Virginia Whigs, Virginia Rebels, Virginia Patriots: The James D. Davidson Family and the War Between the States

Abstract

History, in the final analysis, is not only stories of governments and churches and wars and movements and institutions. It is rather the story of men, and men's action, and men's ideas fitting together into a collage of interaction and interdependence. To come to a better understanding of the past and the forces which formed it, it becomes necessary to study the actions and ideas of men who shape these forces and who were to varying degrees shaped and influenced by them. One such man was James D. Davidson of Lexington, Virginia. His role, and that of his family, in the tumultous events preceding and during the War Between the States (and particularly Virginia's participation in that War) will be the subject of this paper. [From introductory section]