On the other hand, she spoke of slaves like children that needed to be cared for. She married James Chestnut in 1840 and they moved to Camden,… Amazon Price New from Used from Hardcover "Please retry" CDN$ 27.77 . Her first experience of wearing old clothes, food shortages, no money, & wondering all the while what was going to happen to her and her husband. Mary Chesnut purveys gossip among the elite and offers sharply worded opinions about the South, its leaders, negroes, and slavery. This is a book you might choose to take to a desert island as it is nearly unconquerable as well as fascinating. Varina Davis was one of her closest friends and she visited the Davis home frequently. An outspoken woman of about 40 with a goodly share of self esteem Mrs Chesnut does not spare her husband -- who she despises -- and acquaintances from her worldly opinions. Chesnut personally knew a number of the primary figures of the American Civil War, including the wife of Jefferson Davis.

--Walter Clemons, Newsweek "Here is a book to curl up with over a whole lifetime--to read and reread, to ponder and savor." Now I would like to read a biography of Mrs. Chesnut or of her husband. The most vivid passages in the diary are about the end of the war when the fashionable Mrs. Chesnut feels the pinch of poverty and despair as the Yankee armies conquer South Carolina and burn down her plantation home.
It may be a little difficult to read for some. She wrote this diary with the intention of including rumors, facts,and anything she might be thinking at the time.
There is much information in here that you can only get from someo The diary (actually much of it was written or elaborated nearly twenty years later) begins on February 16, 1861 at the time of the secession of the Southern states from the Union and ends abruptly on July 26, 1865 after the surrender of the Southern armies. Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 14 years ago She talks of all the gossip about all the differert generals and the politics of the day. She had no children so she had plenty of time to be self indulgent and a bit vain. Mr. Woodward's extensive footnotes help the modern day reader to grasp literary references and differences in language made by Mrs. Chesnut, and also aid in the identification of all the personalities she includes in her observations.Although not unbiased, Mrs. Chesnut makes an attempt to be more objective than subjective and sees her writings as a possible important part of history in the future. There are no great military strategies and battle description in her book. On page 71, we see for example that Robert E. Lee is being called a traitor by some people after his early military failures. (The frank tension between Mary and her husband is an interesting sidelight to the main story of the diary.) Please try again later. Her father, Stephen Decatur Miller, was a senator who supported states’ rights and the legalization of slavery. John Bell Hood was a frequent visitor and is talked of in her diary quite frequently. There is sufficient material to spend weeks reading and puzzling out the meaning of elliptical statements or distant relationships or obscure references. Smallchief

She lived through the destruction of a society and a war in which blood flowed in rivers. Her reports on the initial euphoria of southern independence from the north and later the reality of hardship and war, are touching, even for one not in deep sympathy with her ideals. She relied totally on her servants for everything. He was a general and an aid to Jefferson Davis. Mary loved to gossip and name drop and had very strong opinions on any given subject. One gets a great sense of a real person--someone who shows hope one day, despair the next.History and Civil War enthusiasts will enjoy this poignant and truthful look on Southern morals, everyday life and behind-the-scenes political observations. Along with the threats that are present at all times. He remained politically connected in the Confederacy. Her journal gave readers an inside view of what life was really like for Confederate citizens, … “Mary Chesnut’s Civil War” is a collection of journal entries Chesnut wrote during and after the war. The 1982 Pulitzer prize winner in history, Mary Chesnut's Civil War is a heavily footnoted look at the social and political climate in South Carolina from 1861-1865. Mrs. Chesnut, the friend of Southern leaders such as Jefferson Davis, spent most of the war years in Richmond and her plantation home in South Carolina. About Mary Chesnut’s Diary.


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