TMCWRT President Reggie Gatewood was honored to interview historian-author Steven Woodworth about his recently released book A Scythe of Fire. This is Dr. Woodworth's first interview regarding his most recent work which he co-authored with the late Warren Wilkinson. The book is available in book stores now.

A Scythe of Fire is the story of the trials and tribulations of the Eighth Georgia Infantry regiment during the Civil War.

RG: What makes A Scythe of Fire different from other regimental writings?

SW: I feel strongly about this. What makes A Scythe of Fire different from most other

regimental writings is that it is not merely a genealogical reference. Most Civil

War regimental histories, it seems to me, are intended primarily for the

descendents of that regiment's soldiers. I wanted A Scythe of Fire to be a story that

every human being, especially every American, could identify with and find

compelling. I wanted it to be a story not so much about somebody's great-great-

grandfather (although if your ancestor was in the regiment, that's great), but

rather about human beings not so very different than ourselves. In keeping with

these goals, I did not include a roster of the regiment's members, because rosters

are, for the most part, interesting only to those who had ancestors in the regiment.

I've been criticized for this, but I don't regret it a bit. If I had it to do over again, I'd

SW: Well, in a way that's a question for the late Warren Wilkinson to answer, since he

chose that regiment before his death. It's not hard to guess why, though. The 8th

got into the heart of many of the largest and most famous battles of the war. Its

came from all regions of the state of Georgia, and its members left behind a fairly

RG: How were you involved in this work that was originally started by Mr.

SW: Back in the mid-'90s I got a phone call from Buz Wyeth, then an editor for

HarperCollins. He asked if I would be willing to finish out a book that Warren

Wilkinson had researched. As I understand it, my friend Rod Gragg, had

recommended me to him. The project sounded interesting, so I agreed to do it.

RG: In light of your collective works on the various levels of command during the

Civil War, did this regimental work affect your perspective on the conflict?

SW: I wouldn't say it affected my perspective. I knew about this angle already.

However, this was certainly a different sort of story to tell, a different type of

narrative to write. I enjoyed it very much, and I hope to do more of the sort of

RG: The reader is thrown into battle at the outset of the first chapter...why?

RG: Your description of Rome, Georgia in 1860 almost seems utopian. Is this the

South the men of what was soon to be the Eighth Georgia went off to fight for?

SW: About 75% of the description of Rome, in chapter 1, represents one of the two

actual passages of Warren Wilkinson's prose in the whole manuscript. The other

is the description of the Shenandoah Valley at the beginning of chapter 2. I

altered them somewhat, but those few pages are more or less as he wrote them

before his death. My view of this is as I stated in the closing paragraphs of the

book. The idyllic view of the South was not reality...it may have only been a dream...

RG: When they arrived on the plains of Manassas on the morning of July 21, 1861, was

RG: The Eighth had a knack for finding the “hot” fight, didn’t they?

SW: They sure did. There were a number of regiments like that on both sides, and the

8th was one of them. In their case, they enlisted early and wound up in Hood's

division, one of the real workhorse formations in the Army of Northern Virginia.

SW: I'd be reluctant to say it did. After all, they would have become men if peace had

continued. A lot more of them would have lived to become men! But there's no

denying that war changed them--for the better in some ways, for the worse in

others. For example, I'm haunted and perplexed by the fact that John C. Reed

wound up getting a divorce from his wife within a year after returning from the

war. He had married her just before going off to fight. What changed between

RG: Throughout the book you effectively use descriptive phrases to describe the

battle experience. For example, you liken the sound of a shell passing overhead

to “..a noise something like the whickering of a frightened horse”. Even with

such imaginative descriptions, did you find it difficult to relay the battle sights

and sounds as described by the diarists of the Eighth Georgia?

SW: Most of the time those descriptive phrases are right from the words of the eye-

witnesses themselves. But, yes, even then I know I'll never be able to convey

with complete vividness and reality just what combat was like. Not just in the

8th Georgia but across the armies of both North and South soldiers again and

again expressed their own inability to communicate adequately what they had

actually experienced themselves. Many despaired so much of describing it that

they didn't even try. All we can do is take the few descriptions they've left us and

RG: As these Georgians marched in to Pennsylvania in June 1863, was there an

SW: Absolutely! It never entered their minds that they could be defeated by the

RG: A member of the Eighth Georgia described the wheat field at Gettysburg as “the

hottest fight of our lives”. Was it hotter than they anticipated?

SW: I believe it probably was, though I don't recall any of them expressing it in

those terms. They had been in some pretty hot places before that.

RG: Following Gettysburg, was the regiment ever quite the same?

SW: Not really. The book's not the same after Gettysburg either--too many of our

RG: Why was desertion suddenly a problem following the fall campaign in East

SW: What really made desertion a problem was not so much the fall campaign in East

Tennessee but rather the operations that began the following spring, just a few

months later--Sherman's advance into Georgia. While the majority of the 8th's

soldiers...those who were still alive and healthy... stayed to the end, a significant

number of men found that once the Yankees had reached their home counties

RG: When the regiment returned to the Army of Northern Virginia in the spring of

SW: Yes, but I don't believe the men of the 8th realized it. They knew they would

be facing very hard fighting, but they didn't believe they would be driven back

RG: What impact did Sherman’s presence in Georgia have on the regiment while

SW: Sherman's presence, not the destruction, just his presence in Georgia was

RG: Describe the scene at Appomattox from the men of the Eighth Georgia

SW: Well, I don't know that I can do any better job of describing it than I did in the

book. The factors that stand out to me are their intense hunger and fatigue

and, what is most amazing, their apparent surprise at the surrender.

RG: What are we to learn from the extraordinary experiences of the Eighth

SW: That may be the biggest question of all. This isn't one of those books that you

can finish up with a tidy little "lessons learned" section. I recall that Robert E.

Lee once said, "A foe can give lessons in fighting, but life teaches learning." If

the story of the Eighth Georgia can teach us anything, it would, I think, be the

wisdom that comes from experience of lives lived in difficult times--not our

The TMCWRT is profoundly grateful to Dr. Woodworth not only for the time he set aside for the interview, but especially for his contributions to history and a subject so near and dear to our hearts!!