A Separate Civil War: Communities in Conflict in the Mountain South Book

As someone who grew up in North Georgia, surrounded by the reminders of the Civil War and people who oftentimes clung to the mythology of the conflict, it's inevitable that you hear about the South's commitment to nationalism and the slave-based system that it thrived on.

Sarris uses A Separate Civil War to break down that myth in a way that taught even this history-loving Georgia native things he'd never known about the conflict and motivations.

Learning about the differences in beliefs'from Unionist, to secessionist, to somewhere in between'was enlightening, to say the least. To discover that the myth of a wholly united South during the Civil War, completely dedicated to the Confederacy, was just that, a myth, is... well, shocking, to say the least. The people of the time, people with last names I recognize, from places I am intimately familiar with, were fueled by motivations much further from Atlanta or Washington D.C., and closer to their farms and families. Whether I agree with them or not, to discover the driving forces behind their fight on and off the bloody battlefields of 1861-1865 makes these people feel closer and more understandable to me.

Aside from my personal feelings on the book and my connection to the places described within, the research Sarris has carried out is meticulously done, combing through dozens of collections and hundreds of individual sources. The analysis is well done, lovingly crafted throughout the book to show as much of a full picture as possible.

To anyone interested in the American Civil War, this is a book I deeply recommend. And to anyone from North Georgia, read this book. Your history may just help you better understand your present, and better prepare you for your future.