Refugee Life in the Confederacy

Refugee Life in the Confederacy - Cover

by Mary Elizabeth Massey

327 pages / 6.00 x 9.00 inches / 10 halftones

History / United States - Civil War Period

Paperback / 9780807126882 / May 2001

Historians have long recognized the refugees’ importance and writers of fiction their appeal, but Mary Elizabeth Massey’s Refugee Life in the Confederacy—originally published in 1964—marks the first full telling of their story. Massey explores in vivid detail all aspects of southern refugee life. Thrilling tales of displaced people scrambling for trains or making river crossings recapture the poignancy of civilians trapped between advancing and retreating armies. Massey also examines the psychological effects of the war on the homeless, the humor they found in their difficulties, their activities in adopted communities, private and public aid for the refugees, and legislation concerning them.

With a new introduction by George C. Rable, Massey’s comprehensive study depicts the texture of refugee life like no other book before it and is essential to any thorough understanding of the Civil War.

Mary Elizabeth Massey , now deceased, was head of the history department at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina. George C. Rable is the Charles Summersell Professor of Southern History at the University of Alabama and the author of several books, most recently The Confederate Republic.

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