Douglas Southall Freeman: Difference between revisions

| education = [[University of Richmond|Richmond College]] ([[B.Bachelor of A.Arts|AB]])<br />[[Johns Hopkins University]] ([[PhD]])

Douglas Southall Freeman was born May 16, 1886, in [[Lynchburg, Virginia]], to Bettie Allen Hamner and Walker Burford Freeman, an insurance agent who had served four years in [[Robert E. Lee]]'s [[Army of Northern Virginia]]. From childhood, Freeman exhibited an interest in Southern history. In Lynchburg, his family lived at 416 Main Street,<ref name="marker">{{cite web |title=Douglas Southall Freeman Marker Q-6-17 |publisher=Marker History |url=http://www.markerhistory.com/douglas-southall-freeman-marker-q-6-17/ |access-date=November 4, 2011 |archive-date=July 18, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180718001349/http://www.markerhistory.com/douglas-southall-freeman-marker-q-6-17/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> near the home of [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] general [[Jubal Early]]. The family moved to the former Confederate capital of [[Richmond, Virginia]], in 1892 at the height of the [[Monument Avenue|monument commemoration movement]] that memorialized Virginia's Robert E. Lee, [[J.E.B. Stuart]], and [[Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson]].<ref name="johnson"/>

In 1904, Freeman was awarded an [[Bachelor of Arts|AB degreeA.B.]] from [[University of Richmond|Richmond College]], where he had been a member of the [[Phi Gamma Delta]] fraternity. In 1908, at the age of 22, he earned a PhD[[Ph.D.]] in [[history]] atfrom [[Johns Hopkins University]] in [[Baltimore]]. Unable to secure a position in academia, Freeman joined the staff of the ''[[Richmond Times-Dispatch]]'' in 1909, and, in 1915, at the age of 29, he became editor of ''[[The Richmond News Leader]]''—a position he held for 34 years.<ref name="johnson"/>

In 1911, when Freeman was 25 years old, he came into possession of a cache of long-lost wartime communications between Robert E. Lee and Confederate president [[Jefferson Davis]]. Freeman spent four years working on the documents, and in 1915, he published ''Lee's Dispatches''. The book was received enthusiastically by Civil War historians,<ref name="johnson"/> and it became an important primary source for Civil War scholars.

Written between June 2, 1862, and April 1, 1865, Lee's letters to Davis revealed the general's strategy with clearer perspective, shed new light on some of Lee's decisions, and underscored his close and always co-operative relationship with Davis. In his Introduction, Freeman summarized seven major revelations contained in the letters. For example, the letters reveal that the Confederate high command in 1862 considered but rejected a bold proposal to strengthen [[Stonewall Jackson]]'s army in the [[Shenandoah Valley]] and embark on a vigorous offensive campaign against the North, even at the expense of defending Richmond.<ref>Freeman, Douglas Southall. Introduction in ''[https://books.google.com/books/about/Lee_s_dispatches.html?id=k4B66r_9VhcC Lee's Dispatches]''. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1915, pp. iii–xxxviii.</ref>

Freeman's ''R. E. Lee: A Biography'' established the Virginia School of Civil War scholarship, an approach to writing Civil War history that concentrated on the Eastern Theater of the war, focused the narrative on generals over the common soldier, centered the analysis on military campaigns over social and political events, and treated his Confederate subjects with sympathy. This approach to writing Civil War history would lead some critics to label Freeman a "[[Lost Cause of the Confederacy|Lost Cause]]" historian, <ref name="johnson"/> ana allusionpejorative to the literary and intellectual movement that soughtreference to reconcilea thepseudohistorical traditionalapologist white societyinterpretation of the South to the defeatcause of the [[Confederate States of America]].<ref name="gallagher">Gallagher, Gary.''Jubal A. Early, the Lost Cause, and Civil War History:that Adeprecates Persistentthe Legacy''.central Marquetterole University Press,of 1995slavery. {{ISBN|0-87462-328-6}}.</ref> Freeman began work on his biography of Lee in 1926; by the time he had completed his four volume work in 1933, he had committed some 6,100 hours to the effort.<ref name=":0">[[#malone|Freeman, Malone, 1954]], p. xviii</ref>

Following the critical success of ''R. E. Lee: A Biography'', Freeman expanded his study of the Confederacy with the critically acclaimed three-volume ''Lee's Lieutenants: A Study in Command'', published in 1942, 1943, and 1944. It presents a unique combination of military strategy, biography, and Civil War history, and it shows how armies actually work. Published during World War II, it had a great influence on American military leaders and strategists. A few months after the conclusion of the war, Freeman was asked to join an official tour of American forces in Europe and Japan.<ref name="mullen"/> ''Lee's Lieutenants: A Study in Command'' established Freeman as the preeminent military historian in the country, and led to close friendships with United States generals [[George C. Marshall]] and [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]].<ref name="johnson"/>

''George Washington Volume 3: Planter and Patriot'' and ''George Washington Volume 4: Leader of the Revolution'' were published in 1951. The following year, he published ''George Washington Volume 5: Victory with the Help of France'' (1952). Freeman completed work on ''George Washington Volume 6: Patriot and President'' just before he died; it was published after his death in 1954. The concluding book, ''George Washington Volume 7: First in Peace'', was written by Freeman's associates, [[John Alexander Carroll]] and [[Mary Wells Ashworth]], based on Freeman's original research and was published in 1957.<ref>[[#malone|Freeman, Malone, 1954]], pp. xi–xxxi</ref> Historian and George Washington biographer [[John E. Ferling]] maintains that no other biography forof Washington compares to that of Freeman's work.<ref>[[#ferling|Ferling, John E.]], p. 654</ref>

Douglas Southall Freeman died of a heart attack on June 13, 1953, at his home in [[Richmond, Virginia]], at the age of 67. On the morning of his death he had delivered his usual radio broadcast from Richmond. He was buried in [[Hollywood Cemetery (Richmond, Virginia)|Hollywood Cemetery]] in Richmond.<ref name="johnson"/><ref>[[#malone|Freeman, Malone, 1954]], p. xi</ref>

[[Eric Foner]] is more critical of Freeman, whose biography of Lee, Foner calls a "[[hagiography]]," criticizing its lack of nuance and the limited attention paid to Lee's relationship to slavery.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Foner|first1=Eric|title=The Making and the Breaking of the Legend of Robert E. Lee|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/28/books/review/eric-foner-robert-e-lee.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date=August 28, 2017|access-date=September 18, 2017}}</ref> [[Charles B. Dew]] wrote that Freeman's "magisterial" ''Lee's Lieutenants'', [[United Daughters of the Confederacy]] magazine, and ''[[Facts the Historians Leave Out: A Youth's Confederate Primer]]'' by John S. Tilley were crucial titles in his adolescent indoctrination into the mainstream white Southern worldview of the 1950s.<ref name=":0" />

In 2021, some students and faculty at the University of Richmond, where Freeman served as Rector for seven years, criticized the University board of trustees for refusing to remove Freeman's name from a campus building, although he had "supported racial segregation, opposed interracial marriage and promoted racist concepts underlying the eugenics movement." The “greatest"greatest inheritance,”" Freeman once said, was “clean"clean blood, right-thinking ancestry.”"<ref>{{Cite news|title=Uproar erupts at U. of Richmond over building names with ties to racism|language=en-US|newspaper=Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/03/25/university-richmond-ryland-freeman-buildings/|access-date=2021-10-13|issn=0190-8286}}</ref>

* 1951 best news commentary over larger radio stations from Virginia Associated Press Broadcasters<ref>{{cite news|title=Douglas S. Freeman Wins Award For News Commentary|newspaper=Kingsport News |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2043069/wrnl1951_news_awards|agency=Kingsport News|date=April 6, 1951|page=3|via=[[Newspapers.com]]|access-date=March 22, 2015}} {{Open access}}</ref>

* [http://www.markerhistory.com/douglas-southall-freeman-marker-q-6-17/ Virginia Historical Marker Q-6-17] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180718001349/http://www.markerhistory.com/douglas-southall-freeman-marker-q-6-17/ |date=July 18, 2018 }}, located on Rivermont Avenue in [[Lynchburg, Virginia]], commemorates Freeman's life and work<ref name="marker"/>