In April of 1865, following four years of bloody and arduous battle, Confederate General Robert E. Lee issued his Farewell Address – effectively ending the American Civil War.
The Confederate States of America had suffered a humiliating defeat and were left grappling with questions about how to collectively justify their own actions and find something positive in what could otherwise be regarded as an all-encompassing failure.
The Lost Cause grew out of this postbellum context and eulogised the Confederate war effort as having been a just and heroic one – a struggle to protect “states’ rights” in the face of overwhelming Northern aggression. In presenting the conflict in this way, the Lost Cause both obscured and denied the principal role of slavery in leading to the outbreak of war.
