Phil Leigh passed away April 9, 2026. Fitting. Leigh spent much of his retirement writing about Robert E. Lee and the South and fending off attacks from the woke mob.
I met Leigh over a decade ago when we redesigned the website and had a soft relaunch in April 2014. Our website designer told me that he knew a man in Tampa who shared a lot of our positions on the War and the South, and so he put me in touch with him. That turned out to be Phil Leigh.
Leigh was born in Arkansas and settled in Florida. He had written a couple of books on the War and had contributed to the New York Times as part of their ongoing series on “Disunion,” but he had not found an intellectual brotherhood. He seemed lost in a sea of establishment historians who cared little for the truth. The Abbeville Institute gave him a platform to reach his people. He relished it, and the Institute seemed to invigorate his career.
For the next decade, Leigh published over eighty articles on our website, wrote over a dozen books, including the excellent Southern Reconstruction, presented at two of our Summer Schools, and appeared on numerous Podcasts and other media explaining the South an the Southern tradition. He worked with the General’s Redoubt defending Lee after his tomb came under attack at Washington and Lee University. He produced several outstanding videos on Lee as a general and a Southern gentlemen, and he was always willing, bravely, to speak to anyone about Lee and the South. He also understood the impact of the “righteous cause myth” on American history and worked to correct that narrative. As usual, the “amateur” Leigh often outclassed “professional” historians.
Leigh persevered through some painful health issues and continued to send out brief emails to his extensive list of compatriots, but it became clear that physical issues were taking their toll. I last spoke to him about a year ago when I asked if he would attend one of our conferences. He told me he was physically unable to make the trip.
I hope he has found peace and rest, but the South lost one of its best defenders.
Strike the tent.
If you would like to send condolences to the family, mail them to Trenton Leigh, 503 W. Hilda St., Tampa, FL 33603.
