Confederates In The Attic: Dispatches From The Unfinished Civil War

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1998

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-2

Chapters 3-4

Chapter 5

Chapters 6-7

Chapters 8-9

Chapter 10

Chapters 11-13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Key Figures

Themes

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Important Quotes

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Chapters 1-2Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 1 Summary: “Confederates in the Attic”

Horwitz opens Confederates in the Attic with an anecdote about his grandfather, Isaac Moses Perski, who “fled Czarist Russia as a teenage draft dodger” (3) on his way to arriving in Manhattan and beginning a new life as an immigrant in America. Horwitz goes on to describe his grandfather’s strange fascination with the American Civil War, such that even as a penniless newcomer to America, he purchased “The Photographic History of the Civil War” (4). Horwitz cites his grandfather as the impetus for his own curiosity for the conflict.

After returning to the United States after an extended period abroad, Horwitz and his wife moved into a house near the Blue Ridge Mountains, where one morning they are unexpectedly woken up by the sound of rifle fire from a Civil War reenactment. This coincidental event leads him to encounter a series of “hardcore” (7) Civil War reenactors, or “living historians” (10) who invite him to accompany them on one of their outings. Intrigued, Horwitz takes them up on their offer, and he spends an evening “spooning” (13) out in the woods to attempt to recreate the true experience of Civil War soldiers. It is during this time that Horwitz first meets Robert Lee Hodge, who will go on to be one of the recurring figures present along Horwitz’s study tour of the South.

Chapter 2 Summary: “North Carolina Cats in the Confederacy”

Horwitz begins his sojourn of the South in North Carolina, described as “a veil of humility between two mounds of conceit” (23). During his time in North Carolina, Horwitz first tours a Civil War cemetery with an African-American man who, upon moving to the area, had been struck by the lack of other African-Americans before he attends a meeting of The Sons of Confederate Veterans. At the meeting, he is introduced to a group of men who take part in a “Lee-Jackson trivia” (25) event, where an entire room of men who descend from Confederate combatants attempt to display their knowledge about esoteric facts pertaining to the Civil War. He also attends a celebration for the birthdays of Robert. E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, the two Confederate Civil War Generals that dominate much of the chapter.

Continuing on, Horwitz encounters an organization called “Children of the Confederacy,” a unit “designed to prep youngsters for Confederate citizenship” (36), which rounds out the myriad of idiosyncratic organization with ties to the Confederacy. Horwitz rounds out his trip to North Carolina by attending a service to honor Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday, which is a noticeable shift in tone and people from his earlier endeavors. While at this service, Horwitz offers the first of many moments where one will come to see how divided the South is racially and ideologically, as the African-American minister offers a stark contrast to the white Southerners who venerate the Confederacy. While they speak in reverential terms, the minister says simply, “You lost. Get over it” 43).

Chapters 1-2 Analysis

Although Confederates in the Attic is comprised mostly of interviews with locals in the areas that Horwitz visits, it is also informed by the author’s desire to discover more about his own roots and place in America. Having had a childhood fascination with the American Civil War, Horwitz, now an adult, wants to explore and mine what it might have been that caused him to gravitate towards this one conflict in particular. While it is only briefly stated, the notion of the Civil War as something having been passed down from his grandfather to his father to him is a constant subconscious theme throughout the book, even if Horwitz rarely speaks to it overtly in his prose.

The first two chapters of Confederates in the Attic serve to set the groundwork for all of what is to come. Mostly, Horwitz uses the first two chapters to introduce to his audience how he will be handling his exploration of the Civil War, and he offers the reader their first look at Civil War reenactment, which will come to play a central role in Horwitz’s experience. Moreover, the first two chapters also introduce the ideas of history and heritage that will continue to reoccur throughout the book. By attending various events run distinctly by either white Southerners or African-Americans, Horwitz begins to showcase how racial divisions and the way in which the war is remembered varies greatly amongst the citizens of the American South. This is especially true in Chapter 2, where it seems that the citizens live side-by-side but choose not to mix with each other.

Ultimately, Horwitz uses Chapter 2 in order to show how, for many white Southerners, the war remains an everyday presence in their lives. It is something that is practiced, almost like a religion, and its heroes are venerated almost like saints. To this end, Horwitz also highlights how the mentality between the Northern and Southern citizens of the United States varies greatly regarding the Civil War. For Northerners, it is merely a historical event. For Southerners, it is a dominant and ever-present part of their lives.