For much of the Civil War, Virginia civilians struggled to keep their homes intact as they faced the threat of Union soldiers on their doorsteps. In this revised and expanded second-edition compilation of stories passed down by word-of-mouth from the generation that experienced that divisive war, Larry Chowning shows his talent for capturing the flavor of an era and the essence of its people. The stories of everyday life in a war zone show not just the fear but the courage, defiance, and ingenuity displayed by the people in Virginia's Tidewater region. While these chronicles are Southern, the same sort of narrative could have come from people in Pennsylvania, where Southern troops roamed.