Description

The famous diarist Mary Chesnut recorded the events and her reflections on the Civil War and its leading personalities from within the aristocratic circles of Southern society. Reproduced here, Chesnut's famous diary is accompanied by a collection of painstakingly annotated personal photographs never before published, and some that have never before been seen. This exquisitely produced two-volume work includes Mary Chesnut's diary, which was originally published 40 years after the Civil War, and her personal photo albums. Thought to be lost or stolen since the 1930s, the albums were only just rediscovered in 2007. An astonishing historical treasure, the photographs are annotated with information about each person depicted and edited by Chesnut's family. Photographs range from many of Jefferson Davis and other famous military leaders and statesmen to those within Chesnut's social circle: Gen. Wade Hampton III and his family including the Preston girls- and their suitors Gen. John Bell Hood and battlefield surgeon, Maj. John T. Darby; literary figures, such as writer Alexander Dumas; and many more individuals, including young soldiers of the elite Charleston Light Dragoons, Elizabeth Allston Pringle - the 'woman rice planter' of South Carolina, and Baltimore spy Hetty Cary.