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Heroes and Martyrs of Georgia: Georgia's Record in the Revolution of 1861

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Because of the extreme scarcity of the original edition of Heroes and Martyrs of Georgia, few historians have heard of or utilized the book. This is unfortunate, for this volume stands as one of the most important published sources on Georgia troops in the Army of Northern Virginia. Included in Heroes and Martyrs are eighteen detailed histories of infantry, cavalry, and artillery units, most of them written in the summer of 1864 by Confederate officers in the trenches at Petersburg. The author of Heroes and Martyrs, James M. Folsom, originally intended on issuing multiple volumes that would chronicle the service of every military unit raised in Georgia during the Confederacy. Wartime exigencies, including the destruction of his manuscripts at the hands of Sherman's men, and postwar poverty prevented Folsom from ever completing his project. The one volume he was able to publish through the firm of Burke, Boykin, and Company of Macon, Georgia, appeared for sale in the spring of 1865, only weeks before Appomattox. Today fewer than a dozen original copies of Heroes and Martyrs are known to exist in public repositories. This new edition of Heroes and Martyrs of Georgia contains a new introduction and index prepared by Keith S. Bohannon, a doctoral student in the history department at Penn State University and a seasonal historian at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.

This volume of regimental histories of Georgia units in the Civil War is a gem. James Madison Folsom traveled to Virginia near the end of the war and worked directly with the regimental leaders of the units included to compile these histories, along with statistics (e.g., number of men enlisted, killed, wounded, etc.). Civil War history buffs will enjoy reading the histories. Family historians will be especially interested in the histories. My great-great grandfather was a member of the 6th Georgia Volunteer Infantry, and its regimental history is 11 pages in length. Heroes and Martyrs of Georgia provides the most complete source of information about the 6th Georgia regiment that I have been able to find.