Feeder 3.1

In Confederates in the Attic, Tony Horwitz explores the U.S. in hopes to find more about his deep interest in the Civil War. In two excerpts from the book, Cats of the Confederacy and Dying for Dixie, Horwitz investigates two separate towns within America and their ties to the war. In Cats of the Confederacy, Horwitz follows and observes the Daughters and Sons of the Confederacy in Lancaster, North Carolina. In Dying for Dixie, Horwitz researches the death of Michael Westerman over the Confederate flag in the small town of Guthrie, Kentucky. Within his writing’s, Horwitz portrays the South as a region stuck in the past while the world around them is rapidly moving forward. Individuals in the South feel as if they have to stand up for their “ancestors” even over 140 years after the war.
At the beginning of Cats of the Confederacy Horwitz is lead by locals in Lancaster, North Carolina to a woman named Sue Curtis, one of the members of the Daugthers of the Confederacy. Horwitz attends the Sons of the Confederacy meeting where the members introduced themselves as if they were generals or held a position in the Civil War. The beginning of the meeting was marked by a salute four separate flags, two of them representing the Confederacy. They celebrated Lee’s and Jackson’s birthdays with a Lee-Jackson trivia quiz that contained questions such as ”what did Robert E. Lee weigh at the start of the war?” It was rare that no one knew the answer to these far from important questions about particulars pertaining to these two individuals in the Civil War. Within this scene Horwitz mentions that the Sons of the Confederacy are among the “latter-day rebels.” Sue Curtis explained that the reason why the South still cares about the Civil War is because of family, all of their relatives that went off to the war and lost their lives. As these meetings are being held in this small town of Lancaster, North Carolina it seems as if no one takes notice to the world around them besides Tony Horwitz. As he steps out of his motel he is surrounded by a Kmart, a Waffle House, a Dunkin’ Donuts, McDonald’s, and several gas stations. This is the scenery in which there are “clubs” taking pride in their ancestors, acting as if they were in the Confederate army themselves, and pledging themselves to the Confederate flag.
In Dying for Dixie, Horwitz finds himself caught in a “war” inside the small town of Guthrie, Kentucky. Guthrie’s main street contained a Piggly Wiggly, convenience stores, and locals scratching off lottery tickets yet confederate flags were still flying as if the Civil War were present today. Interestingly enough, Horwitz finds that Todd County is not even rebel country when a large amount of its citizens are flying the rebel flag. Guthrie’s mayor explained that when he was a boy, no one had cared about the Confederate flag but today he believes people feel as if they have to stand up for what they believe. The younger southern generation feels they have to protect the confederate flag. A Sons of Confederate Veteran’s museum treated Michael Westerman’s death as if he was a confederate soldier who had died in the civil war calling him the “confederate martyr.” At the procession for his death, bikers on Harley’s recognized his “duty” to the Confederacy as they gathered beside the present day restaurant, Cracker Barrel. Horwitz makes note of what David Westerman, Michael’s father, says at the end of the excerpt and writes “They say that war ended a long time ago. But around here it’s like it’s still going on.”
As Robert Penn Warren once wrote “History, like nature, knows no jumps, except the jump backward.” Horwitz portrays the south as close followers and believers of its regional history even as businesses such as a Piggly Wiggly, a Dairy Queen, and convenience shops are prevalent. The Confederate flag and the Confederacy have the same if not greater meaning today than they did in the Civil War within the south.