The study of Confederate troops, generals, and politicians during the Civil War often overshadows the history of noncombatants—slave and free, male and female, rich and poor—threatening obscurity for important voices of the period. Although civilians comprised the vast majority of those affected by the conflict, even the number of civilian casualties over the course of the Civil War remains unknown. Wallace Hettle’s The Confederate Homefront provides a sample of the enormous documentary record on the domestic population of the Confederate states, offering a glimpse of what it was like to live through a brutal war fought almost entirely on southern soil. The Confederate Homefront collects excerpts from slave narratives, poems, diaries and journals, along with brief introductions that examine the circumstances and biases of each source. Bearing witness to the lives of marginalized groups, narratives by women navigating complex webs of loyalties and former slaves resisting and escaping the Confederacy feature prominently. Hettle also focuses on lesser-known aspects of the war, such as conscription, draft evasion, and the development of Union military policies that helped bring about the demise of slavery. Reflecting recent work by Civil War historians, Hettle includes numerous documents that focus on the role of Christianity in justifying the Confederacy’s increasingly destructive moral and ideological position in the war. He also examines the guerrilla war on the southern homefront and the plight of black and white refugees, adding new insights into the destructive impact of warfare on the lives of civilians. The first documentary history to foreground the experiences of Confederate civilians, he Confederate Homefront illuminates the overlooked lives of noncombatants in the Civil War and bears witness to the traumatic final years of the institution of American slavery.

The study of Confederate troops, generals, and politicians during the Civil War often overshadows the history of noncombatants—slave and free, male and female, rich and poor—threatening obscurity for important voices of the period. Although civilians comprised the vast majority of those affected by the conflict, even the number of civilian casualties over the course of the Civil War remains unknown. Wallace Hettle’s The Confederate Homefront provides a sample of the enormous documentary record on the domestic population of the Confederate states, offering a glimpse of what it was like to live through a brutal war fought almost entirely on southern soil. The Confederate Homefront collects excerpts from slave narratives, poems, diaries and journals, along with brief introductions that examine the circumstances and biases of each source. Bearing witness to the lives of marginalized groups, narratives by women navigating complex webs of loyalties and former slaves resisting and escaping the Confederacy feature prominently. Hettle also focuses on lesser-known aspects of the war, such as conscription, draft evasion, and the development of Union military policies that helped bring about the demise of slavery. Reflecting recent work by Civil War historians, Hettle includes numerous documents that focus on the role of Christianity in justifying the Confederacy’s increasingly destructive moral and ideological position in the war. He also examines the guerrilla war on the southern homefront and the plight of black and white refugees, adding new insights into the destructive impact of warfare on the lives of civilians. The first documentary history to foreground the experiences of Confederate civilians, he Confederate Homefront illuminates the overlooked lives of noncombatants in the Civil War and bears witness to the traumatic final years of the institution of American slavery.

Providing a fresh look at a crucial aspect of the American Civil War, this new study explores the day-to-day life of people in the Confederate States of America as they struggled to cope with a crisis that spared no one, military or civilian. Mobley touches on the experiences of everyone on the home front-white and black, male and female, rich and poor, young and old, native and foreign born. He looks at health, agriculture, industry, transportation, refugees city life, religion, education, culture families, personal relationships, and public welfare. In so doing, he offers his perspective on how much the will of the people contributed to the final defeat of the Southern cause. Although no single experience was common to all Southerners, a great many suffered poverty, dislocation, and heartbreak. For African Americans, however, the war brought liberation from slavery and the promise of a new life. White women, too, saw their lives transformed as wartime challenges gave them new responsibilities and experiences. Mobley explains how the Confederate military draft, heavy taxes, and restrictions on personal freedoms led to widespread dissatisfaction and cries for peace among Southern folk. He describes the Confederacy as a region of divided loyalties, where pro-Union and pro-Confederate neighbors sometimes clashed violently. This readable, one-volume account of life behind the lines will prove particularly useful for students of the conflict.

Providing a fresh look at a crucial aspect of the American Civil War, this new study explores the day-to-day life of people in the Confederate States of America as they struggled to cope with a crisis that spared no one, military or civilian. Mobley touches on the experiences of everyone on the home front-white and black, male and female, rich and poor, young and old, native and foreign born. He looks at health, agriculture, industry, transportation, refugees city life, religion, education, culture families, personal relationships, and public welfare. In so doing, he offers his perspective on how much the will of the people contributed to the final defeat of the Southern cause. Although no single experience was common to all Southerners, a great many suffered poverty, dislocation, and heartbreak. For African Americans, however, the war brought liberation from slavery and the promise of a new life. White women, too, saw their lives transformed as wartime challenges gave them new responsibilities and experiences. Mobley explains how the Confederate military draft, heavy taxes, and restrictions on personal freedoms led to widespread dissatisfaction and cries for peace among Southern folk. He describes the Confederacy as a region of divided loyalties, where pro-Union and pro-Confederate neighbors sometimes clashed violently. This readable, one-volume account of life behind the lines will prove particularly useful for students of the conflict.

In Mississippi in the Civil War: The Home Front, Timothy B. Smith examines Mississippi's Civil War defeat by both outside and inside forces. From without, the Union army dismantled the state's political system, infrastructure, economy, and fighting capability. The state saw extensive military operations, destruction, and bloodshed within her borders. One of the most frightful and extended sieges of the war ended in a crucial Confederate defeat at Vicksburg, the capstone to a tremendous Union campaign. As Confederate forces and Mississippi became overwhelmed militarily, the populace's morale began to crumble. Realizing that the enemy could roll unchecked over the state, civilians, Smith argues, began to lose the will to continue the struggle. Many white Confederates chose to return to the Union rather than see continued destruction in the name of a victory that seemed ever more improbable. When the tide turned, Unionists and African Americans boldly stepped up their endeavors. The result, Smith finds, was a state vanquished and destined to endure suffering far into its future. The first examination of the state's Civil War home front in seventy years, this book tells the story of all classes of Mississippians during the war, focusing new light on previously neglected groups such as women and African Americans. The result is a revelation of the heart of a populace facing the devastating impact of total war.

More than one hundred and fifty years after Confederates fired on Fort Sumter, the Civil War still occupies a prominent place in the national collective memory. Paintings and photographs, plays and movies, novels, poetry, and songs portray the war as a battle over the future of slavery, often focusing on Lincoln’s determination to save the Union, or highlighting the brutality of brother fighting brother. Battles and battlefields occupy us, too: Bull Run, Antietam, and Gettysburg all conjure up images of desolate landscapes strewn with war dead. Yet the frontlines were not the only landscapes of the war. Countless civilians saw their daily lives upended while the entire nation suffered. Home Front: Daily Life in the Civil War North reveals this side of the war as it happened, comprehensively examining the visual culture of the Northern home front. Through contributions from leading scholars from across the humanities, we discover how the war influenced household economies and the cotton economy; how the absence of young men from the home changed daily life; how war relief work linked home fronts and battle fronts; why Indians on the frontier were pushed out of the riven nation’s consciousness during the war years; and how wartime landscape paintings illuminated the nation’s past, present, and future. A companion volume to a collaborative exhibition organized by the Newberry Library and the Terra Foundation for American Art, Home Front is the first book to expose the visual culture of a world far removed from the horror of war yet intimately bound to it.