Diehard Rebels

Diehard Rebels is a major contribution to the history of the Confederacy and the history of Southern culture. It offers an important corrective to the hindsight perspective that portrays an irreversible slide down the slippery slope of demoralization and defeat after the twin defeats at Gettysburg and Vicksburg.

* author of This Mighty Scourge: Perspectives on the Civil War *

Phillips persuasively answers a Civil War mystery. Why did so many Confederates doggedly keep fighting when any rational observer would have recognized looming defeat? Examining a most impressive array of sources, he finds that religious faith, cheerleading propaganda, admiration of the officer class, hatred of Yankees, military discipline, bonding in the ranks, stubborn denial of the obvious were all factors. Phillips eloquently and poignantly recounts the deprivations and sacrifices that were endured in vain hope of eventual victory. Every Civil War student, both the professional and lay reader, will find Diehard Rebels highly moving and tragic.

* author of The Shaping of Southern Culture *

An important contribution to Confederate historiography in that it provides insight into the Southern will in the waning years of the war.

Phillips makes a very good case for the diehards' importance and invites further work on comparable sentiment among civilians in the Confederacy.

* American Historical Review *

This fine work will be of interest to Civil War historians, although it speaks most directly to broader issues of nineteenth-century Southern culture. . . . Phillips’s bold case for cultural continuity should contribute insightfully to that seemingly endless debate. And, like most good studies, Diehard Rebels will prompt as many questions as it answers.

Persuasive and richly documented. . . . Highly original and constitute[s] important new contributions to the study of Civil War soldiers. . . . [Phillips] has succeeded admirably in building on previous scholarship while forging ahead on a number of fronts.

Well written and copiously researched in the diaries, letters, and other papers of Confederate soldiers as well as in the secondary literature.

Chapter by chapter, Phillips vividly constructs the pillars of the invincibility culture: religious justification; stereotyping of the enemy; optimistic outlooks on endurance and the immediate war; and a cloudy view of what it would take to end the conflict. He routinely offers insight into how these factors shaped Confederate mentalities and the broader war effort. . . . The combination of Phillips's engaging writing style and viable primary accounts makes Diehard Rebels a quick and delightful read for anyone interested in Southern culture, the Civil War, and the ways in which the two intersect.