To Live And Die In Dixie

Eerie moonlight reflects palely off the bare dirt of a lonely sunken road beckoning to a terrified traveler, a soldier makes a pact with untold evil, a spirit of vengeance stalks a hapless traveler, a disturbed, disease-ridden man lies among those fallen in grim battle, half in this world, half in one of darkness, a desperate man takes refuge in a lonely house. Herein lie six tales of the storied South: paths through wood and fen, in times long ago or yesterday, where terror issues through quieted halls, the din of terrible battle, or from things that do not go bump in the night. Denizens through this land of twilight will discover what it means to live and die...in Dixie.

According to the 1860 census, nearly 350,000 native northerners resided in a southern state by the time of the Civil War. Although northern in birth and upbringing, many of these men and women identified with their adopted section once they moved south. In this innovative study, David Ross Zimring examines what motivated these Americans to change sections, support (or not) the Confederate cause, and, in many cases, rise to considerable influence in their new homeland. By analyzing the lives of northern emigrants in the South, Zimring deepens our understanding of the nature of sectional identity as well as the strength of Confederate nationalism. Focusing on a representative sample of emigrants, Zimring identifies two subgroups: “adoptive southerners,” individuals born and raised in a state above the Mason-Dixon line but who but did not necessarily join the Confederacy after they moved south, and “Northern Confederates,” emigrants who sided with the Confederacy during the Civil War. After analyzing statistical data on states of origin, age, education, decade of migration, and, most importantly, the reasons why these individuals embarked for the South in the first place, Zimring goes on to explore the prewar lives of adoptive southerners, the adaptations they made with regard to slavery, and the factors that influenced their allegiances during the secession crisis. He also analyzes their contributions to the Confederate military and home front, the emergence of their Confederate identities and nationalism, their experiences as prisoners of war in the North, and the reactions they elicited from native southerners. In tracing these journeys from native northerner to Confederate veteran, this book reveals not only the complex transformations of adoptive southerners but also the flexibility of sectional and national identity before the war and the loss of that flexibility in its aftermath. To Live and Die in Dixie is a thought-provoking work that provides a novel perspective on the revolutionary changes the Civil War unleashed on American society. David Ross Zimring is an adjunct professor of history at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and Montgomery College. He has published in West Virginia History and the Journal of Southern History.

How the Confederacy came into being. A state by state history of the secession movement and the formation of the sovereign Confederate States of America.

Contains letters from the soldiers telling their camp life and battles, discussing politics and situations at home, expressing their hopes and fears.

A look at the agency’s attempts to deliver justice to the Texas black community following the Civil War. Drawing on a wealth of previously unused documentation in the National Archives, this book offers new insights into the workings of the Freedmen’s Bureau and the difficulties faced by Texas Bureau officials, who served in a remote and somewhat isolated area with little support from headquarters. “[The] episodes in Texas Reconstruction history that Mr. Crouch relates, perhaps do more than broad generalizations to explain why the Freedmen’s Bureau failed, and how we lost the peace after the Civil War.” —New York Times Book Review “Crouch skillfully presents the Freedmen’s Bureau as one of the most unique, misunderstood, and maligned ad hoc reform agencies ever devised by a democratic government in the name of social and political freedom and equality.” —East Texas Historical Journal “Breaks new ground in Reconstruction history. [Crouch’s] study is among the first on the bureau in Texas and the first to focus on the subdistrict agent, the subassistant commissioner.” —Journal of Southern History