rnThis aspect of Northern societv isrnilluminated in Fire and Roses. NancyrnSchultz shows how economic and religiousrntensions were projected onto Catholicrnnewcomers —leading to the spreadrnof malicious rumors, the sacking andrnburning of a convent, and the refusal ofrnlocal audiorit)’ to punish the perpetrators.rn(Such things went on in Philadelphiarnas well as Boston.) Indeed, the destructionrnof the convent reminds me — in allrnsorts of ways — of Sherman’s progress.rnCatholic churches and convents inrnthe South went up in flames as readilvrnas any other religious buildings. Probablv,rnMary Surratt would not have beenrnexecuted if she had not been a loathsomernpapist.rnAll of this occurred while Catholicsrnand Jews were being honored and electedrnto office in the South by Protestantrnneighbors. Bishop John England ofrnCharleston was the leading prelate inrnAmerica, on friendly terms with all thernclergy of the community and invited tornaddress the legislature. There were twornJewish and several Catholic senatorsrnelected from Southern states before thernwar, something nearly unthinkable atrnthat time in the North.rnAll immigrants from whatever quarterrn(including the North) who had resided inrnthe South for anv length of time beforernthe war were regarded there for what theyrnwere: loyal Confederates. In fact, the antebellumrnSouth, far from being narrowrnand bigoted (whatever may be said aboutrnlater times), had a tremendous power tornbind the allegiance of diverse elements.rnIt will surprise many —though itrnshould not, since the truth has alwaysrnbeen there for all to see—to learn that thernSouth held the allegiance of its Jewishrncitizens, who fought and sacrificed as loyalK’rnas any other group. Later Jewish immigrantsrnwho knew nothing of the warrnadopted the Union viewpoint in order tornbe “good” Americans. And so the storyrnof Jews in the South —who probablyrnrepresented a greater percentage of thernpopulation than in the North —has notrnbeen told until now. Robert Rosen, arnCharleston attorney and amateur historian,rnhas given us a valuable work thatrnbrings to light the lives of a forgottenrn(though interesting and worthy) group ofrnAmericans. (I mean “amateur” in thernbest possible sense of the word, since amateursrnare the writers who are able to seernthings that conformist academics neverrnconsider and, therefore, currentlv compose,rnand will continue to compose, ourrnreal historical works.)rnJewish Southerners perceived (rightiy)rnthat New England abolitionists werernalso strongly antisemitic. AbolitionistrnTheodore Parker believed Jews to bern”lecherous” people who sometimes reallyrndid kill Christian babies. William LloydrnGarrison described a New York newspaperrneditor as “a miscreant Jew,” “thernenemy of Christ and libert},” and a descendantrnof “the monsters who nailedrnJesus to the cross.” The catalog of suchrnsentiments among the most fervent abolitionistsrnand supporters of the Union warrneffort is large, and it is headed by JohnrnQuincy Adams.rnAmericans’ historical understandingrntoday is in a peculiar state. While honest,rnsincere historians are always bringing tornlight new and interesting nuances to therncentral events of our historv, their discoveriesrnmake no headway with the academicrnestablishment (and the political forcesrnclaiming historical justification) and neverrneven slightly affect the accepted understandingsrnthat, for academics as wellrnas politicos, are increasingly becomingrngroupthink slogans—indifferent not onlyrnto nuance but to all evidence and argument.rnStill, man’ fine, neglected worksrnshed new light on antebellum andrnwartime America and its diverse peoples.rnThe next great subject that needs definitivernand exhaustive treatment is the stor)’rnof the tens of thousands of black menrnwho were part of the Confederate armies.rnHundreds —probably thousands—wentrnwith Lee’s army to Pennsylvania —andrntook their wounded or dead masters backrnhome. In fact, the Southern soldiers whornsurvived the famous attack at Gettvs-rnOCTOBER 2001/29rnrnrn