Southeastern NEWS

                                                       Southeastern Louisiana University
                                           Public Information Office
                                           publicinfo@selu.edu
                                           SLU 880, Hammond, LA 70402
                                           504/549-2341/fax 504-549-2061
    Date: 5/23/00
      Contact:                           Christina Chapple   18

Editors: Photo accompanies release
SLU CIVIL WAR SYMPOSIUM EXAMINES "WHY MEN FOUGHT"
     HAMMOND -- Ten of the nation's most renowned Civil War historians will tackle a topic
that has been debated for generations -- What motivated Yankees and Rebels to fight? -- at
Southeastern Louisiana University's annual Deep Delta Civil War Symposium.
     The symposium, sponsored by Southeastern's Center for Regional Studies and History and
Political Sciences Department, is scheduled for Friday, June 2, and Saturday, June 3, at the
university's War Memorial Student Union. 
     Now in its 14th year, the Deep Delta Civil War Symposium has become one of the two largest
and most renowned Civil War symposiums in the nation, said its coordinator, Samuel Hyde Jr., a
Southeastern history professor, author and director of the Center for Regional Studies.
     Hyde said the symposium will examine "Why They Fought: Ideology, Strategy and the
Demands of War" through lectures and a historians' roundtable discussion. It also will feature
exhibits of Confederate soldiers' combat letters and rare artifacts from regional battlefields, a
large Civil War book fair, and social hours where the general public can discuss topics with
visiting scholars.
     Symposium presenters, who have written extensively on the Civil War, include Charles
Roland, University of Kentucky; Steven Woodward, Texas Christian University; Gordon Rhea,
an attorney and author from Mt. Pleasant, S.C.; Lesley Gordon, University of Akron; Donald
Frazier, McMurray University; Bradley G. Bond, University of Southern Mississippi, David
Williams, Valdosta State University; W. Todd Groce, executive director of the Georgia
Historical Society; and Karen Fritz, Victoria College.
     Tickets, available at the door, are: All sessions and meals, $160 ($140, students/spouses);
all sessions without meals, $95 ($85, students/spouses); Friday only with meals, $80 ($65,
students/spouses); Saturday only with meals, $80 ($65, students/spouses). Social hours each
evening will provide the opportunity to discuss and critique topics with the presenters, Hyde
said.
     "For generations scholars and history buffs have debated what motivated the opposing sides 
and why individual men fought in the Civil War," Hyde said. He said the combatants' motives
are often compared those of Americans during the Revolutionary War and European 
conflicts "that were perceived as pitting liberty-loving peoples against tyrannical dictators."
Issues  such as slavery, agricultural versus industrial societies, and states' rights versus the
Federal constitution often dominate discussion of  "why men fought" in the Civil War, Hyde
said.
     "Initially, the Civil War was interpreted exclusively by northern scholars who, in applauding
the success of the Union armies, depicted the war as virtuous northerners fulfilling God's will to
crush the brutal slaveholding South," Hyde said. "Virtually all of these early historians depicted
the outcome as the triumph of justice over evil." 
     Hyde said early 20th century scholars began to question the accuracy of that portrayal.
"Historians demonstrated that the overwhelming majority of men who served in the Confederate
Army were not slaveholders, suggesting that other factors motivated them to fight," he said.
"Moreover, they demonstrated that southerners maintained different sets of values and beliefs,
required economic policies that conflicted with those of the North and even originated from
differing ethnic backgrounds than the Yankees."
     "In the wake of the Civil Rights movement and the increasing sensitivity to the plight of
African Americans that the struggle for equality produced, many scholars have again insisted on
the centrality of slavery as the reason men fought in both armies," Hyde said. He said one of the
most hotly debated positions is that of Pulitzer Prize winning historian James L. McPherson,
whose latest book argued that the slave issue motived both armies. 
     "McPherson insisted that northerners fought to eliminate slavery while southern soldiers
waged war to sustain it," Hyde said. "Curiously, McPherson admitted that he seldom found
evidence among the personal letters and diaries of Confederate soldiers in which they declared
that they were fighting to preserve slavery, instead he argued that since none of the southern
soldiers clearly indicated that they were not fighting to preserve slavery, then indeed slavery
must have been what motivated them. 
     "McPherson's position remains hotly debated," Hyde said.
     For additional information about the Deep Delta Civil War Symposium, call Hyde at
504-549- 2151. Information is also available online at www.selu.edu/Academics/Depts/
RegionalStudies/events.htm
                             -SLU-
Press release available online at www.selu.edu./NewsEvents/PublicInfoOffice/newsp00.htm