During the first few months following the Confederate defeat, Southerners faced a difficult time of disillusionment and confusion. Many were anxious to put the war behind them and to find a way to adjust to their defeat. The way in which Southerners tried to come to terms with their defeat became known as the "lost cause." The movement included activities which would preserve the memory of the Confederacy. According to Gaines Foster's Ghosts of the Confederacy, most Southerners over a period of time accepted their loss and embraced reconciliation. Ironically, a majority remained devoted to old political values and to the principle of white supremacy, but at the same time consented to the idea of reunion and to the destruction of slavery. (Foster, p. 21) Nevertheless the "lost cause," in Foster's view was not a post-Appomattox reactionary movement but instead was a celebration of Confederate honor and loyalty. Therefore the so-called "ghosts of the Confederacy" gave shape to the New South's political and social culture through the emphasis of sectional peace and progress.
Mourning their defeat in the Civil War provided Southerners with a means to cope with the political, social, and economic changes of the post-bellum South. Soon after Appomattox Southerners instituted a Confederate Memorial Day and began to honor their failed cause and fallen soldiers through the dedication of cemetery monuments. Former Confederate leaders, like Jubal Early, organized the Southern Historical Society (SHS) in order to establish certain beliefs about the Confederate loss. Through its publications, the SHS promoted the idea that Longstreet's slowness in his attack at Gettysburg and the overwhelming numbers the Confederate armies faced led to the South's defeat. The SHS also insisted that the South had not fought to preserve slavery and that secession was constitutional. By the late 1880s, the mourning subsided and the activities became more of a celebration. According to Foster, this celebration succeeded in holding Southern society together while the movement endorsed the rituals of the "lost cause" and the creed of a New South. (Foster, p. 195) Southern men like Henry Grady proclaimed a New South would rise from the ashes of the Old South. Proponents for a New South advocated sectional reconciliation and industrialization. This celebration was culminated through the organization of the United Confederate Veterans (UCV). The UCV in conjunction with the Sons of the Confederate Veterans (SCV) and the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) organized annual reunions and dedicated courthouse monuments throughout the South. The reunions served as a way for Southerners to adjust to changes following the war.
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