Love in the Ruins
ivil War historian , retired professor emeritus of American History at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, recently collaborated with Sue Bell on a project to edit letters dating from 1863 to 1865 between Bell’s great-great-grandparents: Anne “Nannie” Radford Wharton, 19, who had just wed Brig. Gen. Gabriel “Gabe” Wharton, a 37-year-old officer in the Confederate Army. Wharton would serve under Generals John Floyd, John Jones, Jubal Early, and John Echols, primarily in southwestern Virginia. The recently discovered letters, long stashed in descendants’ attics, are now published in (UNC Press, 2022). They allow an intimate look at the home front during the last two years of the war, as well as an astoundingly candid glimpse into the personal lives of
