Civil War Macon; The History of a Confederate City

Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1999. First Edition [stated], presumed first printing. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. xiii, [1], 462, [4] pages. Footnotes. Illustrations. Appendix A: Some Macon Leaders during the War. Appendix B: Some Civil War Historic Sites in Macon. Index. Illustrated endpapers. DJ is in a plastic sleeve and has only slight wear and soiling. Inscribed by the author on the half title page. Inscription reads To my good friends Jim and Mary kindest regards Richard W. Iobst Nov. 4, 1999. Richard W. Iobst (1934-2010) earned a Ph.D. in American History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is author of Civil War Macon and also of The Bloody Sixth: History of the Sixth North Carolina Regiment, Confederate States of America, and more than twenty articles published in various historical records. "Richard W. Iobst has produced an encyclopedic account of Macon, Georgia, during the years 1859-1865. Beginning with the growing crisis of "secessionitis" Iobst describes what life was like in Macon prior to the war."--BOOK JACKET. "Using private papers, diaries, letters, and military records, Iobst shows how the war affected Macon and how Macon affected the war. More than that, Iobst reveals the people who lived it and are to be remembered for their loyalty and dedication to their city."--Jacket Dr. Richard William Iobst served as chief of the office of history at Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, Warner Robins Air Force Base, in Warner Robins, Georgia. Previously, he taught history at Western Carolina University and was the museum curator at the Southeastern Museum of Aviation. His writing focused on historical military situations and the strategies used at the time. Civil War Macon: The History of a Confederate City addresses the industrial contributions Georgia made to the Confederate cause during the Civil War, particularly those of the city of Macon. Iobst includes firsthand accounts and experiences garnered from veterans' writings and records kept during the war. A contributor for the Virginia Quarterly Review Online observed of the book: "There is a rich store of social, political, medical, architectural, and engineering history." Christopher C. Meyers, writing for the Journal of Southern History, remarked of Iobst: "He describes in great detail ... the support that secession received in Macon and the celebrations that erupted when the state left the Union in January 1861." Meyers concluded: "The research for Civil War Macon is grounded in manuscripts and contemporary newspapers," resulting in "an encyclopedic and satisfactory history." Macon is located at the head of navigation on the Ocmulgee River in the center of Georgia. In 1860, on the eve of the Civil War, Macon was a business community dedicated to supplying the needs of its citizens, of the cotton planters who grew the short-staple upland cotton, the principal foundation of wealth for the antebellum South. This amazing diversity would serve Macon well in the desperate struggle that was to come. Now, for the first time in such detail, is the story of Macon, Georgia, during the Civil War. What was life like in Macon during the war? What kinds of industry supplied the Confederate army? Why did Sherman not come down to Macon? What of Wilson's raid through Middle Georgia? These answers and much more fill the pages of Richard Iobst's very readable narrative.