Alabamians in Blue

Recent disputes about Civil War memorials have alerted citizens to the pervasive influence of the Lost Cause and its monopoly on public space in many southern spaces. One marker of this success is the absence of any commemoration of Southern Unionists. Christopher M. Rein's Alabamians in Blue plays an important restorative role in this regard. Rein's narrative provides an excellent chronological survey of the Civil War in Alabama, but his focus is on residents of the state who rallied against the Confederacy. Although these black and white Unionists turned out in small numbers compared to Alabamians who fought on behalf of the Confederacy, Rein persuasively shows that they contributed to Confederate defeat. Rein argues that Confederates lost because of a combination of internal and external pressure. White and black Unionists, both those who fought regularly in U.S. military forces and those who operated irregularly or on the economic or social fronts, participated in this effort. Understanding the Civil War means appreciating all these dynamics, and Rein's narrative effectively weaves them together

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