Book Description

Newly annotated by a noted historian, “transforming an important book into a vital foundational document on the inner life of the doomed Confederacy” (William C. Davis, author of Lincoln’s Men: How President Lincoln Became Father to an Army and a Nation). Judith Brockenbrough McGuire’s Diary of a Southern Refugee During the War is among the first of such works published after the Civil War. Although it is one of the most-quoted memoirs by a Confederate woman, James I. Robertson’s edition is the first to present vital details not given in the original text. His meticulous annotations furnish references for poems and quotations, supply the names of individuals whom McGuire identifies by their initials alone, and provide an in-depth account of McGuire’s extraordinary life. Throughout the war years, McGuire made poignant entries in her diary. She wrote incisive commentaries on society, ruminated on past glories, and detailed her hardships. Her entries are a highly personal, highly revealing mixture of family activities; military reports and rumors; conditions behind the battle lines; and her observations on life, faith, and the future. In providing illuminating background and references that significantly enhance the text, Robertson’s edition adds considerably to our understanding of this important work. “At the hands of a master chronicler of the war, we now can read McGuire with fresh eyes and relive with her the hopes, tribulations, despondency, and endurance of a singular southern woman.” —Nelson D. Lankford, editor of the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography and author of Cry Havoc! The Crooked War to Civil War, 1861