Through the intimacy of personal letters, this primary-source exploration of the Civil War era tells the compelling story of the young men and women of a North Georgia farming family of modest means as they seek places in their quiet communities in the 1850s, live the trauma of the Civil War on the battlefield and at home, and for those who survive, strive to regain peace in a changed world and begin life anew. Beginning in 1847, a seventeen-year-old Simeon David leaves home to teach school in a nearby county and continues as he, his younger brothers Tom and Horatio, sister Lona, and their friend Manning Alexander confront questions familiar to young people today: Where shall I live? Whom shall I marry? What will be my life's work? The arrival of the Civil War sweeps them up, transforms the young men into soldiers--private, lieutenant, regimental surgeon, company commander--and transports them to previously little-known places: Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, and the Wilderness. At home, the family women face their own disruptions and hardships. For one, it is more than she can bear. Throughout, their lives were filled with joy, struggle, fatalism, triumph, and sadness. Their writing concerns Baptist camp meetings, courting rituals, war-rousing speeches, dashes across battlefields, Tories on the home front, and night riders of the Klu Klux Klan.