Virginia at War, 1861

Virginia at War

by William C. Davis, James I. Robertson Jr. (Editor)

Although nine of the former British colonies joined the United States before Virginia, the fate of the new republic depended heavily on the Commonwealth. With four of the first five American presidents, and many other founding fathers and framers of the Constitution, calling Virginia their home, the roots of American democracy are firmly planted within the borders of the Old Dominion. Similarly, several Southern states preceded Virginia in seceding from the Union, but until Virginia joined them in April 1861, the Confederacy lacked cohesion. Richmond was immediately named the capital of the fledgling nation, and by the end of spring, Virginia had become the primary political and military theater in which the grand tragedy of the Civil War was enacted. Virginia at War, 1861, edited by acclaimed historians William C. Davis and James I. Robertson Jr., vividly portrays the process of secession, the early phases of conflict, and the struggles of Virginians to weather the brutal storms of war. Virginia at War, 1861 is the first in a series of volumes on each of Virginia's five years as a Confederate state. Essays by eight noted Civil War scholars provide a three-dimensional view of Virginians' experiences during the first year of the War Between the States. In addition to recounting the remarkable military events taking place in Virginia in 1861, this collection examines a civilian population braced for war but divided on crucial questions, an economy pressed to cope with the demands of combat, and a culture that strained to reconcile its proud heritage with its uncertain future. In 1861, the outcome of the Civil War was far from determined, but for Virginians there was little doubt that the war experience would alter nearly everything they had known before the outbreak of hostilities. In exacting detail, Virginia at War, 1861 examines the earliest challenges of the Civil War, the changes war wrought, and the ways in which Virginians withstood and adapted to this profound, irrevocable upheaval.

Genres: Civil War, History, Military History

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Currently professor of history at Virginia Tech, William C. Davis has written over fifty books, most about the American Civil War. He has won the Jefferson Davis Prize for southern history three times, the Jules F. Landry Award for Southern history once, and has been twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

For several years, he was the editor of the magazine Civil War Times Illustrated. He has also served as a consultant on the A&E television series Civil War Journal.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Jeff Crosby · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid collection of essays on combat, politics, economy, and social issues. I found the climate of secession and the background on West Virginia especially interesting.

[Liquidlasagna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazone

Goes beyond traditional military history, offering fresh perspective on the initial changes that confronted the state's civilian population... Lucid, insightful, and well-researched.
North Carolina Historical Review

A well-rounded volume that will interest anyone wanting to know more about Virginia, both at home and at the front, during the war's final year.
Virginia Magazine of History and Biography

William C. Davis and James I. Robertson, staples of Civil War publications, created a series of anthologies to examine Virginia in every year of the conflict. Their latest volume covers the events and aspects of the Old Dominion in 1863, the defining year, militarily and socially, of the war. The contributors, a blend of established authors and young historians, examine many aspects of the war with the focus clearly on social aspects of the home front.
Louisiana History

The insight into the minds of Virginians in 1865 is invaluable, as are the rest of this book's contents.
The Historian

This collection of essays surveys a myriad of aspects of how the Civil War in Virginia affected its inhabitants.
History Wire

The essays] connect common threads that reveal a state in turmoil, simultaneously undergoing important social changes that would extend far beyond the war... challenge the privileged position of battle accounts, suggesting that am much more complicated and seminal experience took place.
LSU Library Special Collections

As in previous volumes in this series, editors William C. Davis and James I. Robertson, Jr. have brought together what is definitely an interesting group of essays.
Blue & Gray Magazine

Robertson's accompanying notes once more give context to the entries, making them more accessible to scholars and lay readers alike. Virginia at War has something for everyone, and students of the American Civil War shoud find time to digest not only this volume, but also the other books in the series.
Jason M. Frawley, The Journal of American History

This book covers some interesting areas of lesser-known history of life in Virginia during the Civil War.
Curled Up

[Jon Humphrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

So many popular Civil War books describe the military aspects of the conflict in a very fine level of detail. This book offers a welcomed shift of focus to other ways that the conflict impacted the Commonwealth. From the influence of events outside of Virginia on the state's move to secession and the subsequent political machinations that brought the capitol to Richmond to the ways that the rural background of the typical solider factored into the South's military prowess (or lack thereof). The large diary excerpt provided at the end of the book provides an on the ground perspective of how the war impacted civilians. The essays are readily accessible for those of us who are not well versed in the details of the period.

These perspectives offer a more complete picture of this critical year in the history of Virginia and how those events impacted the course of the Civil War. Even if you're not biased towards the perspective of the South.