"Mary Chestnut's Diary" is a vivid first hand narrative of the Civil War. Written between 1861 and 1865, Mary Chestnut (1823-1886) was married to James Chestnut, Jr., an important Confederate general. Her diaries offer some of our most detailed and personal accounts of one of America's most troubling and conflicted eras. The diary spans the entirety of the war, allowing readers to witness battles both small and large; political, military, and domestic life; and the dynamic...
"Mary Chestnut's Diary" is a vivid first hand narrative of the Civil War. Written between 1861 and 1865, Mary Chestnut (1823-1886) was married to James Chestnut, Jr., an important Confederate general. Her diaries offer some of our most detailed and personal accounts of one of America's most troubling and conflicted eras. The diary spans the entirety of the war, allowing readers to witness battles both small and large; political, military, and domestic life; and the dynamic...
"A Diary From Dixie" is a Civil War diary which paints a «vivid picture of a society in the throes of its life-and-death struggle.» The author described the war from within her upper-class circles of Southern planter society, but encompassed all classes in her book. Literary critics have praised Chesnut's diary. The influential writer Edmund Wilson termed it «a work of art», «masterpiece» of the genre and the most important work by a Confederate author.
