Alexandria goes to war

"On the eve of the Civil War, Alexandria, Virginia, was a bustling city with a rich cultural heritage and a booming economy. Alexandrians staunchly supported staying in the Union, and yet once Virginia voted to secede, the community sent its men off to fight for the Confederacy. This shift in political allegiance was not dissimilar to changes occurring across the Upper South. What made Alexandria significant was that a community of 12,600 residents provided leadership and excellence disproportionate to its numbers." "Alexandria Goes to War chronicles the lives of men and women whose service made the city unique in the exceptional quality and variety of talent it provided to the Confederate cause. Some of these sixteen individuals are familiar to Civil War readers as their contributions to the Southern war effort brought them special notoriety: General Lee, of course, and his son Custis; Samuel Cooper, the senior general in the Confederate army; and Commodore French Forrest. For others less well known - attorneys George Brent and Douglas Forrest, engineer Wilson Presstman, politician Daniel Funsten, student Randolph Fairfax, and immigrant Patrick O'Gorman - the Civil War provided an opportunity to exercise their full talents."--Jacket.