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Secret Yankees: The Union Circle in Confederate Atlanta (War/Society/Culture)

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Professor Thomas G. Dyer's book is a highly important and enjoyable work. All readers can benefit from this excellent work; however, for those with an interest in literary mysteries, Dyer's work offers a special treat. Who was "Miss Abby," the author of a "diary" dated at Atlanta, Georgia, 1 January through 22 July 1864? No one knew. In 1976, the University of Georgia library purchased the manuscript "diary" from a book/manuscript peddler without demanding its provenance, a decision soon to be regretted. The question of authorship was daunting indeed. Faced with a fictitious name and the swollen population of Atlanta toward the end of the Civil War, most writers would have surrendered--not so, this 20th century Sherlock. One would have thought that any stray Yankees in Atlanta would have fled like scalded rats with the first booming from Sumter, or that those remaining were securely confined in the local asylum. Not so, Dyer informs us. Yankees...in Atlanta! Aunt Pittypat would be appalled. In the early stages of his work, Professor Dyer was rightly concerned that the manuscript "diary" could be part of a published work. At an early stage he was also aware that, at best, the "diary" in the collection of the University of Georgia library was perhaps only a transcription of an unknown original document, which he yet thinks was a diary written by Cyrena Bailey Stone. After a careful search of all standard reference, and even rare sources, he found no evidence whatever that the "diary" had been published. However, as is often the case when doing original literary work, Professor Dyer's neck was stretched nicely across scholarship's bloody block. The ax fell. Well into the project, the manuscript "diary" in the University of Georgia library proved to be part of a 1903 novel, "Goldie's Inheritance/A Story of the Siege of Atlanta," by Louisa M. Whitney. To add insult to injury, there were three copies of the novel in the Georgia Room, University of Georgia (where Dyer is Professor of Higher Education and History), as is the manuscript "diary." In the words of a Confederate song writer to President Lincoln, it was "Root Hog, or Die!" Die, Dyer did not. As with Lincoln, he goes on to prove his worth by providing his readers with a new thought provoking view of Atlanta, the home of "Gone With The Wind," during the Civil War. Concerning this work, the following facts are most regrettable. Professor Dyer was not able to locate the supposed original diary of Cyrena Bailey Stone, nor was he able to locate a single example of her handwriting; hence, the manuscript "diary" in the University of Georgia library must remain in doubt, its provenance unknown. The fact that the heroine of this story, Cyrena Bailey Stone, the supposed author of the "diary," was a loyal Atlanta Yankee slave owner, and that other loyal Atlanta Yankees in her nest were also slave owners, would seem sufficient to undermine the basic premise of Professor Dyer's work. This may be so, at least in part. However, Professor Dyer's important contribution does not rest on the faults of the characters which infest his work, nor does it rely on the authenticity of the manuscript "diary" in the University of Georgia library. The thoughtful reader of Professor Dyer's superb work will soon learn why this is so. Working under the burdens I have outlined, Professor Dyer has produced an important seminal work. This work is a must for all readers of southern history.

Secret Yankees: The Union Circle In Confederate America by Thomas G. Dyer (Professor of Higher Education and History, University of Georgia) is a superbly presented historical study of pro-Union sympathizers in Atlanta, Georgia. These are Civil War participants who have been largely overlooked and ignored in both traditional civil war studies texts and popular culture movies such as "Gone With the Wind." Dramatic and personal, with special emphasis on the life and struggles of Vermont native and Unionist Cyrena Stone, Secret Yankees is an incredible insight into a little-known aspect of America's deadliest war. Secret Yankees is a seminal and significant contribution to the growing library of Civil War literature and highly recommended for Civil War Studies supplemental reading lists and academic reference collections.