Seasons of War: The Ordeal of a Confederate Community, 1861-1865

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. (Dec.)