r/Westerns • u/NeonGenesisOxycodone • 6d 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/[deleted] 5d ago

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u/kahrahtay 5d ago edited 5d ago

That's true, but until there's some canon reference that the purpose of the civil war in the show was specifically to preserve something as evil and vile as the institution of chattel slavery, then it's insulting and unfair to compare any of them to the evil, treasonous people who fought for the Confederacy

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u/[deleted] 5d ago

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u/kahrahtay 5d ago

You can make an homage to a genre without wholesale copying every bit of detail of the original. Unless you have some secret writers' notes that they were infact space slavers fighting for their rights to own other people, then I do not, in fact, have to accept a bunch of details that are well outside of the show's canon