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Beyond the backwoods—uncovering the Civil War legacy of Alabama’s forgotten frontier.

Much of Alabama’s written history concentrates on the Tennessee Valley, the hill counties, and the Black Belt, while the piney woods of south central and southeastern Alabama, commonly known as the wiregrass region today, is one of the most understudied areas in Alabama history. Deep in the Piney Woods: Southeastern Alabama from Statehood to the Civil War, 1800–1865 offers a comprehensive and long overdue account of a historically rich region of the state, challenging many commonly held assumptions about the area’s formation and settlement, economy, politics, race relations, and its role in both the secession of the state and the Civil War.

Historians routinely depict this part of the state as an isolated, economically backward wilderness filled with poor whites who showed little interest in supporting the Confederacy once civil war erupted in 1861. Tommy Craig Brown challenges those traditional interpretations, arguing instead that many white Alabamians in this territory participated in the market economy, supported slavery, favored secession, and supported the Confederate war effort for the bulk of the conflict, sending thousands of soldiers to fight in some of the bloodiest campaigns of the war.

This thorough and expansive account of southeastern Alabama’s role in the Civil War also discusses its advocacy for state secession in January 1861; the effects of Confederate conscription on the home front; the economic devastation wrought on the area; and the participation of local military companies in key campaigns in both the eastern and western theaters, including Shiloh, the Peninsula Campaign, the Overland Campaign, Atlanta, and Franklin-Nashville. Brown argues that the lasting effects of the war on the region’s politics, identity, economy, and culture define it in ways that are still evident today.

The definitive social history of the Disciples of Christ in the 19th century

Quest for a Christian America, 1800–1865: A Social History of the Disciples of Christ, Volume 1 by David Edwin Harrell Jr. is the definitive social history of the early Disciples of Christ and the broader Restoration Movement, one of the most influential religious reform movements in nineteenth-century America. Led by visionary figures such as Alexander Campbell and Barton W. Stone, the movement sought to restore the practices and principles of the early Christian church while promoting unity among believers in a rapidly changing nation.

Moving beyond traditional denominational history, Harrell examines the social, cultural, and political forces that shaped the movement's development between 1800 and the Civil War. He explores how Disciples responded to major issues of the era, including economic growth, reform movements, slavery, sectional conflict, patriotism, pacifism, and the challenges posed by an increasingly modern and diverse society. Through careful analysis, Harrell demonstrates how these concerns influenced both the movement's theology and its vision for a Christian nation.

Quest for a Christian America illuminates the origins of a movement whose descendants include the modern Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Independent Christian Churches, and Churches of Christ. The book offers valuable insight into the relationship between religion, culture, and public life in nineteenth-century America.