Athens, 1861-1865
Athens, 1861-1865

Author: Kenneth L. Coleman

Publisher: University of Georgia Press

Published: 1969-06-01

Total Pages: 136

ISBN-13: 9780820302539

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The Civil War as seen through the letters of the soldiers who fought it has often been presented, but published correspondence from those at home to men in the service is relatively rare since most of these letters have been lost. This collection of letters written by natives of Athens who were in the upper and middle economic classes will be of special interest to those who are curious about the domestic impact of the Civil War in the South. The letters gathered in Athens, 1861-1865 center on the prominent Howell Cobb family. The Cobbs portray day-to-day occurrences in their lives and the lives of their fellow citizens. Since Athens was not the scene of any battle, the quality of life had a definite continuity with that of the antebellum South. Individual characters clearly emerge as well as a moving sense of the trying experience which was shared by all. Mary Ann Cobb is especially memorable for her lively correspondence--letters written at odd moments snatched from the press of her many responsibilities. What took place in Athens, Georgia, doubtless has much in common with other southern towns of comparable size which were not directly involved in the fighting. But, Athens seems especially fortunate in its letter writers and in the fact that so many of these chronicles have survived.

A History of Georgia
A History of Georgia

Author: Kenneth Coleman

Publisher: University of Georgia Press

Published: 1991

Total Pages: 480

ISBN-13: 082031269X

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First published in 1977, A History of Georgia has become the standard history of the state. Documenting events from the earliest discoveries by the Spanish to the rapid changes the state has undergone with the civil rights era, the book gives broad coverage to the state's social, political, economic, and cultural history. This work details Georgia's development from past to present, including the early Cherokee land disputes, the state's secession from the Union, cotton's reign, Reconstruction, the Bourbon era, the effects of the New Deal, Martin Luther King, Jr., the fall of the county-unit system, and Jimmy Carter's election to the presidency. Also noted are the often-overlooked contributions of Indians, blacks, and women. Each imparting his own special knowledge and understanding of a particular period in the state's history, the authors bring into focus the personalities and events that made Georgia what it is today. For this new edition, available in paperback for the first time, A History of Georgia has been revised to bring the work up through the events of the 1980s. The bibliographies for each section and the appendixes have also been updated to include relevant scholarship from the last decade.

The Children's Civil War
The Children's Civil War

Author: James Marten

Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press

Published: 2000-11-15

Total Pages: 388

ISBN-13: 0807898600

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Children--white and black, northern and southern--endured a vast and varied range of experiences during the Civil War. Children celebrated victories and mourned defeats, tightened their belts and widened their responsibilities, took part in patriotic displays and suffered shortages and hardships, fled their homes to escape enemy invaders and snatched opportunities to run toward the promise of freedom. Offering a fascinating look at how children were affected by our nation's greatest crisis, James Marten examines their toys and games, their literature and schoolbooks, the letters they exchanged with absent fathers and brothers, and the hardships they endured. He also explores children's politicization, their contributions to their homelands' war efforts, and the lessons they took away from the war. Drawing on the childhoods of such diverse Americans as Jane Addams, Booker T. Washington, and Theodore Roosevelt, and on sources that range from diaries and memoirs to children's "amateur newspapers," Marten examines the myriad ways in which the Civil War shaped the lives of a generation of American children. "An original-minded, skillfully and suggestively presented history, haunting in its detailed unfolding of a war that put so many already vulnerable youngsters in danger, but elicited from some of them, as well, impressively sensitive, responsive thoughts, gestures, and deeds in what became, as this extraordinary book's title insists, their civil war.--Journal of American History "James Marten's thoroughly researched and engagingly written study . . . stands as one of the most exciting studies to emerge in the last dozen years. . . . Marten has taken a topic ignored by both Civil War historians and historians of childhood and crafted an engaging, masterful, nuanced, and readable study that will not quickly leave the reader's mind or heart.--American Studies "The first comprehensive account of Civil War children. . . . Thoroughly researched and nicely illustrated, The Children's Civil War will be a touchstone for historians and generalists who seek to gain a fuller understanding of life on the home front between 1861 and 1865.--Civil War History The Children's Civil War is a poignant and fascinating look at childhood during our nation's greatest crisis. Using sources that include diaries, memoirs, and letters, James Marten examines the wartime experiences of young people--boys and girls, black and white, northern and southern--and traces the ways in which the Civil War shaped the lives of a generation of American children. -->

Love and Duty
Love and Duty

Author: Angela Esco Elder

Publisher: UNC Press Books

Published: 2022-03-10

Total Pages: 223

ISBN-13: 1469667754

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Between 1861 and 1865, approximately 200,000 women were widowed by the deaths of Civil War soldiers. They recorded their experiences in diaries, letters, scrapbooks, and pension applications. In Love and Duty, Angela Esco Elder draws on these materials—as well as songs, literary works, and material objects like mourning gowns—to explore white Confederate widows' stories, examining the records of their courtships, marriages, loves, and losses to understand their complicated relationship with the Confederate state. Elder shows how, in losing their husbands, many women acquired significant cultural capital, which positioned them as unlikely actors to gain political influence. Confederate officialdom championed a particular image of white widowhood—the young wife who selflessly transferred her monogamous love from her dead husband to the deathless cause for which he'd fought. But a closer look reveals that these women spent their new cultural capital with great shrewdness and variety. Not only were they aware of the social status gained in widowhood; they also used that status on their own terms, turning mourning into a highly politicized act amid the battle to establish the Confederacy's legitimacy. Death forced all Confederate widows to reconstruct their lives, but only some would choose to play a role in reconstructing the nation.

Lost Causes
Lost Causes

Author: Bradley R. Clampitt

Publisher: LSU Press

Published: 2022-06-01

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 0807177660

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This groundbreaking analysis of Confederate demobilization examines the state of mind of Confederate soldiers in the immediate aftermath of war. Having survived severe psychological as well as physical trauma, they now faced the unknown as they headed back home in defeat. Lost Causes analyzes the interlude between soldier and veteran, suggesting that defeat and demobilization actually reinforced Confederate identity as well as public memory of the war and southern resistance to African American civil rights. Intense material shortages and images of the war’s devastation confronted the defeated soldiers-turned-veterans as they returned home to a revolutionized society. Their thoughts upon homecoming turned to immediate economic survival, a radically altered relationship with freedpeople, and life under Yankee rule—all against the backdrop of fearful uncertainty. Bradley R. Clampitt argues that the experiences of returning soldiers helped establish the ideological underpinnings of the Lost Cause and create an identity based upon shared suffering and sacrifice, a pervasive commitment to white supremacy, and an aversion to Federal rule and all things northern. As Lost Causes reveals, most Confederate veterans remained diehard Rebels despite demobilization and the demise of the Confederate States of America.

Second to None: From the sixteenth century to 1865
Second to None: From the sixteenth century to 1865

Author: Ruth Barnes Moynihan

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 1993-01-01

Total Pages: 518

ISBN-13: 9780803281998

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"Here are women who are shapers of history, as well as its victims. In diaries, letters, speeches, songs, petitions, essays, photographs, and cartoons they describe, rejoice, exhort, complain, advertise, and joke, revealing women's role as community builders in every time and locale and registering their emergence into the public spheres of political, social, and economic life. The documents also demonstrate the value of gender analysis, for women's differences--in age, race, sexual orientation, class, geographical or ethnic origin, abilities or disabilities, and values--are shown to be as important as their commonalities."--Book cover.