The Men in Gray

This little book is a compilation of three essays. The first is a speech which was delivered by the author at the unveiling of a Confederate monument in Richmond in 1894 and offers a concise but clear statement of the causes that led up to the war between the North and the South. The second refutes the popular misrepresentations of the social conditions existing in the South before the war, focusing on the allegedly widespread maltreatment of the Negro slaves by their Southern masters. The third is an excellent synopsis of the centuries' old struggle between the "Cavalier" and the "Puritan," both in the Old World and in the New, which eventually erupted in the travesty of the sectional conflict that left the constitutional Union in ruins.


About the Author
Robert Catlett Cave was born in 1843 in Orange County, Virginia, the third child of Robert and Sarah (Lindsay) Cave. His family was considered wealthy, owning four hundred acres and several slaves. Upon Virginia's secession from the Union in 1861, Cave and his two brothers enlisted in the Montpelier Guard, Co. A, 13th Inf., Army of Virginia, participating in the battles of First and Second Manassas, Winchester, Port Republic, and Fredericksburg. After the war, he worked in business for a short time, but soon left it to preach. He was ordained as a Disciples of Christ minister in 1867 and grew in popularity within the Restoration movement. In 1872, he went to Kentucky where he served as president of South Kentucky College. He later relocated to Saint Louis, Missouri to preach for the Central church, but was soon dismissed when he began to advocate views out of accord with the Christian faith. Having grown up under the influence of Jeffersonian ideas of civil liberty, Cave insisted that the Confederate's struggle for States Rights was the same as that of their forefathers in the Revolutionary War. He died on June 23, 1923 and was buried in Valhalla Cemetery, Saint Louis.