The Civil War in Georgia, by John C. Inscoe, editor

Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2011. Pp. xi, 305. Illus., maps, biblio., index. $22.95 paper. ISBN: 8203-3981-8.

The Civil War in Georgia is a companion volume to the New Georgia Encyclopedia.  This excellent collection of essays, side bars, and references, provides an over-view of Georgia and the Civil War. 

Prof. Inscoe (Georgia), author of Mountain Masters: Slavery and the Sectional Crisis in Western North Carolina and Race, War, and Remembrance in the Appalachian South, divides the book into three broad sections, “Prelude to War”, “The War Years”, and “The War’s Legacy”.  Each section is further divided into several sub-sections; “The War Years”, for example, includes “Military Actions,” “Military Support,” and “The Home Front”.  These subsections are filled with short essays or side-bars on a variety of subjects written by various specialists.  The result is a total of over 70 discussions or profiles on subjects such as “Georgia in 1860”, “Andrews Raid”, “Battle of Resaca”, “Sherman’s March to the Sea”, “Confederate Veterans’ Organizations”, “Unionists”, “Slave Narratives”, “Cemeteries”, “Women”, and so forth.  Although occasionally some essays have a “Lost Cause” resonance, on the whole they are even-handed, and in many cases even ground breaking, such as the suggestion that operations by Confederate irregulars in the state may have caused more harm than Sherman’s alleged depredations. 

An excellent book for anyone interested in the home front during the war.

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