Edward Alfred Pollard

Edward Alfred Pollard (February 27, 1832December 17, 1872) was an American author, journalist, and Confederate sympathizer during the American Civil War who wrote several books on the causes and events of the war, notably The Lost Cause: A New Southern History of the War of the Confederates(1866) and The Lost Cause Regained(1868), wherein Pollard originated the long-standing pseudo-historical ideology of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy. Written after the war, these works advocated white supremacy, supported the relegation of blacks to second-class status, and accused the Union and federal government of alleged excesses committed both during and after the war. The books gave two different descriptions of the causes of the war and the nature of Southern society: The Lost Cause claimed the main reason for the war was the two opposing ways (largely slavery) of organizing society, and viewed slavery as key to the nobility of the South, while The Lost Cause Regained argued that the primary reason for secession was not slavery, but the preservation of state sovereignty. The latter viewpoint reflects much of Pollard's post-1867 attempts to reconcile former pro-Confederacy ideas with new realities, patriotism, and free-labor unionism. Early life and education Edward Alfred Pollard was born on February 27, 1832, on the Oak Ridge Plantation in Nelson County, Virginia, which his grandfather Robert Rives, had built and made his primary residence until his death when Edward was a boy. His mother, Paulina Cabell Rives Pollard, descended from the region's powerful (and slaveholding) Cabell family, one of the First Families of Virginia and had married Richard Pollard. Edward was the youngest of their children; his eldest brother James Rives Pollard would die in 1862. Four of his maternal uncles served in the Virginia General Assembly, and William Cabell Rives (1793–1868), who inherited Oak Ridge upon his father's death, represented Virginia in both houses of Congress as well as served as a U.S. Ambassador to France. Edward Pollard received a private education suitable for his class, then attended the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia (which his grandfather had helped found), graduating in 1849. Although his uncle Alexander Rives was a prominent local lawyer (and would later become a judge of the Virginia Supreme Court and the U.S.