Background

Edward Pollard was born on February 27, 1831, at "Alta Vista," Albemarle County, Virginia, United States. He was the seventh of nine children of Richard and Paulina Cabell Rives Pollard. His father was chargé d'affaires in Chile from 1834 to 1841.

Education

Edward was a student at Hampden-Sydney College about 1846, and then entered the University of Virginia, where he remained from 1847 to 1849. He is recorded as having entered the College of William and Mary as a law student, October 14, 1850, at the age of eighteen. On November 19, he was "given leave to withdraw," and later, by a unanimous vote of the faculty, denied readmission. He then studied law in Baltimore and afterward spent some years in California.

Career

According to his own story Edward Alfred Pollard traveled in Mexico, Nicaragua, China, Japan, Siam, and Europe as a journalist, but it is difficult to reconcile his account with the time than necessary for such an extended journey. During the Buchanan administration, he was for a time clerk of the judiciary committee of the House of Representatives.

Under the influence of Bishop Meade, Pollard began studying for the Episcopal ministry, but his journalistic bent was too strong; in 1861 he became editor of the Daily Richmond Examiner, and held that post until 1867. In 1864 he was captured while running the blockade in the steamer Grayhound, with the intention of going to England to promote the sale of his books, and was carried to Fortress Monroe.

After an unsuccessful attempt to induce Lord Lyons, the British minister, to demand his release, Pollard was carried to New York and later to Boston, where he was first paroled and then confined in Fort Warren until August. Later he was again paroled, sent to Brooklyn and then south, where Grant, under Stanton's orders, placed him in solitary confinement at Fortress Monroe until he was exchanged, January 12, 1865; he then returned to Richmond.

At the close of the war Pollard was given a pass to leave the country and went to Europe, but soon returned, and in 1867 established Southern Opinion, a weekly newspaper, which ran until 1869. In 1868 he founded The Political Pamphlet, which also died early.

He spent the last few years of his life in New York, continuing to write for the press and publishing books until the end.

Achievements

• Edward Alfred Pollard was the ablest and most prolific Southern writer of his day, though his literary output, on account of constant repetition and republication under different titles, looms larger than its deserts. He wrote several books on the causes and events of the American Civil War. His chief published works were: "The Lost Cause" in 1866, "The Lost Cause Regained," "The Southern Spy, or Curiosities of Negro Slavery in the S."

Works

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  • Black Diamonds Gathered in the Darkey Homes of the South 1859
  • Southern History of the War
  • Observations in the North: Eight Months in Prison and on Parole 1865
  • The Lost Cause: A New Southern History of the War of the Confederates 1866
  • Lee And His Lieutenants V1: Comprising The Early Life, Public Services And Campaigns Of General Robert El Lee And His Companions In Arms 1867
  • The Lost Cause Regained 1868
  • Life of Jefferson Davis with a Secret Hi 1869
  • The Virginia Tourist: Sketches Of The Springs And Mountains Of Virginia: Containing An Eexposition Of Fields For The Touist La Virginia 1870

Religion

Edward was a member of the Episcopalian church.

Politics

Pollard had been an advocate of secession, and he was a fiery and devoted partisan of the Confederacy. But he quickly became convinced that President Davis was unfit for his office, and the Examiner was, therefore, a merciless and caustic critic and a bitter enemy of him. To the end Pollard insisted that Davis was the prime cause of the South's defeat, and, denying any prejudice towards him, asserted that he attacked him only "through supreme devotion to a great cause."

Connections

Edward married the first time but the name of his wife, who died very soon, is unknown. After the war, he married Marie Antoinette Nathalie Granier, who had separated from her first husband, James R. Dowell, during the war because of political differences. She survived Pollard and later acquired some note as a writer and public speaker.

Father:

Richard Pollard

1790-1851

Mother:

Paulina Cabell Rives Pollard

1796-1858

Wife:

Marie Antoinette Nathalie Granier Pollard

Brother:

James Rives Pollard

Sister:

Lucy Pollard Habersham

1828-1862

Brother:

Richard Pollard

1829-1908

References

• Biographical Dictionary of the Confederacy
  1977