"I expect to be a man of honor to our country at the risk to my life." Pvt. Eli Pinson Landers, letter dated September 24, 1863, Camp near Chattanooga, Tenn.

"In many ways Pvt. Eli P. Landers represents the common southern soldier. A native of Gwinnett, Ga., he came from a yeoman family that owned no slaves. In his often poignant letters . . . he told of an intense longing for the war to end and for a return to his family."—North Carolina Historical Review.

When her neighbor handed her the stack of yellowed letters that had been rescued from an Atlanta, Georgia, pile of trash, author Roberson had no idea she was about to embark on a fact-finding mission through six states from Civil War battlegrounds in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia to Gwinnett County in north Georgia. The author of these letters was a young man named Eli Pinson Landers, a Confederate soldier in the Civil War. Weep Not For Me, Dear Mother is a collection of the letters this brave young man diligently wrote to his mother, Susan Landers, back in their home of Yellow River, Georgia. The book traces his life in battles at Gettysburg, Manassas, and Chickamauga among others.

His letters include Civil War history, battle details, and an emerging portrait of a young man who loved his family and country. Written with the faith and steadfast loyalty of a young soldier, the missives reveal to us a human dimension of that bloodiest of all American wars that we are seldom permitted to see.

Elizabeth Whitley Roberson teaches U.S. history and Western civilization at Martin Community College and East Carolina University in North Carolina. She holds degrees in education and history.

A Teacher's Guide is also available for this title, and it is also available in a paperback edition.

WEEP NOT FOR ME, DEAR MOTHER
By Elizabeth Whitley Roberson
168 pp. 8½ x 11
Illus. Photos Maps Index
ISBN: 1-56554-389-0
EAN: 978-1-56554-389-8