This collection of primary source material chronicles the Civil War experiences of North Carolinians from the secession crisis to the Confederate surrender at Bennett Place. In contrast to other works on the Civil War, this book focuses not on military events but on the larger issue of the societal costs of such conflicts. Through selections from diaries, newspapers, letters, official records, and other documentary sources, it offers a sober account of the intense human and economic suffering endured by the state and illustrates the complicated political realities of wartime North Carolina....

This collection of thirteen essays examines the leaders of the southern states during the Civil War. Malcolm C. McMillan writes of the futile efforts of Alabama's wealthy governors to keep the trust of the poor non-slaveholding whites. Paul D. Escott shows Georgia Governor Joseph Emerson Brown's ability to please both the planter elite and the yeoman farmers. John B. Edmunds, Jr. examines the tremendous problems faced by the governors of South Carolina, the state that would