A Year in the South: 1865: The True Story of Four Ordinary People Who Lived Through the Most Tumultuous Twelve Months in American History

by Stephen V. Ash

A slave determined to gain freedom, a widow battling poverty and despair, a man of God grappling with spiritual and worldly troubles, and a former Confederate soldier seeking a new life. They lived in the South during 1865 -- a year that saw war, disunion, and slavery give way to peace, reconstruction, and emancipation. Between January and December 1865, these four people witnessed, from very different vantage points, the death of the Old South and the birth of the New South. Civil War historian Stephen V. Ash reconstructs their daily lives, their fears and hopes, and their frustrations and triumphs in vivid detail -- telling a dramatic story of real people in a time of great upheaval and offering a fresh perspective on a pivotal moment in history.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Civil War, American History, Biography, Civil War History, Adult

288 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2002

Reviews

[Jeanette · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's no way I could give this other than a 5. The research, the sources, the first person diary narrative connected, and the organizational skill to the material exposed was masterful.

We have 4 different Southern USA individuals recording their daily movements and living arrangements for the entire year of 1865, divided into four three month increments. So you read the history of each individual for each season of the year. After 1865 has ended the author gives biography synopsis for the remaining years of their lives.

This puts the picture for the defeated Southern USA states into realistic focus. How periods of near anarchy, mixed and revenge seeking loyalties, pure chance, and absolutely dire physical and mental states for provisions proceeded to play out in the year of the Civil War's ending. Really these people had no true measure of a semi-steady "now" until 1867 or 1868.

It wasn't just the movement to new locations, but the possible choices to chance and further tragedy that centered this time in the defeated states. Infection, starvation, injury, isolation to any acceptance or supports- haggard and horrid memory compiled! New self-identity often at the core. Death of loved ones and no hope for knowledge to "what's next" follow consistently, even to the "faithful" in God seeking.

It's a book I highly recommend. It will help you understand some of the legacies still existing and much of the long lasting connotations of immense mistrust.

[Sharon Barrow Wilfong · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Ash takes us through the lives of four people starting in the beginning of 1865 and how they lived through this final half year of the Civil War. (The War ended in May.)

One is a slave who becomes a freedman. His family must now learn how to cope with getting a job and making a paid living. Ironically many freed men and women left the South where there was now a desperate need for labor to the North where they found themselves competing for jobs with European Immigrants. This caused another type of conflict as too many people fought for too few jobs.

Another is a woman whose husband fought as a Confederate and was killed in action. One watches as she and her young family work to keep from starving on their once respected and wealthy plantation.

Two others are men, one young and one old, who also fight as Confederates and after the war must find new identities and work in the devastated South. The younger one moves north and learns to interact with people whose customs and cultures are very different than anything he's been exposed to.

The book is divided up into the four seasons of the year and inside each season each person gets a chapter.

This is a work of non-fiction and it is compelling in its drama and the fight to survive from four Southern people, very different from each other, and how they adapted and adjusted during the end of the Civil War and the life they once knew that is now lost forever and the beginning of Reconstruction.

[Donald Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very different and interesting book which is a one-year biography of four different residence of the rebellious Southern States during 1865. This is a well written page turner that reveals the history and the lives in great detail, despairing and what little joy some of them had. An enjoyable read with a slice of history even though the misery was palpable.

[GG Stewart’s Bookhouse · Rating 4 out of 5]

A first hand historical account turn pager! Excellent research and well written account of the different struggles that came from the war. Four life stories told by diary and memoirs of four individuals who lived through this difficult time, a time of loss, soul searching, and finding peace within. Great read!

[Joanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stephen V. Ash found dairies and other written words that exposed the lives of 4 very different Southern people during the last year of the Civil War, and the months immediately afterwards. The time and research put into this book is outstanding.

The stories begin at the dawning of 1865 and are then divided into the seasons of the year. With each new month the struggles and changes that are, at most times, forced upon these "rebels," leave a lasting impression on how dissolving the Confederacy was not pleasant or easy.

A sleeper that I thoroughly enjoyed, recommended for history buffs and those interested in the Civil War.

[Kusaimamekirai · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s an interesting and unique premise to take the year 1865 and follow the loves of 4 different Southerners as they are affected by the monumental changes of that year. Ash does an admirable job of scholarship piecing together the diaries of Cornelia McDonald, John Robertson, Sam Agnew, and Louis Hughes into a coherent narrative. It must have been no easy feat to pull all of these stories together but he does and weaves them into a fascinating story.
My only criticism would be that with the exception of the slave Louis Hughes (albeit rather privileged in that he actually worked in conjunction with white men in his job selling tobacco at a profit to other slaves), the other three narratives are relatively similar. Yes, McDonald is female and the others male, but they all come from relatively successful families, share an antipathy toward Blacks (albeit in varying degrees), and all suffer hardships in the tumultuous 1865. In light of this, ut us Hughes story that is most compelling. That he was able to save enough money to hire union soldiers to forcibly liberate his family from his former master who refuse to acknowledge the end of slavery (having escaped from his master himself earlier) is the stuff of movies.
It also illustrates one of the more fascinating and deplorable aspects of the war in that even when the slaves were free, there were pockets of the South who just ignored the fact. Slave owners who were unsuccessful in hiding emancipation from their slaves, and they went to great lengths to do so, simply employed militias to use brute force on any slave who decided to avail themselves of their freedom.
Another interesting insight from these Southern diaries is just how deep the hatred ran not only toward the Northern officials who occupied Southern towns (though as we saw above, not enough officials to enforce emancipation everywhere) but their former slaves as well. These diaries are full of condescension and disgust as they watch Black men and women move about freely without deference to their former owners. There are laments that Northerners trying to educate former slaves are just ruining them and making them unwilling to be in servitude where they belong. There are complaints that Blacks don’t set aside when a White man or woman passes them or that Blacks are simply lazy for being unwilling to work on open ended contracts that demand they do whatever their “employers” demand of them rather than a narrowly defined scope of work.
With the hindsight of 150 years, we are and should be shocked by how blatant and casual it all seems. This schock however is tinged by a sense of despair for as these 4 Southerners wrap up their diaries for 1865, there for at least Louis Hughes a sense of hope that things will improve. What he doesn’t know (and we do) however is that the future for so many Black Americans holds very little hope. Jim Crow, lynchings, beatings, Bull Connor, institutional racism and so many other obstacles have yet to be faced. 1865 was a difficult year for many. Black and White (I have less sympathy for the latter who brought so much of their misery on themselves however). Ash provides a great service in illustrating for us just how difficult it truly was.

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent first hand historical accounts.

[Christopher Walls · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick read and a good look and ordinary folks during the American Civil War.

[Abrilina Bray · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. This book follows four different people in the South, giving us a peek at their lives and gaining their perspectives.

You follow a recent freedman through his years of slavery, through his struggle to find work and support his family, his inability to truly feel ‘free’ until he finally found his calling in his later years.

A widow who struggles through poverty and trying to keep her large family fed and clothed.

A former Confederate soldier who had to leave his sweetheart to save his life and relocate North.

A minister who struggled with accepting the end of slavery. He went through hardships of his own, making him bitter towards the freedmen.

A very interesting read :)

[Erin Bottger (Bouma) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this an outstanding book and a gripping read. Well researched and well-written, it was also brilliantly organized following 4 ordinary Southerners (3 White, one Black) through the tumultuous year 1865. From 4 perspectives we view the final months of the Civil War and the breakdown of law and order and morale in several Southern locations, through the year with the surrender and dislocation of the aftermath. Each character is forced to relocate (some several times) to survive or avoid trouble, and Ash, drawing on their personal diaries and memoirs, recreates the stress, anxiety, hopes and fears as these Southerners struggle to keep some sore of balance through the upheavals surrounding them.
Some, the proud land (and slave)owners and Southern aristocrats are stripped of their way of life and security and forced to humble themselves to Union northerners now set over them as well as swallow the galling experience of disrespect and disobedience by former slaves and free Blacks. Two men of the cloth must face shifting church positions and loyalty, pastoring a distraught populace, and personal family life. The one Slave we follow through the four seasons, is unusually bright and entreprenurial and is shifted about by his master until he is able to escape to Union-controlled territory and then return to set his wife, child and some others free; they search for a new home in several northern cities and end up heading to Canada.

I didn't grow up in the South but now live in Alabama. This book offered me quite an education about some areas of the South (Eastern Tennessee) experienced their own mini-Civil War as both Unionists and Secessionists lived in proximity to one another throughout the conflict. As troops from one side or the other came through, one side would revenge their neighbors in the opposite camp. The other thing that hit home were the hardships a war-torn society must endure: hunger and food shortages, disease, bands of criminal ex-soldiers, torn apart families. It's very clear that the next period of Reconstruction (especially following Lincoln's assassination) would be a bitter slap-in-the-face to prideful Southerners and that most would be unable to digest the emancipation of their slaves to freedom and citizenship status.

Another book I can recommend about this period is a novel by Taylor Brown, "Fallen Land" about two young orphans who meet up and try to make their way on a horse through the devastation, corruption and threats that fill the landscape to a refuge on the other side of Burning Atlanta.

[Remington Krueger · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was not written about a subject that I am overly interested in. That being said, the style of the book was very unique. I have not encountered a book that has taken this approach to recounting history through four perspectives season by season. The book provides a glimpse of four very different walks of life in the immediate postbellum period. The pov are that of a successful slave, a high class woman who is relegated to poverty, a confederate soldier turned religious scholar, and a minister who avoided war.

I would suggest this book to anyone with a burgeoning interest in the South during the civil war. I gave it an extra star for its unique style of presentation. (If I were more interested in the subject this would probably be a 5 star book)

[Kristin Huston · Rating 5 out of 5]

After the war has ended,what then? This book gives us a bit of information about the post war lives of 4 people in different places in the South. Most books about the Civil War focus on the battles, soldiers, and politicians. This tells us about how the lives of the people were affected by the aftermath of war on their home grounds.

[Cam's Corner · Rating 5 out of 5]

as indicated in the title, Dr. Ash reanimates the lives of 4 individuals who witnessed the end of the Confederacy & the beginning of Reconstruction, an era in which the United States federal government attempted to right some wrongs of slavery… but pulled out in 1877.

we have Louis Hughes, an enslaved Black man waiting for a taste of freedom; Cornelia McDonald, a humbled white woman who lost her plantation & her husband to the Union; John Robertson, a former Confederate who had found salvation in God; & Samuel Agnew, a minister & son of a plantation owner.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book & learned a few things myself. for example, the Union didn’t protect African Americans post- Emancipation Proclamation as much (or as well) as it’s preached in school. certain areas, like Tippah & Panola county in Mississippi, were mostly out of firm reach & slavery remained until there were enough troops that were able to reenforce the law. writing this out, I know it shouldn’t be surprising because of course slaveowners are going to keep people enslaved unless blatantly threatened, but we sometimes overlook the obvious🤷🏾‍♀️

to be honest, the white tears when it came to freed Black individuals minding their business was low key funny to me💀 like, Robertson, the man who found purpose in God, was so appalled with working with Black men that “he refused to eat or sleep with [them] & at the first the first opportunity he quit the job & found another” (56). AND THEN, we have preacher man Agnew. this man was extremely bothered by the (loosely enforced) legislation put in place that prevented violence against the newly freed African American, “The negro is a sacred animal… The Yankees are about negroes like the Egyptians were about cats” (151). It seems he didn’t apply this verse out of the very good book he religiously studied: “The Lord treith the righteous: but the wicked& him that loveth violence his south hateth,” Psalm 11:5 KJV

gotta love the consistency of devout racists & the parallels that can be seen today ☕️🐸

if you’re interested curious about Civil War history, as I am slowly starting to dabble in, this is definitely a good read to start off with

[Paul Lunger · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are very few years in the history of the United States that are as complicated as 1865 is, and no region of the US where this was felt more is the south. Stephen Ash in "A Year in the South: 1865: The True Story of Four Ordinary People Who Lived Through the Most Tumultuous Twelve Months in American History" follows the stories of 4 individuals from various backgrounds & socio-economic circumstances throughout 1865 & shows how their journeys weren't all that different set across the end of the Civil War and its aftermath. Ash introduces us to these 4 people and explains where they were at coming into that year & 1 season at a time explores their lives based upon journals that they had left behind. This fascinating & easy to read book will keep the reader engaged and puts us right in their heart of the world they were living in with all the triumphs & failures people encounter on a daily basis. It also helps that Ash once we finish 1865 brings us to the end of each person's story in the years after the fact. This book published in 2004 is one that anyone with even a passing interest in this era or year specifically will enjoy.

[Bill FromPA · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is fantastic. Ash blends deeply researched history with a novelist's ability to convey character. His four protagonists - a slave in Alabama, a recently widowed mother of 7 in Virginia, the adult son of a small plantation owner in Mississippi, and a young Confederate veteran and former POW in Tennessee - are "ordinary" people living through a historical watershed and dealing with its effects. We get not just the lives of these people through the year 1865, but concise explanations of the larger events that were affecting those lives. Every page is fascinating.

In the end, it's not just a look at how history touches individuals, but also a reflection on the nature of life. Reading the epilogue describing the subsequent lives of these four Southerners causes one to meditate on how the events and actions which occur during one year in a life will have results that resonate throughout the rest of a lifetime or pass away as the year recedes into the past. This would make for thoughtful New Year reading.

[Lindsey PS · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this fascinating collection of different individuals while I was studying History in college. This book does an excellent job of capturing the daily thoughts, fears, and aspirations of four regular people from the South at the end of the Civil War. Studying their accounts gives the reader insight into the mindset of people during that remarkable period of internal war and conflict, with resulting reconstruction and emancipation.

While we can always study history books, reading first hand accounts will forever be the best way to truly understand society from the time period.

If you’re studying Civil War and Reconstruction or simply interested in it, this is a must read to add to your collection.

[Debbie Gill-ty Bookworm · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well researched biography of life in the South in the year 1865. This was a year full of turmoil, civil war, slavery issues, reconstruction and emancipation.
This story follows four individuals that live in different parts of the South and do not know each other. It depicts life in detail telling dramatic stories of people’s trials, fears, hopes, and triumphs. It was quite in depth with the history and political state of mind in the different county’s and states. It gives you a fresh perspective on the experiences of the South in the day. Very disturbing to me to see the upheaval and uncertainty of the time.

[Amy Large · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed A Year in the South: 1865, which detailed four very different people living in different parts of the south during the year the Civil War was ended. This non-fiction book was based on letters, journals, diaries, and other documents written by the four people. The author chose to divide the book chronologically, by season, beginning with Winter, then Spring, then Summer, and then Fall and going forward.

[Gregory Knapp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ash provides very good insight into the lives of 4 very different southerners in the critical year of 1865. Using their words, he paints a very clear picture of the very trying times in early 1865 and of the tumult following the surrender of the Confederacy. From my vantage, I feel Ash leans to the Northern perspective, so sometimes you have to take his commentary with a grain of salt.

[Elizabeth Raines · Rating 3 out of 5]

Often times with history, we don’t learn about the every day, average, person. I’m always curious what life was like for those people in the past and this book answered those questions for me and gave me some new topics to research.

[Spring Dolbec · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great human connection to the Civil War aftermath

Very accessible work and well written, recommend for anyone who wants to get different perspectives of the same time period

[James Mayo · Rating 2 out of 5]

After three chapters, I've decided I'll pass on the pro-confederate romanticism.

[Joe LaPlante · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting to learn of the lives and perspectives of four different individuals in the year of 1865.

[T]

I honestly could not finish this book. I completely understand the need to use footnotes and bibios so we don't confuse previously written words for an author's 'new' words, but this guy has it all wrong. There were so many inane footnotes (seriously, this is just one example: On Sunday mornings there were Bible lessons for the little ones, after which the whole clan marched off together to church.(52) page 44.) It was ridiculous. I stopped 3 months into the Year In the South. Bleck!!

[Aaron Elliott · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Year in the South was a good book. Keeping it from being a great book, was lack of suspense. The care and love of the material is evident in the author's handling, but most of the book was "all dressed up with no place to go." The concept of this book grabbed me but didn't keep me in its grasp. The narrative of the war widow was by far the most compelling of the four voices. I never got the feeling of the South having just been destroyed. I needed some desperation, some pluck, some fortitude.

[Dara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Taken from diaries and memoirs, this is the account of four ordinary people on the home front of the Confederacy, and how they suffered and survived through the last year of the Civil War. Especially touching were the tales of Cornelia McDonald, a nearly destitute war widow, and Louis Hughes, a resourceful slave, who rescues his family from a grasping slave holder.

[Shelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story "told" by four different people who lived through the tumultuous year 1865-- based on actual diaries, letters, and other info gathered on these people. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and learning about the year from the viewpoint of a Confederate widow, a minister, a slave, and rebel. I learned quite a bit about the south and the year after the war that I had never known.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a collection of diary transcriptions from four very different people who experience the Civil War and its aftermath. I loved it. The descriptions of Knoxville were of particular interest to me.

[Bryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book perfectly marries the 1st hand accounts of 4 individuals to the broader context of what was happening in the South, as well as the entire nation, at the end of and immediately after, the Civil War. An easy read, but a powerful one.

[Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was so interesting to step into the lives of four Southerners at the end of the War - the lowest time for the South. I am intrigued by how they each came out of that and were changed forever. I was wishing for even more detail into to their daily lives.