The First Confederate Soldier

George Washington Lee's story, Guarding the Gate City, has been called the great untold epic of the Civil War. His campaigns stretched from Atlanta to Pensacola to Savannah and Richmond, from the swampy Okefenokee to the Appalachian mountains. Literally the first soldier of the Confederate army, he was one of the last men in gray, in one campaign even leading Cherokee warriors. As the Provost Marshal of Atlanta, Lee fought arsonists, bootlegging, counterfeiting, a crime syndicate, deserters, draft evaders, epidemics, espionage, a failing Confederate administration, public panic, thieves, and war resistance. He raised numerous companies for the Southern army.

This book presents one of the most controversial Civil War stories in history. Lee served the new Southern nation faithfully despite near-fatal bouts of tuberculosis, attempts to assassinate him, and General Sherman's orders that he be treated as a war criminal. Today, Lee is only remembered for how he suppressed resistance to the Confederacy, though neither he nor his family owned anyone. This story of Confederate Atlanta centers on an important yet forgotten figure who oversaw it all in a dangerous world of allies and enemies, of devotion, loyalty, and treason.