"A Scythe of Fire - A Civil War Story of the Eighth Georgia Infantry Regiment." By Warren Wilkinson and Steven E. Woodworth. William Morrow, an Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, New York, NY, copyright 2002. 340 pages, hardcover. $27.95 retail.

As Webmaster of the 8^th Georgia Infantry Webpage, I have anxiously awaited the publication of "A Scythe of Fire" for many years. Approximately eleven years ago, Warren Wilkinson answered an ad I had placed in the Civil War News, regarding my ancestor, William J. Andrews, who was a private in Company E of the Eighth Georgia Infantry. Warren and I spent many hours on the phone discussing the progress he was making on his new book on the Eighth Georgia, which he was originally planning to title "In the Midst of Desolation." Once during our discussions, Warren vividly described a grueling walk he made one summer at Gettysburg on the second of July, through the Rose Woods near the Wheatfield, retracing the route taken by the Eighth on that historic day in 1863. This Rose Woods "nightmare" of the Eighth Georgia was to become the opening scene of "A Scythe of Fire."

Warren's untimely death in 1995 caused a huge delay in the completion of this book, and I was very glad when accomplished Civil War author Steven Woodworth agreed to complete the history and publish it. He writes of the brave men of the Eighth: "They were ordinary people, faced with extraordinary choices and challenges. This is their story."

"A Scythe of Fire" is an excellent book, and the story flows very nicely in a smooth narrative style. Its pages are interwoven with personal diary, journal and letter excerpts from the Eighth Georgia soldiers themselves. Anecdotes and humor abounds, as well as skin-itching accounts of lice and other camp maladies such as measles and small pox. Religion, lack of food, lack of rifles, bad water, and military life are described from a soldier's viewpoint. The reader is also thrust to the "front" with vivid descriptions of most of the Army of Northern Virginia's battles.

The book chronicles the campaigns of the 8^th Georgia from 1861 through 1865 and lists its astounding casualty rates. The Eighth sustained 208 casualties at First Manassas (highest casualties of any regiment in the battle), and my ancestor was one of 172 casualties at Gettysburg. Only about a hundred men remained ready for duty in the regiment at the end of the war. An account given by Lt. Charles Harper still brings tears to my eyes each time I read it. Harper describes the morning of April 9th, 1865, the day of the surrender at Appomattox, when General Lee passed by, and the Eighth Georgia Regiment gave him three cheers with a "real Rebel yell." Harper's dinner on that memorable day was corn picked up out of the dirt and sand where some horses or mules had been fed.

I wish maps had been included in the book, as I was constantly referring to other collections of maps while reading "A Scythe of Fire." Included in the book are black and white photographs of eight soldiers: seven war-time photos, and one post-war photo. As webmaster of this unit's history, I have found or received war-time photos of 15 soldiers and officers, and post-war photos of another 21, and wish more of these had been included. Unlike Warren Wilkinson's first book "Mother May You Never See the Sights I Have Seen" (665 pages), this volume does not contain a regimental roster. I would have appreciated the inclusion of an Eighth Georgia roster, which would have been a helpful resource, given my personal involvement in this regiment's history and its members and related genealogy and descendants.

The book is well-referenced and indexed, and all sources appear to be listed accurately. Appendices of company names, officers, regimental chains of command, and major campaigns are included. Black and white photographs of two Eighth Georgia regimental flags appear in the book: the Eighth's newly discovered "First National" or "Stars and Bars" flag (from W. O. Clark), and the Eighth's "Second Bunting" Confederate battle flag. The latter was never surrendered and was carried home by Lt. Col. E. J. Magruder after the Appomattox surrender in his boot. An attractive Don Troiani art print called "Emmitsburg Road" highlights the dust jacket of the book.

I highly recommend "A Scythe of Fire - A Civil War Story of the Eighth Georgia Infantry Regiment." The history of the Eighth Georgia is a unique and exciting account of one of the most well-known Confederate regiments of the War. I am honored to have my name mentioned in the preface, along with this Eighth Georgia Infantry website and its URL.

Enemy gunners had the range and soon were dropping shells into their ranks. Men disintegrated under direct hits. Shrapnel from other bursts would knock down three or four men at a time, but the gray line closed up its gaps and marched on. Stout rail fences lined a dusty road across their path, and as the men broke ranks to climb them the distant artillery pounded them mercilessly. Smoke, dust, fence rails, haversacks, rifles, caps, and bodies sailed through the air, but even some of those tossed about like rag dolls by the exploding shells scrambled to their feet again and formed up with the others on the far side of the fences to continue their advance.

A few score yards farther and the order came, "Double-quick!" Shoulders hunched forward against the storm of shot and shell, the men in the long gray line trotted toward the far wood line. Somewhere in those woods was the enemy, and as the men ran, shoulder to shoulder, toward the unseen foe, something welled up inside them and broke out in a high-pitched chorus of Rebel Yells-discordant, fierce, and rising above the roar of battle to make the short hairs stand up on the backs of their enemies' necks.

This was Gettysburg, July 2, 1863, and in the center of that long gray line was the Eighth Georgia Regiment, moving forward along with its brigade to join in the battle's decisive struggle-along Bloody Run, across the Wheat Field, and to the slopes of Little Round Top.