Atlanta Civil War Round Table 2018
Richard Barksdale Harwell Book Award

The Atlanta Civil War Round Table has awarded its 30th annual Richard Barksdale Harwell Award to Brian Steel Wills for his book Inglorious Passages: Noncombat Deaths in the American Civil War, published by the University Press of Kansas. The Atlanta Round Table has presented the Harwell Award annually since 1989. The 2018 Harwell Award honors the best book on a civil war topic for books published in 2017.

Dr. Wills previously won the Harwell Award in 2013 for George Henry Thomas: As True As Steel, also published by the University Press of Kansas in 2012.    Wills has authored numberous articles and book reviews and several other books, including A Battle From the Start, which is perhaps the best biography of Nathan Bedford Forrest.

Of the hundreds of thousands of soldiers who died in the Civil War, two-thirds, by some estimates, were felled by disease; untold others were lost to accidents, murder, suicide, sunstroke, and drowning.  Meanwhile, thousands of civilians in both the north and south perished--in factories, while caught up in battles near their homes, and in other circumstances associated with wartime production and supply.  These "inglorious passages," no less than the deaths of soldiers in combat, devastated the armies in the field and families and communities at home.  Inglorious Passages for the first time gives these noncombat deaths due consideration. 

Dr. Wills latest effort is the first study of its kind, telling the story of the soldiers who died of disease, accidents, murder, suicide and other causes,  and of the thousands of civilians who likewise were casualties of the war.

Brian Wills earned a B.A. from the University of Richmond and an M.A. and Ph. D. from the University of Georgia.

Dr. Wills is now employed by Kennesaw State University where he is director of the Center for the Study of the Civil War.

The Harwell Award honors the late Richard Barksdale Harwell, a nationally recognized historian, librarian, bibliographer and first president of the Atlanta Round Table.  The award consists of a monetary prize plus an engraved plaque recognizing the event.  Recent winners include, Earl Hess, David Powell, Timothy Smith, Allen Guelzo and Jeffry Wert. 

Brian Wills will speak at the November 2018 meeting of the Atlanta Round Table, at which time, he will be presented with the award.

Susannah Ural was a finalist for the 2018 award for her Hood's Texas Brigade. 

Point of Contact for additional information on the Richard Barksdale Harwell Book Award is Gary Barnes, tapdance3@aol.com