“Historians are themselves the products of history.” Happy Saturday!

I am writing this before the Chiefs play. My Facebook home page contains Civil War history and those alleging that the Chiefs rigged their former victories. Therefore, they can prepare to make the same assumption upon another triumph. If the Chiefs lose, does that not make the Bills victory less than adequate by such a claim? Either way, the Chiefs played an incredible season, and I am happy with the results thus far.

I initially planned on writing about some military decisions made by Grant at the operational level of war, but I came across an order to Benjamin Butler from Grant on 2 December 1864. Grant sent Butler the following message,

I understand that Pollard,1 the Southern Historian, is at Fortress Monroe paroled and going about the Wharf and elsewhere with freedom. The imprudence of many of our officers in telling all they know to everyone makes this objectionable, particularly if he is to be exchanged. I would suggest close confinement for him until the time comes for exchanging.

Edward Pollard was sympathetic to the Confederate States of America early in the war effort. Before the war broke out, he wrote about why the United States should reopen the Atlantic Slave Trade. Then he later became an editor for the Richmond Examiner. During the war, he began publishing books about the Southern war effort and the CSA’s “righteous cause.” He was captured by a blockade runner in 1864 as he tried to go to Great Britain.

Grant already knew of him when he was captured based on his work, but Grant saw him as more of a danger than most people would assume. Grant believed that Pollard should be restrained while imprisoned. Butler questioned why Grant did not want Pollard walking around the wharf or elsewhere. Grant never answered Butler’s question but said he should be exchanged for some New York Times editors. Grant knew the power of the pen and propaganda and that Pollard produced much of it. Grant could already foresee the dangers of Pollard’s writings. Pollard would later impact the thinking of thousands of Americans by starting his own revisionist history of the war entitled, The Lost Cause: A New Southern History of the War of the Confederates.