As they made up just 0.2% of the CSA, their story had not been heavily researched before Rosen, a Jewish lawyer in Charleston, South Carolina, with a master's degree in history from Harvard University, authored the book.

[2] Similarly, in a review for the South Carolina Historical Magazine, Gordon C. Rhea called the book "a thoughtful and readable narrative packed with information and insights" as well as "a fine piece of scholarship and a fascinating read.

"[5] Reviewing it for Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies, Sheldon S. Cohen praised it as "an engaging and expansive portrayal of a small, yet singular, group of Americans and their involvement in one of this nation's most determinative and monumental conflicts.

"[1] Similarly, in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Frederic Krome of The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives, called the book "well-written and organized" but "not very analytical.

According to Rosen's analysis, his evidence proves that few Jews owned slaves and that a sense of duty to the place one lived and defending one's home and to counter anti-Semitic stereotypes played large roles in their support for the Confederacy.

[11] "Many Jewish historians, reflecting their own beliefs and preconceived notions and reading history from the present to the past, cannot bring themselves to believe that Jews voluntarily fought for the Confederacy," observed Rosen.

"[13] Historian Bertram Korn noted a similar reaction with his historically-accurate observation that in the matter of Jewish chaplains for the military the Confederate Congress was more "liberal and tolerant" than that of the North.