Douglas Southall Freeman

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Douglas Southall Freeman

Douglas Southall Freeman (born May 16, 1886 in Lynchburg , Virginia , † June 13, 1953 in Westbourne , Virginia) was an American historian and journalist , best known for his biographies of George Washington and Robert E. Lee .

life and work

A native of the American South, Freeman was the son of a Civil War veteran who served four years in Lee's Army of Northern Virginia . In 1892 the family moved to Richmond (Confederate General Jubal Early lived in the neighborhood). He graduated from Richmond College in 1904 and received his PhD in history from Johns Hopkins University in 1908 , which was still unusual in the United States at the time. The subject of his dissertation was the Virginia Parliament's decision to secede (the only copy of his dissertation burned). He then settled in Richmond, where he worked as a journalist for the Richmond Times Dispatch from 1909 and, after this was received in 1914, for The Richmond News Letter . At first he also worked briefly for the tax authorities. From 1915 to 1949 he was editor of "The Richmond News Letter". Later there was a radio broadcast twice a day that made him very influential beyond Virginia. During the Second World War, he commented daily on the military events on the radio and was on friendly terms with high-ranking US military personnel such as Dwight D. Eisenhower , Douglas MacArthur and Chester W. Nimitz .

Originally there were also plans for him to write a history of World War II, and immediately after the war he traveled to Europe and Japan . He later strengthened Eisenhower's candidacy for the US presidency and took on a leadership role in bringing the South , traditionally towards the Democrats, closer to the Republicans ; thus he was in opposition to the Democratic Senator from Virginia, Harry F. Byrd . He was also known nationwide as a newspaper publisher. Although he was reluctant to leave his homeland, he accepted a visiting professorship in journalism from 1936 to 1941 at the constant urging of Columbia University . He did not live in New York , however, but traveled by train from Richmond for his weekly lecture. He was also the principal of the University of Richmond . He died of a heart attack.

He became known for his seven-volume biography of George Washington (1948 to 1957, the last volume of which was edited after his death by John Alexander Carroll and Mary Wells Ashworth) and his four-volume biography of Lee (Scribner's 1934 to 1935). Both earned him a Pulitzer Prize , the Lee biography in 1935 and the Washington biography posthumously in 1958. He also wrote a three-volume history of the governance structure of the Confederate Army (Army of Northern Virginia) under Lee's command ("Lee's Lieutenant ´s: a study in command, 1942 to 1944), which cemented his reputation as a military historian and was influential in US military circles during World War II. Freeman is often seen as a proponent of the " Lost Cause " movement, which Lee identified as a "gentleman leader" subject to the material superiority of the North. Freeman, who made no secret of his admiration for Lee (on the daily way to the editorial office, he used to greet Lee's statue militarily), was also accused of glossing over Lee's mistakes and blaming his subordinates. On the other hand, there are also critical passages about Lee in his biography, for example in Lee's underestimation of the political environment and Abraham Lincoln . According to his biographer David Johnson, Freeman did not let his personal admiration affect his judgment (unlike other Lost Cause representatives like Jubal Early).

His biographies were researched in great detail. B. admired by Winston Churchill, who let Freeman show him the battlefields of the Civil War. The New York Times ruled at the time of publication: "Lee complete for all time" and to this day his Lee biography is considered a benchmark in the United States. He described the events of the civil war from the perspective of Lee from day to day and, if possible, only with the information that Lee himself had, a procedure that was referred to as "fog of war" technology. He had been writing Lee's biography alone since at least 1915, when he signed the contract for it, for more than twenty years - he made the decision to do so after completing his doctorate, after which he actually wanted to embark on an academic career. The publishing contract for the Lee biography brought him in 1915 the discovery and publication of long-lost correspondence between Jefferson Davis and Lee, which attracted the attention of civil war historians. His workload was legendary. In the mornings he usually worked from 4:30 to noon as a newspaper editor and for his radio broadcasts, in the afternoons on his historical works, which he wrote full-time on after his retirement in 1949.

Freeman had been married since 1914.

Honors

Fonts (selection)

As an author

  • Virginia. A gentle dominion . Scribners, New York 1958 (EA New York 1924)
  • Robert E. Lee. A biography . Scribners, New York 1934/35 (4 volumes)
  • The South to Posterity. An introduction to the writing of confederate history . University Press, Baton Rouge 1998, ISBN 0-8071-2316-1 (EA New York 1939)
  • Lee's lieutenants. A study in command . Scribners, New York 1942/44 (3 volumes)
  1. Manassas to Malvern Hill . 1942.
  2. Cedar Mountain to Chancellorsville . 1943.
  3. Gettysburg to Appomattox . 1944.
  • John Stewart Bryan . 1947.
  • George Washington . 1948/57 (7 volumes)
  1. Young Washington, Vol. 1 . 1948.
  2. George Washington, Vol. 2 . 1949.
  3. Planter and Patriot . 1951.
  4. Leader of the Revolution . 1951.
  5. Victory with the help of France . 1952.
  6. Patriot and President . 1954.
  7. First in Peace . 1957.

As editor

  • A calendar of confederate papers . The Confederate Museum, Richmond, Va. 1908.
  • Lee's dispatches. Letters from General Lee to Jefferson Davis . Putnam, New York 1957 (EA New York 1915)

literature

  • David E. Johnson: Douglas Southall Freeman . Pelican Publishing, Gretna, LA 2002, ISBN 1-58980-021-4 .
  • Stuart W. Smith: Douglas Southall Freeman on Leadership . White Mane Publishing, Shippensburg / Penn. 1993, ISBN 0-942597-48-6 (EA Newport, RI 1990).
  • Dumas Malone: ​​In: DS Freeman: George Washington .
  • Mary Tyler Freeman Cheek: Reflections . In: Virginia Magazine of History and Biography , 94 : 25-39 (1986), ISSN  0042-6636

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Members: Douglas Southall Freeman. American Academy of Arts and Letters, accessed March 29, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Biographical information about the daughter

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Freeman, Douglas Southall
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American historian
DATE OF BIRTH May 16, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Lynchburg , Virginia
DATE OF DEATH June 13, 1953
Place of death Westbourne , Virginia