Appalachian echoes

"When Virginia seceded from the Union in 1861, its western residents were outraged and formed a separate state two years later, introducing political upheaval into already tumultuous times. Hall's account of those events, which first appeared when the birth of West Virginia was still a living memory, takes modern readers back to those turbulent days.". "Hall recorded all the proceedings of the loyalist constitutional convention and preserved every printed document from that assembly. He gathered those materials, along with reminiscences of the men involved in the secession effort, into a book, originally published in 1901, that offers first-hand insights into the personalities and politics of the day. The Rending of Virginia sheds light on how those individuals perceived current events and offers an insider's analysis of their interactions. Hall's acquaintance with so many leading politicians also allowed him to make telling corrections to their own self-serving accounts of those events.". "John Stealey's introduction provides a biographical sketch of Hall and places him within the broader social and political context of dissent in western Virginia. He also shows how modern scholars can benefit from Hall's unabashedly partisan viewpoint, noting that Hall's knowledge of individuals and families can help us better understand the regional politics of that era."--BOOK JACKET.

"Convicted murderer Mattie Appleyard has just served forty-seven years in Glory Penitentiary. His release puts him in possession of a check for $25,452.32 - the result of his having salted away his meager earnings in the Prisoner's Work-and-Hope Savings Plan of the local bank. With his friends Johnny Jesus and Lee Cottrill, he plans to open a general store that will compete with the company store in Stonecoal, West Virginia.". "Unfortunately, banker Homer Grindstaff, prison guard Uncle Doc Council, and Sheriff Duane Ewing have no intention of allowing Mattie to realize his ambitions. Mattie's efforts to cash his check set a deadly pursuit in motion and introduce the reader to a host of colorful characters and a vividly recreated regional and historical background. Good and evil meet head-on in this novel that is, by turns, warm and humorous, rousing and tumultuous."--BOOK JACKET.

"Born in 1796, James Gettys McGready Ramsey was a man of broad talents who left a permanent imprint on Tennessee. He was a physician, public servant, religious leader, banker, railroad advocate, and tireless scholar of early Tennessee history. A states-rights Democrat, he enthusiastically supported secession in 1861 and later served the Confederacy as a treasury agent and field surgeon. But East Tennessee was deeply divided over the war, and many in his native Knoxville vilified Ramsey for his secessionist stance. He fled Tennessee in 1863, living in virtual exile in Georgia and North Carolina before returning to Knoxville in 1872." "Written in the 1870s and originally published by the Tennessee Historical Commission in 1954, Ramsey's autobiography focuses mainly on the home front during the war years. Although Ramsey left Knoxville before Union troops arrived, his wife and daughters remained there for some time, reporting to him on life under the occupation. After the war, Ramsey remained largely unreconstructed politically. Still devoted to his state, he continued his work with the East Tennessee Historical Society from 1874 until his death in 1884." "The book includes selected letters from both before and after the Civil War. these shed light on several aspects of Tennessee history, including the coming of the railroad (a project in which Ramsey was instrumental), as well as on Ramsey's personal conviction that slavery was a beneficial institution that lay at the heart of the secession crisis."--BOOK JACKET.