Book description
Between the epic battles of 1862 and the grueling and violent military
campaigns that would follow, the year 1863 was oddly quiet for the
Confederate state of Virginia. Only one major battle was fought on its
soil, at Chancellorsville, and the conflict was one of the Army of
Northern Virginia's greatest victories. Yet the pressures of the Civil
War turned the daily lives of Virginians-young and old, men and women,
civilians and soldiers-into battles of their own. Despite minimal
combat, 1863 was an eventful year in Virginia history-Stonewall Jackson
died within its borders and Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg
Address. In Virginia at War, 1863, editors William C. Davis and James I.
Robertson Jr. present these and other key events, as well as a
discussion of the year's military land operations to reveal the
political, social, and cultural ramifications of the ongoing national
conflict. By this time, the war had profoundly transformed nearly every
aspect of Virginia life and culture, from education to religion to
commerce. Mounting casualties and depleted resources made the citizens
of the Commonwealth feel the deprivations of war more deeply than ever.
Virginia at War, 1863 surveys these often overlooked elements of the
conflict. Contributors focus on the war's impact on Virginia's children
and its newly freed slaves. They shed light on the origins of the
Hatfield-McCoy feud, explore the popularity of scrapbooking as a form of
personal recordkeeping, and consider the changing role of religion
during wartime and the uncertain faith of Virginia's Christians. The
book concludes with the 1863 entries of the Diary of a Southern Refugee
by Richmond's Judith Brockenbrough McGuire. At the midpoint of the Civil
War, the hostility of this great American struggle had become an
ingrained part of Virginia life. Virginia at War, 1863 is the third
volume of a five-book series that reexamines the Commonwealth's history
as an integral part of the Confederacy. The series looks beyond military
campaigns and tactics to consider how the war forever changed the
people, culture, and society of Virginia. William C. Davis, professor
of history and director of programs at Virginia Tech's Virginia Center
for Civil War Studies, is the author of numerous books, including The
Pirates Laffite: The Treacherous World of the Corsairs of the Gulf.
James I. Robertson Jr. is Alumni Distinguished Professor of History at
Virginia Tech and director of the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies.
He is the author of Stonewall Jackson: The Man, the Soldier, the Legend
