Overview

When John M. Douthit of Appalachian Georgia enlisted as a private in Fannin County's Fifty-Second Volunteer Infantry Regiment on March 4, 1862 and marched with neighbors to train at Camp McDonald, he left behind a pregnant wife, an eighteen-month-old daughter, and a small farm. A precious cache of family letters traces him to eastern Tennessee, where he served south of Cumberland Gap; through the failed Confederate invasion of Kentucky; on the march to join Bragg's forces near Murfreesboro, Tennessee; and finally, to the defense of Vicksburg, where John and his fellow North Georgians arrived during the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou. At Vicksburg, where John's younger brother Warren Davis Douthit joined him, five North Georgia regiments solidified into what became known as the Barton-Stovall Brigade. The Brigade manned the water batteries at Warrenton, Mississippi, fought in the Battle of Champion Hill, and afterward was bottled up in the siege of Vicksburg. This book searches out the fate of the two men, never known by their immediate family, and also examines the effect of the war on the home front. In this well-researched and reasoned narrative, the common soldier is elevated to tragic hero. The author, John's great-great granddaughter and a descendant of the daughter who was born while he was away and whom he never saw, includes family stories and her own mother's memories of John's wife Martha.

Full Product Details

9780881467666

Table of Contents

Reviews

Author Information

An award-winning writer and freelance editor, Elaine Fowler Palencia grew up in Kentucky and Tennessee. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Vanderbilt University, she has authored six books of fiction; four poetry chapbooks; and a monograph, The Literary Heritage Of Hindman Settlement School. She is the book review editor of Pegasus, the journal of the Kentucky State Poetry Society.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available