Throughout his life, Atlanta resident George W. Wray Jr. (1936-2004) built a collection of more than 600 of the rarest Confederate artifacts including not just firearms and edged weapons but also flags, uniforms and accoutrements.
Today, Wray’s collection forms an integral part of the Atlanta History Center’s holdings of some 11,000 Civil War artifacts. Confederate Odyssey tells the story of the Civil War through the collection. Analyzing the collection as material evidence, Gordon L. Jones, senior military historian and curator at the Atlanta History Center, demonstrates how a slave-based economy on the cusp of industrialization attempted to fight an industrial war.
The book tells of the stories, significance and context of these artifacts to general readers and Civil War buffs alike. The Wray Collection is more than a gathering of relics; it is a tale of historical truths revealed in small details.
