New Book in the Emerging Civil War Series Now Available: Embattled Capital: A Guide to Richmond in the Civil War

We want you to share this moment with us for a second:

That’s Bert Dunkerly (left) and Doug Crenshaw (right) standing on the Cold Harbor Battlefield, and they are two happy dudes. And WE are extremely happy for them.

Bert and Doug are co-authors of the latest book in the Emerging Civil War Series, Embattled Capital: A Guide to Richmond in the Civil War, which just rolled off the press last week. Boxes of books showed up on their doorsteps on Friday.

For anyone who’s been keeping score, you know it’s been a sparse year for the Emerging Civil War Series. We haven’t had a book come out since last March when we released Derek Maxfield’s Hellmira: The Union’s Most Infamous Civil War Prison Camp. Then the coronavirus started to hit hard, and retail outlets, historic sites, visitor centers, and other places that sell Civil War books all locked down. Many remain closed. Others have reopened with only limited services.

As we reported last August, the pandemic hit independent publishing particularly hard—including our own publisher, Savas Beatie. While we had a number of ECWS titles ready to go to print, we had to put everything on hold as Savas Beatie weathered the financial storm. We actually have seven books in the hopper, ready to roll, and we’ve all been frustrated that we’ve had to sit on them.

Although we’re not out of the gale yet, it does seem like a lot of readers have settled into this “new normal,” so we’re all trying to figure out how to move forward in a way that helps everyone—publisher, authors, and readers. We’re fortunate ECW has an excellent relationship with Savas Beatie, so we’ve all tried to be as mutually supportive as possible. “Patience” has been the watchword. (“Patience?” our editor-in-chief, Chris Mackowski, has asked. “What’s that—besides an old Guns and Roses song?”)

Embattled Capital is the first happy sign of what we all hope is the thaw to come. More books will be on the way soon, although we’re taking it nice and easy. In the meantime, we hope you have the chance to pick up Bert and Doug’s great new book. You’ll learn a lot about the capital of the Confederacy, and if you take the book out into the field with you as a tour guide, you’ll discover a lot of cool places to see and things to do.

About the Book:

“On To Richmond!” cried editors for the New York Tribune in the spring of 1861. Thereafter, that call became the rallying cry for the North’s eastern armies as they marched, maneuvered, and fought their way toward the capital of the Confederacy.

Just 100 miles from Washington, D.C., Richmond served as a symbol of the rebellion itself.

Richmond was home to the Confederate Congress, cabinet, president, and military leadership. And it housed not only the Confederate government but also some of the Confederacy’s most important industry and infrastructure. The city was filled with prisons, hospitals, factories, training camps, and government offices.

Through four years of war, armies battled at its doorsteps—and even penetrated the outer line.

Civilians felt the impact of war in many ways: food shortages, rising inflation, a bread riot, industrial accidents, and eventually, military occupation. To this day, the war’s legacy remains deeply written into the city and its history.

Embattled Capital: A Guide to Richmond During the Civil War by historians Doug Crenshaw and Robert M. Dunkerly shares the story of the Confederate capital before, during, and after the Civil War as written on the landscape itself. This guidebook includes a comprehensive list of places to visit: the battlefields around the city, museums, historic sites, monuments, cemeteries, prisons, and more.

About the Authors:

Robert M. “Bert” Dunkerly is a historian, award-winning author, and speaker who is actively involved in historic preservation and research. He works as a park ranger at Richmond National Battlefield Park. Among his several books are two in the ECW Series: To the Bitter End: Appomattox, Bennett Place, and the Surrenders of the Confederacy and No Turning Back: A Guide to the 1864 Overland Campaign.

Doug Crenshaw, a longtime volunteer for Richmond National Battlefield, leads tours of the battlefields around the former Confederate capital. A member of the Richmond Civil War Roundtable, he has written books on Glendale and Fort Harrison, and he’s the author of the ECW Series title Richmond Shall Not Be Given Up: The Seven Days’ Battles and To Hell or Richmond: The 1862 Peninsula Campaign.

Doug and Bert both blog for Emerging Civil War (www.emergingcivilwar.com).



5 Responses to New Book in the Emerging Civil War Series Now Available: Embattled Capital: A Guide to Richmond in the Civil War

  1. WOO HOO!!! I’ve been eagerly waiting for this one. Congrats, guys! Let’s cross our fingers that all those circling planes (the other books awaiting) will make a landing soon too!

  2. Thanks Chris, all

    2020 was a long hard slog, but as Winston Churchill once told me over a glass of brandy just as the Blitz was at is peak, “When you are going through Hell, keep going.”

    Tps

  3. Bert’s book on the Confederate surrenders was very interesting. I look forward to reading this one,

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