It becomes immediately apparent when one talks to Carolyn Cary about history that she has a true passion for the subject. The recent publication of her book, "William Thomas Overby: Proud Partisan Ranger", a project Cary has been busy with for six years, bears this out. The book recounts a little known episode in the War between the States which took place in the small town of Front Royal, Virginia. On September 23, 1864, five men who were part of a guerilla outfit know as Mosby's Rangers were killed on what was to become known as "Black Friday."

Carolyn Cary is well known to many in the Fayette community and has been featured in "Fayette Woman" magazine which is published by the Citizen. Cary, who also writes for the Citizen moved with her husband to Georgia in 1959 from Ohio. She credits her love of history to her father, recalling when she was seven how he demonstrated with an orange that the world was round.

" He was interested in telling about his ancestors, so I got that from him." she said.

Cary has lived in the South for 45 years seeing the county grow from 8,000 to 100,000 people. "When it was only 8,000 people, you got to know everyone, all the families, black and white. You attended functions and participated in various committees. You got to know everyone, who was related to who and what their mother's maiden name was and that's all stuff I ate right up."

Overby's body was disinterred and moved to Oak Hill Cemetery in Newnan from Markham, Virginia in January of 1997 where he now rests with his kinsman. The long process of returning Overby to his native soil was accomplished by the efforts of the Sharpsburg Sharpshooters Sons of the Confederate Veterans. Cary helped the group record the event for posterity and in the process was asked to write a book about Overby's life.

Six years of research, traveling the state of Virginia and two months of "living at the National Archives in Washington D.C." resulted in an historical account that Cary says, "plows all new ground." The book contains additional material related to Overby including first hand accounts written by Front Royal families and Union soldiers who witnessed what is termed in the book "the assassination." Commemorative events honoring "Billy" Overby are also given space along with a generous group of pictures that highlight both the re-interment and archival material from the Civil War.

"Mosby's Rangers were an independent Confederate group who reported to General Lee and Jeb Stewart. They were part of the first guerilla warfare here in the U.S. They would blow up munition dumps and tear up railroads. What made Mosby so successful, though he was trained as a lawyer and had no military training at all was his natural penchant for tactics."

"He was good at it. Mosby did not have a camp or headquarters anywhere. The men stayed all over North Virginia in homes. You couldn't track Mosby's Rangers all down. They were scattered and stayed that way. When Mosby had something he wanted to do he would send word out. He kind of knew who was where. He would instruct them to be at a certain place at a certain time and the Rangers would perform whatever that duty was and then they would scatter again." Cary explained going on to say that one of the reasons Overby was hung was Mosby's ability to keep the Union soldiers busy hunting him down. When they captured five of his men, the Union soldiers thought, 'We're going to get even.'

Cary spent so many hours at the National Archives, she ended up on a first name basis with the staff. "We're so spoiled these days. We think we can get everything we need off the Internet and you can't. If you've never been to the Archives you have no conception of the millions of pieces of paper they have." Original documents like hospital records and letters which date