The 1864 Census for Re-organizing the Georgia Militia is a statewide census of all white males between the ages of 16 and 60 who were not at the time in the service of the Confederate States of America. Based on a law passed by the Georgia Legislature in December 1863 to provide for the protection of women, children, and invalids living at home, it is a list of some 42,000 men--many of them exempt from service--who were able to serve in local militia companies and perform such homefront duties as might be required of them. In accordance with the law, enrollment lists were drawn up by counties and within counties by militia districts. Each one of the 42,000 persons enrolled was listed by his full name, age, occupation, place of birth, and reason (if any) for his exemption from service. Sometime between 1920 and 1940 the Georgia Pension and Record Department typed up copies of these lists. Names on the typed lists, unlike most of the originals, are in alphabetical order, and it is these typed lists which form the basis of this new work by Mrs. Nancy Cornell. Checking the typed lists against the original handwritten records on microfilm in the Georgia Department of Archives & History, Mrs. Cornell was able to add some information and correct certain misspellings. She also points out that no lists were found for the counties of Burke, Catoosa, Chattooga, Dade, Dooly, Emanuel, Irwin, Johnson, Pulaski, and Wilcox.

Given in memory of Doris Franceschini by the Texas Research Ramblers.

Like Chicago from Mrs. O'Leary's cow, or San Francisco from the earthquake of 1906, Atlanta has earned distinction as one of the most burned cities in American history. During the Civil War, Atlanta was wrecked, but not by burning alone. Longtime Atlantan Stephen Davis tells the story of what the Yankees did to his city. General William T. Sherman's Union forces had invested the city by late July 1864. Northern artillerymen, on Sherman's direct orders, began shelling the interior of Atlanta on 20 July, knowing that civilians still lived there and continued despite their knowledge that women and children were being killed and wounded. Countless buildings were damaged by Northern missiles and the fires they caused. Davis provides the most extensive account of the Federal shelling of Atlanta, relying on contemporary newspaper accounts more than any previous scholar. The Yankees took Atlanta in early September by cutting its last railroad, which caused Confederate forces to evacuate and allowed Sherman's troops to march in the next day. The Federal army's two and a half-month occupation of the city is rarely covered in books on the Atlanta campaign. Davis makes a point that Sherman's "wrecking" continued during the occupation when Northern soldiers stripped houses and tore other structures down for wood to build their shanties and huts. Before setting out on his "march to the sea," Sherman directed his engineers to demolish the city's railroad complex and what remained of its industrial plant. He cautioned them not to use fire until the day before the army was to set out on its march. Yet fires began the night of 11 November--deliberate arson committed against orders by Northern soldiers. Davis details the "burning" of Atlanta, and studies those accounts that attempt to estimate the extent of destruction in the city.

The Damnedest Set of Fellows tells the story of one of the finest artillery batteries in the Confederate Army of Tennessee. Fighting in almost every major battle in the war's Western Theater, their first baptism of fire occurred at Tazewell, in East Tennessee. Later, they battled at Champion Hill in the Vicksburg Campaign, at Missionary Ridge and Tunnel Hill near Chattanooga, and throughout the Atlanta Campaign, at Missionary Ridge and Tunnel Hill near Chattanooga, and throughout the Atlanta Campaign. Later, they fought upon the snowy fields of Nashville, and finally at Salisbury, North Carolina, where they manned their guns despite having no infantry support. Known for their passionate individualism, disdain for army regulations, and their fighting spirit, their battalion commander later wrote: "Every man ... thinks himself as good as a brigadier general...and don't mind telling you if the occasion offers." Once, following the Vicksburg campaign, they even defied a direct order from Confederate President Jefferson Davis. The crucible of war molded the men of the Cherokee Artillery into a true brotherhood. Their annual post-war reunions further strengthened that bond. As a Rebel veteran observed: "It is said with truth that war will bring out the [true] character of a man quicker than anything else. We were fortunate in finding so many good, true men as we had with us ... and feel bound to them as with ties of blood." The Damnedest Set of Fellows tells the tragic, heroic story of that true "band of brothers." -- Dust jacket.