"We often forget, but there was an urban dimension to the Confederate experience. Sam Richards's diary gives us a valuable insight to that facet of rebeldom. Many thanks to Wendy Venet for making it readily available."
—Richard M. McMurry, author of Atlanta 1864: Last Chance for the Confederacy

Description

This previously unpublished diary is the best-surviving firsthand account of life in Civil War-era Atlanta. Bookseller Samuel Pearce Richards (1824–1910) kept a diary for sixty-seven years. This volume excerpts the diary from October 1860, just before the presidential election of Abraham Lincoln, through August 1865, when the Richards family returned to Atlanta after being forced out by Sherman’s troops and spending a period of exile in New York City. The Richardses were among the last Confederate loyalists to leave Atlanta. Sam’s recollections of the Union bombardment, the evacuation of the city, the looting of his store, and the influx of Yankee forces are riveting.

Sam was a Unionist until 1860, when his sentiments shifted in favor of the Confederacy. However, as he wrote in early 1862, he had “no ambition to acquire military renown and glory.” Likewise, Sam chafed at financial setbacks caused by the war and at Confederate policies that…

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