The Civil War is by far the most studied event in American history. Scholars and laity alike have written tens of thousands of books and articles about this era that so enthralls the popular imagination. In film as well as print, the war continues to be a prime factor shaping the American self-image. The Civil War is widely seen as the nation’s epic, its turning point, its defining moment. Legacy, heritage, cause, and crusade are all terms still used to describe the character of that distant conflict.

But somehow, despite the great chasm that exists between our world and the...

John Horry Dent was one of the richest planters in the lower Chattahoochee Valley. By 1860, his Barbour County plantation had almost five hundred acres in cotton, and he was one of the few valley planters who owned more than one hundred slaves. His sons fought for the Confederacy, and one died for it. Still, in spite of his wealth and personal involvement in the cause of southern independence, Dent was a reluctant Rebel. He had warned a northern friend in 1856 that the election of a “Black Republican” president would lead to secession. The South had to protect its...

The issue of slavery’s expansion was not a new one. It was older than the nation itself. Shortly after Georgia’s founding in 1732, the trustees excluded a number of evils from their colony, among them hard liquor, lawyers, and slavery. But they did not remain outlawed for long. There was too much money to be made. Pressure from South Carolina rice planters to permit slavery in Georgia was constant, and slaves were smuggled into the colony despite the trustees. They finally gave in and lifted the ban in 1750. By the time of the American Revolution a quarter century later,...

Rumors of an impending Yankee assault up the Chattahoochee terrified people in the lower part of the valley, especially the planters. Some were sure such an invasion would come. It could only be a matter of time. One resident of Steam Mill in Decatur County felt certain an attack was imminent. He was just as certain it would succeed. “I am fully warranted,” he told the governor, “in saying that under present circumstances no adequate resistance could be offered. . . . Something ought to be done, and done at once, if not, this part of our beloved state will...

Hubert Dent of Eufaula earnestly hoped that the war would bring white southerners of all classes together in a common cause.¹ But as the war entered its second year the gap between rich and poor only became wider. The southern upper classes seemed completely unable to comprehend the magnitude of suffering among plain folk, or perhaps they simply did not care. In any case, they ignored both the misery of the lower classes and the consequences of their own callousness for far too long.

While thousands faced starvation, journals and letters of the affluent were filled with descriptions of dinner...

Hubert Dent had been so enthusiastic for the cause of southern independence that he enlisted in the Eufaula Rifles the same day he learned of Lincoln’s election. After nearly a year on active duty, though, his enthusiasm was beginning to wane: “Soldiering does not suit my tastes or inclinations,” he wrote to his wife, Nannie, “But unfortunately for me at present it is that or nothing.” Elias Register, a farmer in Henry County before the war, found conditions in the army extraordinarily difficult. He was no stranger to hard work, but like Dent, he cared nothing for the life of...

Disaffected whites were not the only people to experience poverty, mistreatment, and vulnerability during the war. Nor were they the only ones to resent the planters for it. Slaves had done so for a long time. Now, under a southern government with racism as its cornerstone and holding a promise of freedom should that government fall, slaves had greater reason than anyone to oppose the Confederacy. Comprising a third of the southern population, the black caste’s collective antagonism contributed as much as that of whites to Confederate defeat.¹

Vulnerability had long been a hallmark of American slavery and it persisted...

By 1864, few valley folk expected the Confederacy to survive for much longer. Most were so disgruntled with the southern government that they looked forward to its fall. One indignant valley man insisted that the only people pushing to continue the war were those who held “fat Government contracts” and corrupt officials who were “not yet done fleecing the Government. Their voice,” he said, “is still for war, war, war!”¹

For slaves, who made up half the valley’s population, Confederate defeat would mean their much-anticipated freedom. For less-affluent whites, it would mean the end of impressment and conscription. It would...

Not long after he passed through the lower Chattahoochee Valley in April 1865, General Benjamin Grierson recorded his impressions of the region’s people: “The country was filled with armed marauders, composed mostly of deserters from the late rebel armies, who have returned to find their families suffering from the neglect and persecution of the wealthy leaders, at whose instigation they joined the rebel ranks. The poor people, including the returned Confederate private soldiers, are, as a general thing, now loyal, but the far greater portion of the wealthy classes are still very bitter in their sentiments against the Government, and...