The Battle of Ezra Church was one of the deadliest engagements in the Atlanta Campaign of the Civil War and continues to be one of the least understood. Both official and unofficial reports failed to illuminate the true bloodshed of the conflict: one of every three engaged Confederates was killed or wounded, including four generals. Nor do those reports acknowledge the flaws—let alone the ultimate failure—of Confederate commander John Bell Hood’s plan to thwart Union general William Tecumseh Sherman’s southward advance. In an account that refutes and improves upon all other interpretations of the Battle of Ezra Church, noted battle historian Gary Ecelbarger consults extensive records, reports, and personal accounts to deliver a nuanced hour-by-hour overview of how the battle actually unfolded. His narrative fills in significant facts and facets of the battle that have long gone unexamined, correcting numerous conclusions that historians have reached about key officers’ intentions and actions before, during, and after this critical contest. Eleven troop movement maps by leading Civil War cartographer Hal Jespersen complement Ecelbarger’s analysis, detailing terrain and battle maneuvers to give the reader an on-the-ground perspective of the conflict. With new revelations based on solid primary-source documentation, Slaughter at the Chapel is the most comprehensive treatment of the Battle of Ezra Church yet written, as powerful in its implications as it is compelling in its moment-to-moment details.

How many things does your church do just because that's the way it's always been done? Does your congregation value tradition over passion and stability over creativity? If so, it's time to unLearn. Leading congregations into a dynamic and prophetic future requires unLearning what you thought you knew about the church, leadership, and life. Pastor Michael Slaughter casts a vision for innovative and authentic congregations, and for the kind of leadership that can bring congregations to greater vitality and impact in today's postmodern culture. Readers will be challenged to gaze boldly beyond franchised church models to a dynamic embodiment of God's unique vision for each leader and each congregation. UnLearning congregations embrace new media and cultural trends, value transformation over information, and create a safe space for the tough and unanswerable questions of life. These are churches that lovingly dare to shoulder spiritual and prophetic leadership in our rapidly changing culture, re-articulating God's ancient purposes to create high-tech, high-touch environments in which people can become radical followers of Jesus Christ. Informed by Slaughter's thirty years of leadership at the innovative and mission-driven Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church, UnLearning Church offers readers guidance and insight into setting aside old identities, old expectations, and old ways of “doing church,” and inspires readers with examples of congregations already living out their mission to be creative and outwardly-focused communities of faith.

St. ThomasΓ Parish in Virginia was formed from St. MarkΓ s Parish in 1740. The new parish encompassed present-day Orange, Greene, and a strip of southern Madison counties. Based on an extensive examination of primary sources, the work at hand is the first accurate description of the formation of St. ThomasΓ Parish, its member churches, its ministers, and others who played a significant part in its colonial history. In the absence of surviving vestry books for St. ThomasΓ Parish, or even an accurate map of the parish, the author was able to extract valuable information pertaining to St. ThomasΓ Parish from the surviving vestry books of the neighboring parishes of St. MarkΓ s and St. GeorgeΓ s. However, as Mrs. Papageorgiou explains in her Preface, Spotsylvania and Orange County road orders comprise the backbone of her study. The road orders for the construction and maintenance of roads, as recorded in county court order books, provide evidence to the existence of churches and chapels throughout the parish. The road ordersΓ value to the genealogist is that they identify the overseers and work crews assigned to maintain the road and any bridges along it. So, for example, the road orders tell us that, between November 1, 1726, and April 2, 1734, John Rucker, Thomas Jackson, Joseph Hawkins, Abraham Bledsoe, Henry Downes, John Davis, and George Eastham all served as overseers of roads near Southwest Mountain Chapel in St. ThomasΓ Parish. This work is an excellent example of historical reconstruction. The Introduction explains how, when, and why St. ThomasΓ was established from its parent and grandparent parishes, St. MarkΓ s and St. GeorgeΓ s. Next, the author uses the road orders and other sources to pinpoint the timing and location of each of the following places of worship: Germana Church, Southwest Mountain Chapel, Southwest Mountain Church, Upper Chapel, St. ThomasΓ Parish, Upper Church, Middle (Brick) Church, Pine Stake Church, and New (Orange) Church. (Mrs. Papageorgiou has also appended a number of important court orders at the back of the volume.) The third chapter gives the tenure of every parish minister and his family members. The final chapter recounts how previous writers--notably Bishop William Meade and Philip Slaughter--have recorded the history of St. ThomasΓ Parish and where, more often than not, they went astray. Students of Virginia church history will welcome the comprehensive bibliography that follows the appendices.

Fought on July 28, 1864, the Battle of Ezra Church was a dramatic engagement during the Civil War's Atlanta campaign. Confederate forces under John Bell Hood desperately fought to stop William T. Sherman's advancing armies as they tried to cut the last Confederate supply line into the city. Confederates under General Stephen D. Lee nearly overwhelmed the Union right flank, but Federals under General Oliver O. Howard decisively repelled every attack. After five hours of struggle, 5,000 Confederates lay dead and wounded, while only 632 Federals were lost. The result was another major step in Sherman's long effort to take Atlanta. Hess's compelling study is the first book-length account of the fighting at Ezra Church. Detailing Lee's tactical missteps and Howard's vigilant leadership, he challenges many common misconceptions about the battle. Richly narrated and drawn from an array of unpublished manuscripts and firsthand accounts, Hess's work sheds new light on the complexities and significance of this important engagement, both on and off the battlefield.

Here are short tours--most take a half-hour to one or two hours--of 165 villages of unusual interest, beauty, and charm.