Durham, North Carolina native Ernest A. Dollar Jr. graduated from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro with B.A. in History and B.F.A. in Design in 1993 and M.A. in Public History from North Carolina State in 2006. He served in the U.S. Army Reserve/North Carolina National Guard from 1993-1999. Ernest has worked in several historic parks in both North and South Carolina, including as executive director of the Orange County Historical Museum, Preservation Chapel Hill. He currently serves as the director of the City of Raleigh Museum and Dr. M. T. Pope House Museum. He lives in Durham with his wife, Suzie, and their sons Elijah and Kilby.
Ernest A. Dollar Jr. does a moving job of capturing the horror of that Hobbesian time, when the conflict degenerated into a war of all against all. -- New York Times Book Review Historian Ernest A. Dollar Jr. has crafted a masterful account of the final weeks of the Civil War in North Carolina. But he has done much more than that. With graphic immediacy he reveals the devastating impact of warfare, and how its horrors haunted its victims--soldiers and civilians alike--for the rest of their lives. This work is an important addition to Civil War historiography. --Mark L. Bradley, author of This Astounding Close: The Road to Bennett Place Hearts Torn Asunder offers a completely original view of the closing weeks of the Civil War in the Carolinas. This study goes beyond the military aspects to examine the psychological and emotional impacts on the participants, both military and civilian. More than any previous study, Dollar's use of rare and never-before-used firsthand accounts offers a deep sense of immediacy and empathy with those most impacted by this last great campaign of Sherman's and Johnston's armies. His very readable style examines how that emotional trauma influenced postwar memories of the final weeks of the war. Anyone interested in the Carolinas Campaign or in the human cost of the war will be pleased with this work. --Charles R. Knight, author of From Arlington to Appomattox: Robert E. Lee's Civil War, Day by Day, 1861-1865 Dollar's Hearts Torn Asunder is a splendid piece of work, supported by exhaustive research from a vast array of primary material. By providing a comprehensive, accurate perspective, from both Blue and Gray, he has illuminated the dark side of war and the consequences that those veterans endured for a lifetime. It is an absolute must-read for every student of the Civil War, especially those with an interest in the 1865 Carolinas Campaign. --Wade Sokolosky, co-author of No Such Army Since the Days of Julius Caesar: Sherman's Carolinas Campaign from Fayetteville to Averasboro, March 1865