“Thinking you might like to know what was going on back home” in Calhoun County, Ala. during the Civil War

• Describes the life and times of the common people in a Southern county from the firing on Fort Sumter to the surrender at the Appomattox Court House, and beyond;

• Uses the local newspaper to take you back to the years 1861 – 1865;

• Tells the untold story of the Southern women during the Civil War;

• Reveals the plight of the African American as a slave and that of a freedman;

• Shows the belief to which the “hand of Providence” was thought to play in the success of battles, outcome of the war, and destiny of our civilized country;

• Illustrates the change in the South’s social system from Antebellum to Reconstruction;

• Shows the role in which the newspaper played in shaping the thoughts and conscientious of the Southern mind;

• Identifies the historical sites and events which occurred in this area during a most turbulent period in our American history;

• Gives accounts and reports of battles from local military commanders, soldiers, and war correspondents;

• Serves as a directory of Who’s Who in Calhoun County, Alabama during the Civil War;

• Takes you on the emotional roller coaster ride of the Southern people from the ecstasy of Southern Independence to the utter ruin of their way of life; and

• Provides an understanding as to “Why we (the Southern people) are what we are today.”

Coincidence or Providence? G. McKenzie (Mac) Gillam was born in Paducah, Ky. As the son of an electrician who worked on power plants, he moved throughout the southeastern United States ending up and graduating from high school in East Point, Ga. After attending Auburn University his freshmen year, he transferred and completed his B.S. and M.S. degrees at Jacksonville State University in Calhoun County, Alabama. Upon completing his PhD at Florida State University, he was offered and accepted a position to return to Jacksonville State. At which he served as Professor and Department Head until his retirement. Developing an interest in genealogy, he discovered his great, great grandfather had moved his family from Fairfield Dist., South Carolina to Calhoun County, Alabama in 1858. Further research showed that he and three of his sons had served in companies from this county in the Confederate Army. Thus, the mother, daughters, and younger sons were left at home alone to suffer the physical hardships and deprivations, and the mental and emotional anguish that this bitter war had brought upon them. Whether, originating through chance or design, the need to share the story of those “back home in Calhoun County during the Civil War” served paramount in his writing of this book.