Ernest Dollar on “Hearts Torn Asunder: Trauma in theCivil War”For More Info: WWW.ChicagoCWRT.ORG

In the popular memory of the Civil War, its end came withhandshakes between Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S.Grant in Virginia. But the war was not over. There was alarger, and arguably, more important surrender yet totake place in North Carolina. Yet this story occupies littlespace in the vast annals of Civil War literature.Reexamining the war's final days through the lens ofmodern science reveals why.This final campaign of the Civil War began on April 10,1865, a day after the surrender at Appomattox CourtHouse. Over 120,000 Union and Confederate soldiers cutacross North Carolina's heartland bringing war with them.It was the final march of Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman'seffort to destroy Southern ability and moral stamina to make war. His unstoppable Union army faced the demoralized, but still dangerous, Confederate Army of Tennessee under Maj. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. Adding to the chaos of the campaign were thousands ofdistraught and desperate paroled Rebels streaming south from Virginia. The collision of these groups formed a perfect storm for grief-stricken civilians caught in the middle, struggling to survive amidst their collapsing worlds.

Ernest Dollar will explore the psychological experience of these soldiers and civilians caught this chaotic time that's captured in his new book, Hearts Torn Asunder: Trauma in the Civil War's Final Campaign in North Carolina. Using an extensive collection of letters, diaries, and accounts, Dollar demonstrates the depths to which war hurt people by the spring of 1865. Hearts Torn Asunder recounts their experience through a modernunderstanding of trauma injuries.Durham, North Carolina native Ernest A. Dollar Jr. graduated from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro with B.A. in History and B.F.A. in Design in 1993 and M.A. in Public History from North Carolina State in 2006. He served in the U.S. Army Reserve/North Carolina National Guard from 1993-1999. Ernest has worked in several historic parks in both North and South Carolina, including as executive director of the Orange County Historical Museum, Preservation Chapel Hill. He currently serves as thedirector of the City of Raleigh Museum and Dr. M. T. Pope House Museum.