Course Description

Instructor Charlie Richards

This course will study the major campaigns and battles of the American Civil War in the large geographical area west of the Mississippi River. 

 Civil War military history tends to focus almost exclusively on campaigns and battles east of the Mississippi River. Yet the Confederacy also included a vast region west of the Mississippi.  The Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department encompassed approximately 600,000 square miles of territory, hundreds of miles of coastline on the Gulf of Mexico, and a long land border with the nation of Mexico. Of a total white population in the Confederacy of 6.51 million, approximately 2.1 million of them, nearly 33 percent, lived in the Trans-Mississippi. Although poor in infrastructure, the Trans-Mississippi was rich in natural resources, including cotton, sugar, grain, beef, salt, and gold.  

 There were over 130 named Civil War battles and skirmishes fought west of the Mississippi, from the earliest days of the war until the bitter end of fighting. Although usually involving smaller numbers of combatants than battles east of the Mississippi, battles in the Trans-Mississippi were important strategically and politically.  Understanding the importance of these battles, when, where and why they were fought, and their outcomes, provides insight not just into the course of the Civil War, but also into the social and political fabric of the contemporary southwestern states of our nation. 

Bio: B.A. in English from Davidson College in 1970, J.D. from Emory Law School in 1975. Retired from the Georgia Attorney General’s Office in 2013 after 34 years of service in various capacities, first in civil litigation, and later as a prosecutor and Director of the Georgia Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. Study of U.S. history, especially of the Civil War, has been a lifelong interest. Born in Decatur, and have lived in Atlanta all my life. Married to the former Peg McGinty, also a native Atlantan, for almost 53 years. Two children, and six grandchildren