What do you think?
Rate this book
Ashes of Glory: Richmond at War
On the day the first shots of the Civil War were fired, a mob in Richmond clambered on top of the Capitol to raise the Confederate flag. Four years later, another flag was raised in its place while the city burned below. A thirteen-year-old girl compared the stars and stripes to "so many bloody gashes." This richly detailed, absorbing book brings to life the years in which Richmond was the symbol of Southern independence and the theater for a drama as splendid, sordid, and tragic as the war itself. Drawing on an array of archival sources, Ashes of Glory portrays Richmond's passion through the voices of soldiers and statesmen, preachers and prostitutes, slaves and slavers. Masterfully orchestrated and finely rendered, the result is a passionate and compelling work of social history.
419 pages, Hardcover
First published September 24, 1996
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
July 16, 2026
Ashes of Glory: Richmond at War (1996) chronicles how the Civil War transformed Richmond into not only the political capital and military headquarters of the Confederacy, but also its principal industrial center, hospital city, prison complex, and railroad hub. Ernest B. Furgurson, the late journalist and historian, captures this upheaval—including martial law, conscription, enemy raids, overcrowding, starvation, and staggering casualties—through the experiences of the city's residents: nurses, factory workers, enslaved people, prisoners, merchants, and Union sympathizers. The result is a nuanced portrait of how the Confederate capital endured the mounting pressures of war before ultimately succumbing to the Union siege.
Furgurson begins by grounding Virginia's secession in its political context, showing how Richmond reflected the conservatism that characterized the state’s initial reluctance to secede. Governor John Letcher rejected the increasingly militant Southern wing of the Democratic Party and instead supported the candidacy of Stephen Douglas, resisting the calls of the “fire-eater” secessionists. Only after Lincoln's request for militia following the first wave of Southern secessions did Virginia reverse course. Letcher refused to furnish troops to suppress the seceded states, the Virginia convention voted to leave the Union, and on April 24, 1861, a convention committee (headed by former President John Tyler) adopted the Confederate Constitution. Less than a month later, on May 20, the Confederate Congress voted to move the capital to Richmond. The city had become the symbolic heart of Confederate resistance.
With the outbreak of war, Richmond rapidly mobilized to sustain the Confederate cause. As the South's foremost industrial center, the city's factories shifted from producing tobacco to manufacturing munitions and other war materiel. Makeshift hospitals sprang up to absorb the flood of casualties from the early campaigns, transforming Richmond into what Furgurson describes as "one vast emergency ward." Union prisoners captured on the battlefield filled the city's prisons, where conditions deteriorated steadily as shortages intensified. By the war's final months, Furgurson observes, the prisoners' physical condition resembled that of inmates in twentieth-century concentration camps. Meanwhile, enslaved Black laborers—already constrained by restrictive laws and constant surveillance—were increasingly impressed into service in factories, hospitals, and other essential wartime occupations. Their labor, Furgurson argues, became a "vital necessity" that helped sustain the Confederate capital.
By the final year of the war, Richmond had become a city on the verge of collapse, sustained largely by the determination of an increasingly exhausted population. The Union blockade, combined with General Grant's campaigns against the city's remaining supply lines, crippled the Confederate economy and fueled runaway inflation. Government estimates suggested that a modest family's grocery bill had risen to roughly ten times its prewar level. Food, railroad equipment, fuel, and essential medicines became desperately scarce. At the same time, wounded soldiers and Union prisoners continued to pour into the city, placing immense strain on its already depleted resources. Prostitution, disease, and crime flourished amid the deteriorating conditions. By 1864, Furgurson concludes, Richmond had become "by far the most expensive, corrupt, overcrowded, and crime-ridden city in the Confederacy."
Furgurson conveys these hardships through an impressive array of manuscripts, diaries, memoirs, letters, newspapers, periodicals, and official records, allowing Richmond's residents to narrate much of the story themselves. These firsthand accounts reveal not only the despair and privation of a city under siege, but also the remarkable resilience, patriotism, and, at times, self-delusion of people who continued to believe in Confederate victory even as defeat became increasingly inevitable. Even after Richmond's evacuation and destruction by retreating Confederate forces, the voices of those who lived through the city's ordeal endure through Furgurson's poignant storytelling.
Furgurson begins by grounding Virginia's secession in its political context, showing how Richmond reflected the conservatism that characterized the state’s initial reluctance to secede. Governor John Letcher rejected the increasingly militant Southern wing of the Democratic Party and instead supported the candidacy of Stephen Douglas, resisting the calls of the “fire-eater” secessionists. Only after Lincoln's request for militia following the first wave of Southern secessions did Virginia reverse course. Letcher refused to furnish troops to suppress the seceded states, the Virginia convention voted to leave the Union, and on April 24, 1861, a convention committee (headed by former President John Tyler) adopted the Confederate Constitution. Less than a month later, on May 20, the Confederate Congress voted to move the capital to Richmond. The city had become the symbolic heart of Confederate resistance.
With the outbreak of war, Richmond rapidly mobilized to sustain the Confederate cause. As the South's foremost industrial center, the city's factories shifted from producing tobacco to manufacturing munitions and other war materiel. Makeshift hospitals sprang up to absorb the flood of casualties from the early campaigns, transforming Richmond into what Furgurson describes as "one vast emergency ward." Union prisoners captured on the battlefield filled the city's prisons, where conditions deteriorated steadily as shortages intensified. By the war's final months, Furgurson observes, the prisoners' physical condition resembled that of inmates in twentieth-century concentration camps. Meanwhile, enslaved Black laborers—already constrained by restrictive laws and constant surveillance—were increasingly impressed into service in factories, hospitals, and other essential wartime occupations. Their labor, Furgurson argues, became a "vital necessity" that helped sustain the Confederate capital.
By the final year of the war, Richmond had become a city on the verge of collapse, sustained largely by the determination of an increasingly exhausted population. The Union blockade, combined with General Grant's campaigns against the city's remaining supply lines, crippled the Confederate economy and fueled runaway inflation. Government estimates suggested that a modest family's grocery bill had risen to roughly ten times its prewar level. Food, railroad equipment, fuel, and essential medicines became desperately scarce. At the same time, wounded soldiers and Union prisoners continued to pour into the city, placing immense strain on its already depleted resources. Prostitution, disease, and crime flourished amid the deteriorating conditions. By 1864, Furgurson concludes, Richmond had become "by far the most expensive, corrupt, overcrowded, and crime-ridden city in the Confederacy."
Furgurson conveys these hardships through an impressive array of manuscripts, diaries, memoirs, letters, newspapers, periodicals, and official records, allowing Richmond's residents to narrate much of the story themselves. These firsthand accounts reveal not only the despair and privation of a city under siege, but also the remarkable resilience, patriotism, and, at times, self-delusion of people who continued to believe in Confederate victory even as defeat became increasingly inevitable. Even after Richmond's evacuation and destruction by retreating Confederate forces, the voices of those who lived through the city's ordeal endure through Furgurson's poignant storytelling.
November 13, 2023
That wasn't very civil...
December 7, 2025
Mr. Furgerson is a good writer. I’ve read two other books by him. They are always well written and researched. While he isn’t as bad as many his leniency towards Lee is more than I prefer.
July 7, 2016
This book does a good job of looking at Richmond as the war progressed, from its selection as the CSA's capital to its burning after the withdrawal of Lee's army. The author uses various vignettes to give the reader insight into the economics, safety, morale and population during the war years and as the war turned against the CSA. One of the few improvements I can think of would be to add a map.
Well worth reading, includes black and white photos.
Well worth reading, includes black and white photos.
June 30, 2019
I reread this excellent book to get an overview of what life was like in Richmond, Virginia during the American Civil War; it did not disappoint. This book deals with the Confederate home front, so it is less about battles and more about relationships between the many different kinds of people in Richmond during the war.
July 16, 2012
A very readable and interesting account of the "home front" during the American Civil War. The actual fighting is addressed only as the armies approach Richmond, but details of life in the city are presented: the newspapers, the hospitals, the spies, among other topics, are addressed.
June 4, 2016
One of the most refreshing accounts of the war I've read in a while, with a unique focus on the personalities and life of the Confederacy's capital during that time. Well worth the read for anyone interested in the history of the Civil War, Richmond, or both.
July 11, 2018
Ashes of Glory was a great book. It covered multiple facets of people who lived in Richmond from the beginning of the Civil War to the end. It brought some battles I have heard of all my life more real. I would recommend this to any historian interested in the Civil War.
August 27, 2019
Really enjoyed this book. Doesn't fight the battles but gives a good flavor of what war on the home front was like.
November 1, 2023
Biography of Richmond, Virginia, during the Civil War. This is not as good a book as Nelson Lankford's Richmond Burning: The Last Days of the Confederate Capital, but it offers a panoramic view of Richmond and a good sense of what the Civil War looked like from that geographic and political position. Most of Furguson's sources are, inevitably, white Richmonders and (at the end) white Yankees. I would have liked to have seen more discussion of Black viewpoints, even if only by unpacking more carefully what the white people wrote, but by and large Furguson is not really interested in unpacking what his sources say; his project is clearly to synthesize his array of sources into a coherent narrative.
Read
December 31, 2021My audiobook expired about halfway through, so I DNF'ed and won't rate it because of that, but I was definitely enjoying it while I was listening to it. It had a lot of great tidbits about wartime in Richmond, Virginia, the city at the center of the book, and it pulled sources from both "sides" of the Civil War controversies to keep the book neutral and unbiased. Did a good job of not glorifying the Confederacy, which is an especially hard task when talking about a town that was the headquarters of the whole South.
July 23, 2021
Excellent companion to his book on Washington DC during the Civil War.
June 3, 2026
Lots of interesting tidbits and factoids about the city and people in it during the war. Well written and apparently well researched.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews