Background

He was the son of William LeRoy and Mary Love (Edwards) Fleming, both of Georgia ancestry, was born near Brundidge, Alabama. His father, a well-to-do farmer, had served in the Confederate cavalry and was active in local government.

His stories of carpetbag and scalawag days first aroused his son's interest in Reconstruction. Walter, the eldest of nine children, knew the hardships of Southern rural life in the years following the Civil War.

Education

He worked on the farm, attended rural schools and Brundidge Academy, and was graduated with honors from Alabama Polytechnic Institute in 1896, where he was editor of the college paper.

He won the degree of M. S. in 1897 while an instructor in history and English as well as assistant librarian.

Fleming's interest in Reconstruction had been sharpened by his undergraduate study, and in 1900 he entered Columbia University, where he received the degrees of A. M. in 1901 and Ph. D. in 1904.

In 1917 Fleming went to Vanderbilt University, where he became dean of the college of arts and sciences in 1923 and later director of the graduate school. His research work and publication were now subordinated to administrative work.

He fostered the development of facilities for graduate studies and coordinated the work of the various departments in the social sciences.

Career

The United States having declared war on Spain, Fleming resigned and enlisted May 1, 1898, in the 2nd Alabama Volunteers. He was promoted second lieutenant of the 3rd Alabama Volunteer Infantry in July but was in January 1899 detailed as quartermaster of the field hospital, 2nd Division, IV Army Corps.

He impressed his professors with the quality of his scholarship, and he received a broad training which bore fruit in his later writings on Southern history, for it enabled him to integrate and interpret the various aspects of Southern life.

He began his professional career at West Virginia University in 1904. While there he published four volumes and numerous articles on Reconstruction and founded the monthly West Virginia University Documents Relating to Reconstruction. While at Louisiana State University from 1907 to 1917 he turned his research interests to William T. Sherman and Jefferson Davis and published several articles on each and a volume on Sherman.

So comprehensive were his plans that the Rockefeller Foundation granted Vanderbilt funds with which to develop research in the social sciences. Fleming resigned his administrative post in 1926 to devote full time to teaching and research, but ill health forced his retirement in 1928.

He was a prolific writer in his chosen field of Southern history. He published one hundred and seventy-six items, including five volumes of edited materials, five as an author, forty-four articles in scholarly journals, several chapters in cooperative works, and sixty sketches in biographical dictionaries.

Among his most significant works are Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama (1905); Documentary History of Reconstruction (2 vols. , 1906 - 07); General W. T. Sherman as College President (1912); The Sequel of Appomattox (1919), in The Chronicles of America series; The Freedmen's Savings Bank (1927), and Louisiana State University, 1860-1896 (1936).

In these and other works, Fleming covered the Civil War and Reconstruction in the South more fully than any other man. His works are characterized by easy, sometimes charming style and scholarly objective.

A Southerner, Fleming wrote of the sectional conflict with Southern sympathies yet he was more objective than most Southerners of his generation.

The historiography of the Civil War and Reconstruction owes much to his indefatigable research, his breadth of scholarship, and power of interpretation.

He died of pneumonia in his fifty-ninth year, having previously suffered a stroke of paralysis. He was survived by his wife and four children: Esther, William LeRoy, Mary Boyd, and Eleanor.

Achievements

• More than any white historian of Reconstruction before the 1960s, Fleming gave extensive attention to the roles of the Blacks, including economic and social conditions. Fleming was the first scholar to examine the Black exodus to Kansas, in "'Pap' Singleton, the Moses of the Colored Exodus" (1909). His study, The Freedmen's Savings Bank: A Chapter in the Economic History of the Negro Race (1927), was reprinted by Negro Universities Press in 1970.

Works

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  • Documentary History of Reconstruction: Political, Military, Social, Religious, Educational & Industrial, 1865 to the Present Time, Volume 1

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • The sequel of Appomattox: A chronicle of the reunion of the states (The Chronicles of America series)

    (SEE OUR PHOTOS! This 322-page hardcover appears unread an...)

  • The South in the Building of the Nation, Volume II

    (This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)

  • The Freedmen's Savings Bank: A Paper...

    ( This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923....)

  • Documentary History of Reconstruction: Political, Military, Social, Religious, Educational & Industrial, 1865 to the Present Time, Volume 2

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

  • The Sequel of Appomattox: A Chronicle of the Reunion of the States, Vol. 32 (Classic Reprint)

    (Photograph by J. W. Black and Co., Boston. In the collect...)

  • book

  • Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama

Membership

He was a member of the Board of Editors of the Mississippi Valley Historical Review from 1914 to 1922, and he served on the Committee for State Historical Museums, and the program and nominating committees of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association.

As a member of the Public Archives Commission of the American Historical Association, he surveyed the state archives of West Virginia and Louisiana.

He was a member of the Executive Council of the AHA for two terms and served twice as chairman of the John H. Dunning Prize Committee. Fleming appeared on the program of both these associations as well as that of the Alabama Historical Society.

Personality

Possessed of a powerful physique, Fleming nevertheless did not like physical exercise. He was mentally energetic and aggressive, however, and had a keen sense of humor.

Without ostentation, he was friendly and tolerant, though he was irritated and outspoken in the face of incapacity or littleness of mind. He possessed the qualities of leadership but was a poor and ineffective speaker. In spite of this shortcoming he won the respect of students, faculty, administrators, and laymen.

Connections

On September 17, 1902, Fleming was married to Mary Wright Boyd, daughter of David French Boyd, president first of Louisiana State University and then of the Alabama Polytechnic Institute.

Father:

William LeRoy Fleming

mother Mary Love (Edwards) Fleming

Wife:

Mary Wright Boyd

Daughter:

Esther Fleming

son William LeRoy Fleming daughter Mary Boyd Fleming daughter Eleanor Fleming

References

• Slavery, Emancipation, and Freedom: Comparative Perspectives (Walter Lynwood Fleming Lectures in Southern History)
• Place over Time: The Continuity of Southern Distinctiveness (The Walter Lynwood Fleming Lectures in Southern History)
• What They Fought for 1861-1865 (Walter Lynwood Fleming Lectures in Southern History, Louisia)
• The Mind of the Old South (Walter Lynwood Fleming Lectures)
• The Creation of Confederate Nationalism: Ideology and Identity in the Civil War South (The Walter Lynwood Fleming Lectures in Southern History)
• The Slavery Debates, 1952-1990: A Retrospective (Walter Lynwood Fleming Lectures in Southern History Series)
• What They Fought For 1861-1865 (Walter Lynwood Fleming Lectures in Southern History, Louisia)
• The Southern Political Tradition (Walter Lynwood Fleming Lectures in Southern History)
• Mind and the American Civil War: A Meditation on Lost Causes (Walter Lynwood Fleming Lectures in Southern History)