More Civil War battles were fought on Virginian soil than on that of any other Confederate state. No state suffered more from invasion and occupation than the Old Dominion, and none witnessed as much of the war. Virginia’s story of the Civil War stands unique among the Confederate States. Virginia at War, 1861 looks at Virginia on the eve of secession, detailing the activities of the convention that finally took the state out of the Union and explaining how Richmond became the capital of the new Confederate nation. Chapters in the book examine Virginia’s private state army and its little-known state navy, as well as the impact that secession and the first year of the war had on Virginia’s black community, both slave and free. Virginia was the only Confederate state to suffer an internal secession, and the story of that “other Virginia” that broke away and became West Virginia is explored in all its bizarre complexity. Virginia at War, 1861 is the first in a new five-volume series, edited by William C. Davis and James I. Robertson Jr. for the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies at Virginia Tech. Each volume will bring together leading Civil War historians to study one year of the Civil War in Virginia.

Wise (1806-76) was extremely active on the Virginia and national political scene from the early 1830s to the mid-1860s, drawing popular support because of his projection of hopefulness and energy. Regarded as eccentric, Wise is given, in this study, an interpretation that finds consistency in his life-long controversial and impulsive behavior. Simpson stresses Wise's ambivalent attitude toward slaves and slave-holding, authority and authority figures, and Virginia and the United States.

This is the fourth volume of Dr. Justin Glenn’s comprehensive history that traces the “Presidential line” of the Washingtons. Volume One began with the immigrant John Washington, who settled in Westmoreland Co., Va., in 1657, married Anne Pope, and became the great-grandfather of President George Washington. It continued the record of their descendants for a total of seven generations. Volume Two highlighted notable members of the next eight generations of John and Anne Washington’s descendants, including General George S. Patton, author Shelby Foote, and actor Lee Marvin. Volume Three traced the ancestry of the early Virginia members of this “Presidential Branch” back in time to the aristocracy and nobility of England and continental Europe. Volume Four resumes the family history where Volume One ended. It presents Generation Eight of the immigrant John Washington’s descendants, containing nearly 7,000 descendants. Future volumes will trace generations nine through fifteen, making a total of over 63,000 descendants. Although structured in a genealogical format for the sake of clarity, this is no bare bones genealogy but a true family history with over 1,200 detailed biographical narratives. These in turn strive to convey the greatness of the family that produced not only The Father of His Country but many others, great and humble, who struggled to build that country. Volume Four, Part One covers the descendants of the immigrant John Washington’s child Lawrence Washington. Volume Four, Part Two covers the descendants of the Immigrant’s children John Washington, Jr., and Anne (Washington) Wright.