"The authors look beyond the battlefield to examine social, economic and political aspects of the war experience. Drawing from personal diaries, pictures, battlefield accounts and cultural analyses, the essays found in this volume provide an intimate look at the impact of the war on the people and their institutions."—Bristol Herald Courier
"The ordeal of the Civil War reached deeply into all segments of society, as clearly demonstrated by these explorations of the personal experiences of Virginia women, children, and ex-slaves, along with the wider scale damages warfare brought to many religious and border communities."—Civil War Books and Authors
"The editors are to be commended for seeking out essays that engage the whole of the southern population: whites, blacks, men, women, Confederates, and Unionists."—Virginia Magazine of History and Biography
"Two of the most eminent experts on the Civil War in Virginia have here collaborated to create a book of readings that dramatically broadens discourse on what was going on during this mid-war year in Virginia."—Appalachian Heritage
"Virginia at War, 1863 is a useful volume that will expand the knowledge of most readers."—Free Lance-Star
~Dane
"These reflections on how the national tragedy affected every person in every locality are particularly timely and remind us, even though it was a minority of Americans who fought in the Civil War, that the war deeply touched every person in a unique, complex, and irreversible way."—West Virginia History
"This regional study of Civil War history, comprised of essays from a varied collection of scholars and edited by William C. Davis and James I. Robertson, two of the nation's leading Civil War historians, has been a significant contribution to the literature on the Civil War, and the third volume of the series is another impressive piece of scholarship."—Journal of America's Military Past
"Davis and Robertson, along with the contributors to these Virginia books, have produced a model state-level series of studies that expands our understanding of the upheaval the war inflicted on southern society."—Journal of Southern History
"Among the more impressive of the book's essays is Jared Peatman's intriguing examination of how newspapers in Richmond and elsewhere in Virginia reported (or failed to report as it turned out) Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. Also notable is James M. Prichard's essay on the wartime experiences of Anse Hatfield."—Blue & Gray Magazine