Customer Reviews

Virginia at War, 1861

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This book of essays is the first of five planned books discussing Virginia during each of the years of the Civil War. The essays are written by well-known historians and cover an interesting range of topics. Particularly intriguing was the essay about the decision to relocate the Confederate capital from Montgomery to Richmond. The motion just barely passed. The location of the two capitals had considerable effect on the strategy of the war and one wonders what things would have been like if the capital had remained in Alabama. The essays are brief and well-written. This is a volume for serious students of the subject but is an interesting concept for a series.

Step back in time to national Virginia, formerly one of a union of nations, forced to side with those bent on dissolution and compelled to mount a defense against imminent invasion.

The scholarship for which Davis and Robertson are noted is joined by that of other established authorities, in particular John Coski [The Confederate Battle Flag] and Ervin Jordan [Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia]. Coski's essay on the Virginia Navy is unique and information rich. Jordan's essay on black perspectives is essential to understanding period society.

This native Virginian, whose fifth grade class in Richmond still stood to sing Dixie before a portrait of General Lee in 1960, now appreciates the Commonwealth's pro-Union sentiments and leadership evident in Robertson's essay on secession.

The edited selection from the diary of Judith Brockenbrough McGuire compliments the work.

The idea for the series is brilliant. I look forward to the remaining volumes.