Mariner Media

A number of historians have held that antislavery activity died out in the South after the early 19th century. This was not completely true, as you will learn in Ripe for Emancipation. Neely Young’s extensive research has uncovered evidence of a continuing antislavery tradition in the so-called “Upper South” from the Revolution until about 1850.

This tradition of antislavery sentiment thrived most in the Appalachian regions of western Virginia, western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee, and Kentucky. One of the centers of antislavery activity was Rockbridge County, Virginia, which supplied some of the leading figures in the Virginia and Upper South emancipationists’ movements. The people of Rockbridge were reluctant to join the Confederacy and when they did, it was not to defend slavery or even states’ rights but to defend their lives, homes, and property against northern invasion.

“Neely Young’s carefully researched book deftly explores the Rockbridge antislavery tradition during the decades prior to the Civil War. He places both the local reformers and their emancipation and colonization programs within a national context.  He also provides a much-needed corrective to the work of recent scholars who downplay the effort or assert that the local champions of the failed program cared little about the well-being of the slaves themselves.”
— Taylor Sanders, Professor of History, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia.

“This thoughtful, meticulously documented, and articulate exposition of the Southern antislavery movement from the founding of the Republic, up to the last decade before the Civil War, is essential to a genuine understanding of American history as it has been wrought by considerations of race. Ripe for Emancipation is a compelling book and a rewarding read, which lays bare the roots of American racial disharmony persisting to the present day.”
—George Warren, Director, Local History Museum, Lexington, Virginia.

The American Civil War continues to stir passion and fascination for many readers and historians. While there are hundreds of books about the war itself there are hardly any that delve into the mysteries of why a once united country at peace with itself and the world went to war—a war that has not been exceeded on this continent for its destruction or slaughter. Read this book and you will understand why Virginia seceded.

In Compelled to Fight the causes of the Civil War are examined through Rockbridge County, Virginia, a microcosm of antebellum Virginia and touches upon why this Union loving people in the most critical border state abandoned hope of compromise and cast their lot with the South. Rittenburg presents the who’s who of Lexington, VMI, W&L, Rockbridge County and the local events that led to ultimate secession. Compelled to Fight is 500 pages, illustrated and indexed.

"Exhaustively researched, painstakingly crafted, this is surely the most complete history ever done of a county in the Civil War era. Equally important, Rittenburg’s study challenges communities everywhere to look back at the hidden stories in their own evolution."
—James I. Robertson, Jr.

You will never understand the Civil War until your understand its emotion. Love and War dramatically presents the real inner conflicts between love and duty. This wonderful collection of poignant letters provides a fascinating glimpse into the heart and mind of a private soldier in the Army of Northern Virginia. Madly in love with a much younger woman, he married her early in the war, and went AWOL three times in order to be with her. He survived Pickett's charge at Gettysburg, but died at the Battle of Chester Station in May 1864. Cover commentary by leading historians: James McPherson, James "Bud" Robertson, Jr. and Holt Merchant

Experience the entire Civil War through the eyes of the soldiers’—North and South. Fast paced, this book reads like you’re watching a movie.

“During wartime soldiers never know the whole picture. Tracing the surprising parallel lives of childhood friends and kinsmen Elisha Hunt Rhodes of the 2nd R. I. Regiment and James Rhodes Sheldon of the 50th Georgia Regiment amidst the background of the Civil War from beginning to end, Les Rolston has shed new light from primary and secondary sources and added a poignant human touch to history.”

Robert Hunt Rhodes
—editor of All For The Union:
The Civil War Diary AND Letters Of Elisha Hunt Rhodes
as featured in the PBS-TV series THE CIVIL WAR by Ken Burns.

The Corps Forward captures more than a Civil War story. It is the epic tale of the only time in American history when an entire college student body, the Virginia Military Institute, engaged in pitched combat, leading an army to victory. Who were these boy soldiers? Where were they raised? What were their experiences during the life-altering fight? What did the survivors do in the post-war era? The fascinating answers are revealed and a story told through biographical sketches of each of the 257 cadets, the faculty and the support staff who marched to that New Market battlefield in 1864.

For the first time ever - the entire story of the Civil War, told in a traditional poetic style. This is a moving read with many period illustrations. Raymond captures and honors the valor of soldiers North and South - a must have in every Civil War collection.

This monograph details the roles of Virginia Military Institutes alumni on both sides of the Civil War. The book, completed just before the author's death in 2006, contains numerous period photographs from the archives of the VMI Museum.

No soldier deserves to be forgotten. Remarkably, an unmarked Rhode Island grave claimed to hold a Confederate soldier, and that's all anybody knew. In this dramatic Civil War history and genealogical research case study, author Les Rolston reconstructs the life and times of Samuel Postlethwaite, a Confederate private in the 19th Mississippi infantry, and the only known Confederate soldier to be buried in Rhode Island.

To add context to the story of his discovery, Rolston relates the history of two families - the Greenes from Rhode Island and the Postlethwaites from Mississippi - and gives a detailed account of how individuals from both families were involved in the Civil War.