views from the dark side of american history also by michael fellman In the Name of God and Country: Reconsidering Terrorism in American History (2010) “This Terrible War”: The Civil War and its Aftermath, with Daniel E. Sutherland and Lesley Gordon (2002, 2007) James Russell Young, Around the World with General Grant, abridged and edited (2002) William T. Sherman, Personal Memoirs, edited (2000) The Making of Robert E. Lee (2000) Citizen Sherman: A Life of William T. Sherman (1995) Inside War: The Guerrilla Conflict in Missouri During the American Civil War (1989) Making Sense of Self: Medical Advice Literature in Late Nineteenth-Century America, with Anita Clair Fellman (1981) Antislavery Reconsidered: New Perspectives on the Abolitionists, co-edited with Lewis Perry (1979) The Unbounded Frame: Freedom and Community in Nineteenth-Century American Utopianism (1973) conflicting worlds New Dimensions of the American Civil War T. Michael Parrish, Series Editor This page intentionally left blank v i e w s f rom t h e da r k si de of a m e r ic a n h i story Michael Fellman Louisiana State University Press Baton Rouge Published by Louisiana State University Press Copyright © 2011 by Louisiana State University Press All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America LSU Press Paperback Original First printing Designer: Michelle A. Neustrom Typefaces: Whitman, text; Tribute, display Printer and binder: McNaughton & Gunn, Inc. library of congress cataloging-in-publication data Fellman, Michael. Views from the dark side of American history / Michael Fellman. p. cm. — (Conflicting worlds : new dimensions of the American Civil War) ISBN 978-0-8071-3902-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8071-3903-5 (pdf) — ISBN 978-0-8071-3904-2 (epub) — ISBN 978-0-8071-3905-9 (mobi) 1. Fellman, Michael. 2. Historians—United States—Biography. 3. Historiography—United States. 4. United States—Historiography. 5. United States—History—Study and teaching (Higher) I. Title. E175.5.F38A3 2011 907.2'02—dc22 2011006961 The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. (cid:2)(cid:2) Portions of chapter 1, “Madison Daze,” were first published in Labour/Le Travail 29 (Spring 1992): 221–27. Reprinted with permission of Labour/Le Travail. Portions of chapter 3, “At the Nihilist Edge: Reflections on Guerrilla Warfare during the American Civil War,” were first published in Förster, Stig and Jorg Nagler, eds. On the Road to Total War: The American Civil War and the German Wars of Unification, 1861–1871. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Reprinted with the permission of Cambridge University Press. Portions of chapter 4, “Alligatormen and Cardsharpers: Deadly Southwestern Humor,” were first published in Huntington Library Quarterly 49 (Autumn 1986): 307–23. Reprinted with permission of the Huntington Library Press. Portions of chapter 5, “Robert E. Lee: Man and Myth,” were first published in Wallenstein, Peter, and Bertram Wyatt-Brown, eds. Virginia’s Civil War. Charlottesville: University of Virginia, 2004. Reprinted with permission of University of Virginia Press. For Mike Zuckerman, Chris Phelps, and for the memory of Bob Wiebe This page intentionally left blank contents Introduction | 1 1. Madison Daze | 12 2. Shadows of the Holocaust: Jewish American Historians and the Black Slave Character | 29 3. At the Nihilist Edge: Reflections on Guerrilla Warfare during the American Civil War | 53 4. Alligatormen and Cardsharpers: Deadly Southwestern Humor | 88 5. Robert E. Lee: Myth and Man | 117 6. Reflections on Inside War | 136 acknowledgments | 153