Michael, You’re a Star!

By Stephen Davis · Originally published December 2023 · p. 17

Michael, You’re a Star! An appreciation by Stephen Davis

In this issue, we announce that Michael K. Shaffer, the Kennesaw, Georgia, Civil Warrior who’s been writing the excellent “The Source” column for Civil War News for eight years, is saying farewell to our publication. We’ll miss him. In his writing and knowledge, Michael is nothing if not eclectic. Who else could have produced such an encyclopedic volume as Day by Day through the Civil War in Georgia (Mercer University Press, 2022). Through the words of the folks back home— in letters, newspapers, diaries and memoirs—Shaffer traces Georgians’ wartime experiences from secession to surrender. Michael’s assemblage of primary writings on the Atlanta Campaign alone makes this the volume that any student of Georgia during the war must have. I grew up respecting T. Conn Bryan’s Confederate Georgia (1953) as the go-to source on our state in the war. When Michael’s Day by Day came out, I assessed its value by simply writing, “Move over, Professor Bryan!” I’ll give an example. At a symposium years back, Michael gave a talk on Johnston’s River Line—the defenses his engineers built to guard Chattahoochee crossings. He mentioned that General Shoup, Johnston’s engineer, had issued printed orders on how the troops were to employ the unique fortifications that he had designed. When I remarked on his find, that very day Michael sent me Shoup’s text, in the printed original. He was that kind of guy. A graduate of American Military University (B.A. and M.A. with Honors), Michael wrote a weekly column in the Atlanta JournalConstitution throughout 2014 on the Georgia Campaign. He also taught Civil War at Kennesaw State University. Most notably, he has edited In Memory of Self and Comrades: Thomas Wallace Colley’s Reflections of Civil War Service in the 1st Virginia Cavalry (University of Tennessee Press, 2018). Such an avid Civil Warrior won’t slink quietly into silence. (Sorry, Karen!) We wish him well, and look forward to reading more from his eloquent and learned pen.