Eric H. Walter. The Fire-Eaters.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University

Press. 1992. xv – 333 pp.

The historiography of the American Civil War is littered with volumes detailing

battle strategy and tactics, biographical sketches of military leaders, and, of course, the

many works that focus on President Lincoln; however, little scholarly work exists that

offers an authoritative analysis of the ideological framework for southern secessionist

leaders. Scholars must cautiously consider the memoirs and autobiographies of the

secessionist and Confederates that do exist, since they tend to be apologetics for the cause

of slavery, wrapped in the guise of states rights. The motivation of southern secession

leaders has been an elusive subject in American Civil War historiography; however, Eric

Walther rectifies this grievous omission of with his work The Fire-Eaters.

Walther, co-opting Ulrich Phillips’ earlier explanation, defines the term “Fire-

Eater” as “those who engaged in a ‘persistent advocacy of Southern independence’” (p.

2). Walther further points out that Fire-Eaters differed from the states rights proponents,

or southern radicals who seemed to dominate Southern society, by arguing that the

radicals “promoted southern interests but did not necessarily advocate secession” (p. 2).

The Fire-Eaters were a consistent force in southern society since John Calhoun and the

nullification crisis; however, prior to the 1850’s and the genesis of the Republican Party,

they were certainly a political minority. Their influence grew as the sectional crisis over

the extension of slavery into the territories devolved into the bleeding of Kansas and the

Taney court’s Dred Scott decision. Ultimately, the Fire Eaters political philosophy, that

southern greatness could only be realized by separation from the Black Republican
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North, became the ideology of the majority when on April 12, 1861, Edmund Ruffin the

well known Virginia secessionist, was given the satisfaction, as an honorary member of

the Palmetto guards, of firing the first shots to secure southern rights when he lit the fuse

for the first volley of the Civil War upon Fort Sumter in Charleston, SC (pp. 263-264).

Walther offers unique insight into the motivations and methods of southern

secessionist ideology by examining nine of the most influential Fire-Eaters from the

infamously well-known South Carolinian Robert Barnwell Rhett to the lesser known, yet

very important publisher and census director James D. B. De Bow. Walther examines

each secessionist individually and attempts to identify their particular ideology and its

origins; however, each is also viewed in light of the greater secessionist movement

throughout the south. He also illustrates the impact of the fire-eaters on each other and

the politics of their respective states, for example Rhett’s unsuccessful challenge in 1848

of John Calhoun for the political leadership of South Carolina, launched the “Bluffton

Movement” and although Calhoun defeated Rhett’s challenge to his South Carolina

political hegemony, Rhett’s demand for “‘any thing else’ but ‘base and cowardly

submission’” to Northern demands gained many followers (pp. 132 – 133).

The secessionist movement had begun and would only grow in popularity in one

southern state after another until finally South Carolina became the first to officially

secede from the Union on December 20, 1860. Utilizing recollections from a southern

observer Walther describes Rhett signing the secession document as a “thrilling

moment,” further describing Rhett’s actions he continues, “as he approached the desk he

sunk upon his knees and uplifted his hands to heaven, and for a moment bowed his head

in prayer” (pp. 155). The Fire-Eaters’ work was accomplished with the secession of the
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southern states and the establishment of the Southern Confederacy; however, most of the

original Fire-Eaters became disillusioned by the new government. The “dedication to

state sovereignty” that was paramount to secessionist ideology could never be reconciled

to the exigencies of war (pp 302). Walther competently illustrates the zeal with which

the Fire-Eaters set out to extirpate the southern states from the Union so that they were

never forced to submit their states rights to federal authority.

Eric Walther’s work offers a very important scholarly review of the ideological

origins and activities of the southern secessionists. He offers insightful details into the

lives and minds of nine of the key rhetorical leaders of southern society and how these

men influenced their fellow southerners to disband the union. He concludes that the very

rhetorical and political maneuverings of this small yet influential group led to the

inability of the south to compromise on slavery and the general belief in the South that

because, as Senator Hammond exclaimed, Cotton was King the north did not stand a

chance against a determined southern confederacy.

William R. Cox, 4075725, American Public University