The American Civil War is nothing unfamiliar – the battles, the generals, the glorious victories and staggering defeats of the War Between the States. This summer, the T.R.R. Cobb House is bringing forth some of the lesser-known aspects of the Civil War in its first annual Summer Author’s Series beginning this Saturday.

The theme of this year’s series is “Southern Women’s History.” Program coordinator Shanon Hays wants to highlight the “customs of Victorian culture, how women played a role in everyday life and remembrance of the Civil War,” giving the role of the Southern Civil War woman the “attention it deserves.”

“A lot of people get wrapped up in the battles,” she said. “[They forget] the folks on the home front, keeping the farm running and keeping the children’s mouths fed as best as they can.”

The first work to be discussed, Mary Deborah Petite’s “The Women Will Howl: The Union Army Capture of Roswell and New Manchester, Georgia, and the Forced Relocation of Mill Workers,” describes General Sherman’s 1864 arrest of over 400 women and children in Roswell and New Manchester. Women were named traitors for supporting the Confederacy and they were forced from their homes to move North, where they were abandoned to fend for themselves.

Next month’s speaker, Mercer University professor Sarah Gardner will discuss her book, “Blood and Irony: Southern White Women’s Narratives of the Civil War, 1861-1937.” It compares the writing of Southern women as a response to the war’s effects on their personal lives. From fiction to private writings to historical entries, this craft united a community of women striving to tell their versions of the truth about the Civil War. Gardner brings together the work of noted authors such as Margaret Mitchell and Ellen Glasgow as well as lesser-known writers like Mary Ann Cruse to illustrate their great impact of the Southern identity, both during and after the war.

Later in the summer, the T.R.R. Cobb House will host the author of “In Dixie’s Daughters: The United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Preservation of Confederate Culture.” Author Karen Cox is the first to document the entire history of the Daughters of the Confederacy, an organization created after the Civil War with objectives that are “Historical, Educational, Benevolent, Memorial and Patriotic.”

Cox emphasizes the role of Southern women in the preservation of the Lost Cause ideology, women making important changes in American history and attempting to rise out of defeat, while arguing that the fuel for their work was white supremacy and the “benevolence of slavery,” not equality or freedom or the overall good of the nation.

For the occasion, The T.R.R. Cobb House is being restored to its 1860s state, reflecting the era these authors will be discussing. Its primary aim is education and will provide a museum and eventually a research library to be open to the public.

The house was built in the 1830s and was originally located on Prince Avenue. After an unsuccessful 20-year run in Stone Mountain, the house was moved back to Athens in 2003 and now resides two blocks from its original home.

The Summer Author’s Series will be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day. Books will be available for purchase and the authors will be available for signings following their lectures.