confederate army

[jennyc]

what was the book given to confederate army officers because it symbolized their cause? Was it Colours and Blood?

[Clanad]

Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo...

[VHG]

If it is true that they were given that book it is a strange choice.

Les Miserables is about the struggle of the very poor in France (the miserables) to crawl (or fight) there way out of their desperate situation.

But the American Civil war was partly about trying to preserve the pampered lifestyle of the rich southern land owners by employing cheap labour (both black and white).

They seem to contradict each other.

[Clanad]

While Hugo's novel has elements of the struggle as you suggest, the overiding themes that are present as undercurrents throughout Valjean's transformation are Courage and Self-sacrifice... that which the Southerners saw as preeminent in their cause... rightly or wrongly.

It mus be remembered that the vast msjority of soldiers on the side of the south were volunteers but backwoodsmen, farmers and more akin to the peasantry in Les Miserables. They saw the struggle as, principally, one for States rights...