Continuing from Volume I, Volume II intersperses numerous soldiers’ letters with those from home. The issue of slavery from both the owners and individuals is brought forth. Did colored men really serve as Confederate soldiers? Did free black men? Union soldiers described southern women as defi ant, beautiful, crude, and pitiful. Read of women aboard blockade-runners, the fall of Wilmington, Sherman’s march, Stoneman’s western raiders, and the end of the war. Did any civilians die due to these raids? Did they idly sit by as their lives and homes were destroyed? The war did come to their doorstep during the second half of the confl ict. Both Volume I and II tell something from each of the state’s 87 counties. Perhaps you may fi nd information about your ancestor among these pages. Information from period newspapers, as well as mostly unpublished letters, tell their stories.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

How did enslaved African Americans in the Old South really experience Christmas? Did Christmastime provide slaves with a lengthy and jubilant respite from labor and the whip, as is generally assumed, or is the story far more complex and troubling? In this provocative, revisionist, and sometimes chilling account, Robert E. May chides the conventional wisdom for simplifying black perspectives, uncritically accepting southern white literary tropes about the holiday, and overlooking evidence not only that countless southern whites passed Christmases fearful that their slaves would revolt but also that slavery’s most punitive features persisted at holiday time. In Yuletide in Dixie, May uncovers a dark reality that not only alters our understanding of that history but also sheds new light on the breakdown of slavery in the Civil War and how false assumptions about slave Christmases afterward became harnessed to myths undergirding white supremacy in the United States. By exposing the underside of slave Christmases, May helps us better understand the problematic stereotypes of modern southern historical tourism and why disputes over Confederate memory retain such staying power today. A major reinterpretation of human bondage, Yuletide in Dixie challenges disturbing myths embedded deeply in our culture.

In her diary, Mary Boykin Chesnut, the wife of a Confederate general and aid to president Jefferson Davis, James Chestnut, Jr., presents an eyewitness account of the Civil War.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1915 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VII THE STORY OF EVENTS OF THE WAR Minor Incidents Many things occur in wars of which history makes no mention. As a rule, it tells of the greater and not of the smaller events. Yet the latter are the happenings that young people like most to hear about. Stories of little incidents of the camp, the march, and the battle not only make pleasant reading, but give one a good idea of the temper of the soldiers and the kind of men they were. The idea of war which one gets from history is that it is a series of severe ills and toils. This is true, and probably no soldiers ever realized it more keenly than the Confederates during the War between the States. Yet old soldiers say they had as many hearty laughs during that war as they ever had in any other four years of their lives. So war must have something of an amusing as well as a serious side. Fortunate is the soldier who has the "saving grace of humor" through and by which this funny side is discernible. Few armies have had a greater number of wits than the Confederate. However tired, hungry, and thirsty the men might be, however long the march, or hard the battle, or gloomy the outlook, some one would see the "funny side" of it, and so express it as to put the others to smiling if not laughing. No doubt this reviving and stimulating of the spirits and morale of the men went far to supply the want of food and medicine. Indeed, it is believed that this merriment had much to do in making the Dixie boys the splendid soldiers they were--enabling them to prolong the struggle against such great odds and with such scanty means. A regiment was once passing through a small village. The men had been marching and fighting, more or less, for several days. They were not only tired, thirsty, and...

Documents an inspiring event just after Christmas in 1862 when closely camped Union and Confederate armies, having endeavored to out-sing one another with contrasting patriotic songs, joined together in a shared round of "Home Sweet Home."

A revisionist history of the radical transformation of the American South during the Civil War examines the economic, social and political deconstruction and rebuilding of Southern institutions as experienced by everyday people. By the award-winning author of Confederate Emancipation.