Booknotes: Hidden History of Civil War Williamsburg

New Arrival:
• Hidden History of Civil War Williamsburg by Carson O. Hudson, Jr. (Arcadia Pub & The History Pr, 2019).

This is a revised and expanded new edition of author Carson Hudson's 2016 book Yankees in the Streets: Forgotten People and Stories of Civil War Williamsburg. 

From the description: "Each year, thousands of visitors from around the country visit the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation's re-created eighteenth-century capital of Virginia to learn about the past and walk where the Founding Fathers walked. The fact that the same ground was later soaked with the tears and blood of their children and grandchildren during our tragic Civil War is frequently forgotten." Hidden History of Civil War Williamsburg "tells the stories of this hallowed ground and the people who walked it." The variety of individual stories and historical anecdotes compiled in the book encompass the entire war and include discussions of the May 5, 1862 Battle of Williamsburg, the Union occupation, and subsequent attempts by the Confederates to recover the town. 

Filled with photographs and other illustrations, the book also sports an extensive appendix section. In it you'll find a list of town residents from the 1860 census; a roster of the Williamsburg Junior Guard; orders of battle for the May 5 fight; a list of Medal of Honor recipients from the battle; and brief discussions of army hospitals, historical maps, and the surrounding county's emancipation proclamation exemption.