Civil War Series

Andersonville (Camp Sumter) Civil War prison was only in operation for little more than one year, from 1864 into 1865. In just a few of those months, however, it became the largest city in Georgia and the fifth largest city in the Confederate States of America. During that time, it also became America's deadliest prison. Of the almost forty thousand captured Federal soldiers, sailors and civilians who entered its gates, some thirteen thousand died there. Thousands more died as a result of their time in this stockade of legend in deep southwest Georgia. Join historian Robert Davis as he tells the story of this infamous Confederate prison.

In 1861, northeast Georgians were the driving force into secession and war. In 1865, Confederate president Jefferson Davis, his government collapsing and himself a wanted man, brought the reality of the war to the region's doorstep. Governor Joseph Brown, U.S. senator Robert Toombs and the politically influential Howell Cobb of Athens and his brother Thomas R.R. Cobb all fought passionately for Southern independence. The region epitomized the reasons for which the South waged and supported the war, yet it was spared the destruction seen in other places. Even Sherman's Union army touched only the region's fringes. Author Ray Chandler brings to light the final act of the Confederacy in the Peach State's northeast and the lasting impact it had on Georgians.

The Battle of Pickett's Mill documents the history this Dead-Line battle through firsthand accounts and sources from the Civil War era.

On May 27, 1864, Union forces under the command of William Tecumseh Sherman attacked Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston and his men at Pickett's Mill in Paulding County, Georgia. Following his defeat at New Hope Church, Sherman ordered Major General Oliver Howard to attack Johnston's flank, which Sherman believed to be exposed. But the Confederate soldiers were ready, and Sherman's supporting troops never arrived. What ensued was a battle that cost 2,100 lives and a defeat that Sherman left completely out of his memoirs. Author Brad Butkovich brings to life through personal letters, newspaper accounts and unit histories the battle that Union soldier and author Ambrose Bierce called the Dead-Line.

Revisit one of the most important and bloodiest days of the Civil War, the Confederate battle at Kennesaw Mountain in Georgia, in this exciting view of the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain in the summer of 1864.

In the summer of 1864, Georgia was the scene of one of the most important campaigns of the Civil War. William Tecumseh Sherman's push southward toward Atlanta threatened the heart of the Confederacy, and Joseph E. Johnston and the Army of Tennessee were the Confederacy's best hope to defend it. In June, Johnston managed to grind Sherman's advance to a halt northwest of Atlanta at Kennesaw Mountain. After weeks of maneuvering, on June 27, Sherman launched a bold attack on Johnston's lines. The Confederate victory was one of the bloodiest days of the entire campaign. And while Sherman's assaults had a frightful cost, Union forces learned important lessons at Kennesaw Mountain that enabled the fall of Atlanta several months later.

Macon was a cornerstone of the Confederacy's military-industrial complex. As a transportation hub, the city supplied weapons to the Confederacy, making it a target once the Union pushed into Georgia in 1864. In the course of the war's last year, Macon faced three separate cavalry assaults. The battles were small in the grand scheme but salient for the combatants and townspeople. Once the war concluded, it was from Macon that cavalry struck out to capture the fugitive Jefferson Davis, allowing the city to witness one of the last chapters of the conflict. Author Niels Eichhorn brings together the first comprehensive analysis of the military engagements and battles in Middle Georgia.

Prior to the Civil War, Atlanta was at the intersection of four rail lines, rendering the Georgia crossroads the fastest-growing city in the Deep South. As the Confederate States formed, Atlanta was a city deeply divided about secession. By the spring of 1863, war had arrived at the doorstep of Atlanta. Join historian Bob Davis as he tells the story of the devastation that befell Atlanta, the Union occupation and how the Gate City was reborn from the ashes.

As the reader is sure to discover, the division between combatant and civilian at the local level is not always clear.

With a natural curiosity to unearth the unknown, local Milledgeville author and historian Hugh T. Harrington has put forth a collection of tales and personalities that have until now gone untold or forgotten.Civil War Milledgevilleshows that it is these often these forgotten events and people that have shaped our larger understanding of the Civil War. From a women's riot to a Confederate cavalry rescue, Hugh recounts local stories of heroism and cowardice, success and strife, which illuminate the history of Milledgeville.

In April 1865, the nation learned of the atrocities and horrors of the Southern prison camp at Andersonville, Georgia. An army expedition and Clara Barton identified the graves of the thirteen thousand who perished there and established the Andersonville National Cemetery. In the 1890s, veterans and the Woman's Relief Corps, wanting to ensure the nation never forgot the tragedy, began preserving the site. The former prisoners expressed in granite their sorrow and gratitude to those who died or survived the prison camp. Join author and historian Stacy W. Reaves as she recounts the horrendous conditions of the prison and the tremendous efforts to memorialize the men within.

In the 1840s, engineers blasted through 175 feet of earth and bedrock at Allatoona Pass, Georgia, to allow passage of the Western & Atlantic Railroad. Little more than twenty years later, both the Union and Confederate armies fortified the hills and ridges surrounding the gorge to deny the other passage during the Civil War. In October 1864, the two sides met in a fierce struggle to control the iron lifeline between the North and the recently captured city of Atlanta. Though small compared to other battles of the war, this division-sized fight produced casualty rates on par with or surpassing some of the most famous clashes. Join author Brad Butkovich as he explores the controversy, innovative weapons and unwavering bravery that make the Battle of Allatoona Pass one of the war's most unique and savage battles.

When the public envisions Atlanta during the Civil War, two primary images—of two unparalleled individuals—dominate: William Tecumseh Sherman and Scarlett O'Hara; however, there is more to the city's Civil War heritage than a frowning general and a wily gentlewoman. Within the pages of Atlanta: A Portrait of the Civil War, discover the old city streets, period homes, and military fortifications of Atlanta in a number of rarely reproduced Civil War photographs. Taken from the Atlanta History Center's visual arts collection, the images in this volume tell the story of the city as it was up to and during the Civil War. View the ruins of the Ponder House, the destruction of the rail lines, and the demolition of General Hood's ordnance train. Informative captions complement this engaging collection of images, and include excerpts from diaries, letters, and memoirs regarding life in Atlanta during the war. Many of the photographs were taken by George N. Barnard and his staff during the Federal occupation of Atlanta in the fall of 1864, and again in 1866 as he planned a publication of war views. Atlanta: A Portrait of the Civil War offers a comprehensive view of the city during a war that continues to fascinate both professional and amateur historians alike.