The little-known history of anti-secession Southerners: "Absolutely essential Civil War reading." Booklist, starred review
Bitterly Divided reveals that the South was in fact fighting two civil wars: the external one that we know so much about, and an internal one about which there is scant literature and virtually no public awareness. In this fascinating look at a hidden side of the South's history, David Williams shows the powerful and little-understood impact of the thousands of draft resisters, Southern Unionists, fugitive slaves, and other Southerners who opposed the Confederate cause.
What People Are Saying
"This fast-paced book will be a revelation even to professional historians. . . . His astonishing story details the deep, often murderous divisions in Southern society. Southerners took up arms against each other, engaged in massacres, guerrilla warfare, vigilante justice and lynchings, and deserted in droves from the Confederate army . . . Some counties and regions even seceded from the secessionists . . . With this book, the history of the Civil War will never be the same again." Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Most Southerners looked on the conflict with the North as "a rich man's war and a poor man's fight," especially because owners of 20 or more slaves and all planters and public officials were exempt from military service . . . The Confederacy lost, it seems, because it was precisely the kind of house divided against itself that Lincoln famously said could not stand." Booklist, starred review
About the Author
David Williams is the author of A People’s History of the Civil War, Plain Folk in a Rich Man’s War, Johnny Reb’s War, and Rich Man’s War. A native of Miller County, Georgia, he holds a PhD in history from Auburn University. He is a professor of history at Valdosta State University in Valdosta, Georgia, where for the past twenty years he has taught courses in Georgia history, the Old South, and the Civil War era.
