John Preston (d.1748) married Elizabeth Patton, and immigrated in 1738 from Ireland to Augusta County, Virginia. Descendants lived in Virginia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio, California and elsewhere.

The contributors to this collection argue that traditional views - of ethnic and cultural isolation, of German clannishness and Scots-Irish individualism - contain a kernel of truth but are far too restrictive and simplistic.

“Extensive research, fascinating characters . . . The author has done an admirable job of literally placing a face on the ordinary Confederate soldier.” —The Journal of Southern History “The history of the Civil War is the stories of its soldiers,” writes Ronald S. Coddington in the preface to Faces of the Confederacy. This book tells the stories of seventy-seven Southern soldiers—young farm boys, wealthy plantation owners, intellectual elites, uneducated poor—who posed for photographic portraits, cartes de visite, to leave with family, friends, and sweethearts before going off to war. Coddington, a passionate collector of Civil War-era photography, conducted a monumental search for these previously unpublished portrait cards, then unearthed the personal stories of their subjects, putting a human face on a war rife with inhuman atrocities. The Civil War took the lives of twenty-two of every hundred men who served. Coddington follows the exhausted survivors as they return home to occupied cities and towns, ravaged farmlands, a destabilized economy, and a social order in the midst of upheaval. This book is a haunting and moving tribute to those brave men. Like its companion volume, Faces of the Civil War: An Album of Union Soldiers and Their Stories, this book offers readers a unique perspective on the war and contributes to a better understanding of the role of the common soldier. “With his meticulous research and a journalist’s eye for good stories, Ron Coddington has brought new life to Civil War photographic portraits of obscure and long-forgotten Confederates whose wartime experiences might otherwise have been lost to history.” —Bob Zeller, cofounder and president of the nonprofit Center for Civil War Photography

Defending the Old Dominion describes historical events in Virginia during the War of 1812, examining how Virginia's militia was organized, supplied, and financed by the Commonwealth. The book discusses the militia's unpreparedness in training, its lack of adequate ordnance and arms, and how that affected its ability to defend the state against British incursions during the war. Political activities of the Virginia legislature and the U.S. Congress are examined with special reference to how the state financed the war and its relationship with the U.S. government. The book includes the fascinating story of nearly two thousand former slaves who fled to British ships to fight in Virginia with British forces.

Black's letters are addressed to his wife, Mary (Mollie) Kent Black. Also includes three of Mary's letters to her husband.