Rebel Richmond

“Deeply researched, revealing, and compelling. . . . Will set the standard for other much-needed intensive, close-up examinations of what the Civil War meant on the ground.”—Library Journal

“Ash rightly concludes that the most noteworthy change in Richmond after April 1865 was the absence of slavery, 'radically altering the city’s social, economic, and political landscape.' That landscape is evolving to this day.”—“Americas Civil War”

“Outstanding. . . . From the arrest of an African American bartender who allegedly spoke to a white man with 'insolent and provoking language' to hospital matrons' attempts to brighten their dreary living quarters, Rebel Richmond compellingly illuminates how Richmonders lived, labored, and died in a city where the war sometimes reached the suburbs and was never far away.”—H-Net Reviews

“A well-written account of the many problems that afflicted the Confederate capital during the Civil War. In addition to using the well-known personal accounts of elite women, such as Mary Boykin Chesnut and Chimborazo hospital matron Phoebe Yates Pember, the author also effectively uses many relatively new primary sources, both published and manuscript. This book is sure to please Civil War buffs.”—Journal of Americas Military Past

“The comprehensiveness and depth of research . . . in this necessary and impressive work. . . . truly brings wartime Richmond’s people to life, using their own words, in a manner unlike previous works. . . . Rebel Richmond is a fine contribution to the greater social history of the Civil War and offers something different for those already familiar with the city during the conflict.”—Virginia Magazine of History and Biography

“Remarkably rich, humane, and compelling. Ash reveals aspects of life in the Confederate capital we have never seen before and helps us understand that the Civil War was much more than the familiar battles— it was a cataclysmic event that consumed the entire society, especially in the South.” —Edward L. Ayers, author of The Thin Light of Freedom: The Civil War and Emancipation in the Heart of America

“Rebel Richmond carves out a unique and important place in the crowded chronicles of the Confederate capital. Stephen V. Ash employs an impressive variety of untapped sources to weave a compelling portrait of wartime Richmond centered around the city’s everyday occupants. This is simply one of the best urban studies of the Civil War era ever written.” —A. Wilson Greene, author of A Campaign of Giants; The Battle for Petersburg

“Stephen V. Ash offers a captivating portrait of the erosion of the order and habits of Richmond under the relentless pressure of war. Often picaresque and always poignant, Rebel Richmond is a rich kaleidoscope of white and black Richmonders scrambling for food and housing, searching for diversion and solace, and anxiously awaiting the outcome of a war that engulfed them.”—W. Fitzhugh Brundage, author of Civil Torture: An American Tradition, a Pulitzer Prize@–finalist