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The name Andersonville, from the American Civil War to the present, has come to be synonimous with “American death camp.” While a work of deep introspection and high adventure, this new, critical book also corrects myths, misunderstandings, and major mistakes that have appeared in print and popular history.

Baptists in the South, rapidly rising to challenge Methodists numerically helped align Southern religion with the South's black slave culture. The birth of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1945, formed in order to preserve God's will for the African race, signaled the inevitability of war. This book explores the myriad of ways in which Baptists in Middle Georgia helped shape history before, during, and after the Civil War.

Thomas R. R. Cobb (1823-1862), a Georgia jurist who, perhaps more than any other one person, influenced the form that the “second revolution” took in Georgia (1860-1861), has been described as a prototype of a Southern intellectual. A product of the “Old South,” Cobb’s influence upon national events (up to and during the Civil War, especially in Georgia) was considerable. Cobb was a “representative Southerner” whose ideas “expressed the trends then current in Southern thought.” This investigation of the life and influence of Thomas R. R. Cobb provides significant insight into the attitudes of his time. Cobb’s multifaceted involvements--in legal, educational, and moral reform; revivalism; the “positive good defense” of slavery; secession; and the Civil War--make him a doubly interesting important figure worthy of serious investigation. The present study is just such a serious, well-researched, and well-written investigation of Cobb, and amply provides further insight into the life and times of that “Late Great Unpleasantness” (secession and Civil War) that is such an important part of the history of the United States.

In this anthology of Civil War memoirs, we get a clearer impression of some of the chaplains who served during that Great Conflict. Chaplains were among the most omnipresent observers on the battlefield, and some wrote extensively about their experiences. Eighty-seven of the 3,695 chaplains who served in both armies wrote regimental histories or published personal memoirs, not counting a multitude of letters and more than 300 official reports. Yet, there has never been an extensive collection of memoirs from chaplains of both the Confederate and Union armies presented together. In this groundbreaking work, many of the Confederate chaplains write that they opposed secession and submitted to it only when war was inevitable. Moreover, some of the ministers who became chaplains were active in ministry to black slaves. They spoke out against the neglect and abuse of those held in bondage both before and during the war. For example, Reverend John L. Girardeau formed a large mission church for slaves in Charleston, South Carolina, before the war; Reverend Isaac Tichenor criticized the abuses of the slave system before the Alabama Legislature in 1863; and Chaplain Charles Oliver preached to black laborers in the Army of Northern Virginia in 1864 with the thought that more needed to be done for them. While these efforts may appear trivial in the face of the enormity of the entire slave system, they do reflect that a social conscience was not completely lacking among the Southern chaplains. From the battlefield to the pulpit, Confederate chaplains were surprising and complex individuals. For the first time, explore this aspect of the great struggle in each chaplain’s own words.

Mercer University Press proudly revives this acclaimed real-life account of what the fictional Scarlett O’Hara saw. Life in Dixie During the War, first published in 1892, ranks among the best first-person accounts of the American Civil War. Mary A. H. Gay eloquently recounts her wartime experiences in Georgia and bears witness to the “suffering and struggle, defeat and despair, triumph, and hope that is human history.”

From the first conflict under General Nathan Bedford Forrest at Murfreesboro in 1862 to the desperate and often brutal battles with Union cavalry in the Carolinas during 1865, the 2nd Georgia was almost constantly in action. While the 2nd Georgia fought in such famous campaigns as Perryville, Stones River, Chickamauga, Knoxville, Resaca, Atlanta, and Bentonville, they also participated in deadly encounters at Farmington, Mossy Creek, Noonday Creek, Sunshine Church, and Waynesboro. Many of these conflicts are obscure to all but the most ardent Civil War historians. Returning in paperback, this is the first regimental history of a Georgia Cavalry regiment ever published. The 2nd Georgia served under both Nathan Beford Forrest and Joe Wheeler, and campaigned not only on home turf, but literally on the farm acreages of many of the unit's members.

SOUTHSIDE relates the stories of the cotton mill workers and their families who lived and worked in Eufaula, Alabama, a small town on the Chattahoochee River, from the 1890s through 1945. Utilizing previously unpublished family records, oral histories, and other primary sources, author David Alsobrook relates the stories of the lives of these ordinary mill families—their hopes, dreams, joys, and tragedies. Many of the photographs that appear in Southside are from personal family collections and have never been seen previously. Alsobrook’s chapter on legendary mill owner Donald Comer presents a fresh assessment of this remarkably enlightened corporate executive and his own particular brand of paternalism, which differed significantly from the philosophy of many of his contemporaries in the Southern textile industry.

Spencer's letters carry us through the whole experience, from being wounded at South Mills, North Carolina, to the “Chicimocomico Races” on Roanoke Island to collecting seashells at Nags Head, and the surrender at Appomattox Courthouse. Join Alva in a journey through his letters to his beloved “Maggie.”

A tiny but valuable component of the South’s military industrial complex, Griswoldville became a target of union forces in 1864. After a glancing blow by Stoneman’s Raiders in late summer, the town was obliterated during Sherman’s infamous march to the sea. Based on primary sources, Griswoldville charts the rise of Connecticut Yankee Samuel Griswold from tinware peddler to industrial magnate and details the history of Griswoldville from its creation to its destruction.

In September 1864, at a gathering in Macon, Georgia, Confederate President Jefferson Davis admitted that two-thirds of his troops were absent, most without leave. Some had opposed secession to begin with. Others came to see the conflict as a “rich man’s war.” But it was hardship and hunger among their families that drew most soldiers back home. For more than a century and a half, historians have often ignored the Confederacy’s home front difficulties, which had so much to do with desertion and defeat. Anyone with even a passing knowledge of the Civil War knows that Confederate armies were outnumbered two to one. In a presumptive way, the manpower disparity is usually attributed to the North’s larger population. Lost in that simplistic view is the impact that desertion had on sapping the Confederacy’s fighting strength. And this is but one of the many critical issues historians too often brush aside.

Born 9 June 1838, James H. McNeilly grew up near Charlotte in Dickson County, Tennessee. At age thirteen, McNeilly was sworn in as deputy circuit court clerk of Dickson County. Raised in a devout Presbyterian home, he received his undergraduate degree from Jackson College in Columbia, Tennessee. Just as the Civil War broke out, he had earned his Doctor of Divinity from Danville Theological Seminary at Danville, Kentucky. As McNeilly returned home to Dickson County, in the summer of 1861, he preached on Sunday and recruited troops for the Confederacy during the week. In October 1861, McNeilly traveled to nearby Fort Donelson, where he offered his services to the South.

AN EVERLASTING CIRCLE presents the Civil War correspondence of the Haskells, a prominent family of Abbeville, South Carolina. This outstanding collection of eloquent, compelling letters is unusual in that it includes the correspondence of seven brothers in arms. The Haskell brothers were literate, well-educated men, most of whom became officers highly regarded for their ability, courage, and character. Their letters are particularly strong in documenting the beginning days of the war in Charleston, as well as many significant battles in Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. They also tell the love story of Alexander C. Haskell and his bride Decca Singleton, a poignant romance chronicled by Mary Chesnut in her famous diary.