From Publishers Weekly
Sutherland, professor of history at the University of Arkansas, tells the story of the Civil War from the perspective of a single community. Virginia's Culpepper County was never the site of a major battle. Located between the Rapidan and Rappahannock rivers, it was, however, a focal point for both armies between 1861 and 1865. Occupied repeatedly by the Union, it remained strongly Confederate in its sympathies. Sutherland's use of the present tense highlights the county's sustaining of a complex racial, social and economic structure despite externally imposed conscription, taxes, requisitions and confiscations. As armies marched, life went on. Property changed hands. Marriages were solemnized and dissolved. Men went to war. Some died. Some returned?with or without government sanction. Even for communities directly in its path, the book suggests, the Civil War was a good deal less than a total war. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Sutherland (history, Univ. of Arkansas), the author of Confederate Carpetbaggers (LJ 6/15/88), relates the experiences of Culpeper County, Virginia, during the Civil War. He engages the reader by using the present tense, lending a sense of immediacy to the described events. The reader is made to care about the people of Culpeper, whose words and thoughts are extensively quoted. Sutherland details both civilian and military life, sometimes agonizingly so, as after the Battle of Cedar Mountain. The title refers to the four seasons of the year, reflecting the rising and waning fortunes of the Confederacy. A grim tale but a top-notch book; highly recommended.?Robert A. Curtis, Taylor Memorial P.L., Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Sutherland's history of Culpeper County, Virginia, during the Civil War is a vivid portrait of the Confederate home front that presents a panorama of the county's entire populace--black as well as white--at war. During the war's four years, the county saw two major battles (Cedar Mountain and Brandy Station), played host to both armies and numerous raiders, lost a large number of its people to battle, starvation, disease, and "refugeeing," and, although it had been one of Virginia's more prosperous counties, became a near wasteland. Sutherland's research has been thorough; his writing is mostly in the present tense, which sometimes calls attention to itself at the expense of a narrative that hardly needs help in terms of its dramatic impact. Although seemingly a specialty item, this readable local history is highly recommended for most Civil War collections. Roland Green
About the Author
Daniel E. Sutherland is chairman of the department of history at the University of Arkansas.
