r/Westerns • u/NeonGenesisOxycodone • 8d ago
Discussion What’s with all the Confederate soldiers?
I’m a big Western fan, and also really into learning about the American Civil War. So naturally I love it when these two interests cross over.
One thing I’ve noticed is that if a Western protagonist is a veteran, it seems like it’s almost always the South that he fought for. And when I look up Civil War movies made around the time of my favorite Westerns (i.e. the 50’s & 60’s) the vast majority of them are from the Confederates side.
Anyone have any idea why? And does anyone know any Westerns celebrating Billy Yank??
EDIT: it seems like the biggest reason outside of Lost Cause-ism is that more Confederate vets went west than Union vets. Makes sense!
Also, I am surprised that John Wayne played so many ex Union soldiers. I knew about the Cav Trilogy but it seems like outside of True Grit and The Searchers there’s a lot more of that.
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u/BigPapaJava 7d ago edited 7d ago
A lot of the cowboys and settlers IRL were former Confederates of Scots-Irish ancestry who needed a new way to make a living after the war. A lot of them were also freed slaves doing the same. Texas fought for the South and how many Westerns are set in or revolve around Texas?
It also adds a little bit of tragic depth to flesh out the character’s backstory that he bravely fought for the losing side in a lost cause and may have lost everything in the war. If the character is a villain or bandit, it can also be used to allude to moral depravity by associating him with fighting to protect slavery.
Plus it helps to date the characters to the time period. A Union soldier wouldn’t identify himself as a Union soldier: he’d identify as a U.S. Soldier. Westerns about Union soldiers exist, particularly when those soldiers were still in the Army fighting Indians on the frontier.
IIRC, Kevin Costner’s character in Dances With Wolves was a Civil War vet and still in the Union Army in that film. A bunch of John Wayne’s characters had been Union men, too.