ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the challenges in contemporary Confederate historiography that are concerned with the following: political leadership and the nature of the Confederate polity; morale, disaffection, and commitment among the Confederacy's white population. It also includes the actions and aims of the Confederacy's enslaved black population; the rebellious South's military strategy and history; and what can be learned from closer attention to the war's impact on the Confederacy's physical and social environments. When men went to war, they altered the battlefield and partially denuded the human environment from which they came. Natural forces, such as storms, droughts, molds, or blights, affected the nutrients available to civilians and soldiers. In turn hunger and privation created panic and disaffection at home, while they influenced the movement of armies, whose weakened men had to go into battle. Shortages of food on the home front could threaten governments, erode civilian support, or force changes in policy.
