Mark A. Weitz is the former director of the Civil War Era Studies Program at Gettysburg College. He is the author of More Damning than Slaughter: Desertion in the Confederate Army (Nebraska 2005).

"Mark A. Weitz has produced an impressive work on an important and much neglected aspect of the Civil War. Well written and researched, it is one of the very few works that go straight to the heart of why the Confederacy lost the war."-David Williams, author of Rich Man's War: Class, Caste, and Confederate Defeat in the Lower Chattahoochee Valley -- David Williams "Weitz makes a significant contribution to Civil War studies. This is a book that will be cited frequently and discussed often. It's a real winner."-Kenneth W. Noe, author of Southwest Virginia's Railroad: Modernization and the Sectional Crisis -- Kenneth W. Noe "An authoritative, impressive work. Well researched and convincingly argues, Higher Duty addresses a much-neglected aspect of Civil War history."-The Journal of Military History The Journal of Military History "The topic of Confederate desertion remains one of the least well understood in the field of Civil War scholarship. Mark A. Weitz's study of desertion among Georgia's Confederate soldiers is a perceptive treatment of an important state that helps flesh out our understanding of why and when men left the ranks. With luck, this book will inspire further work on other Confederate states."-Gary W. Gallagher, author of The Confederate War -- Gary W. Gallagher "Using Georgia as a case study, Weitz offers a revisionist approach to standard interpretations of Confederate desertion patterns... All levels."-Choice CHOICE