Mary Chesnut's diary

Introduction / by Catherine Clinton

Suggestions for further reading

A note on the text

Mary Chesnut's diary. Charleston, S.C., November 8, 1860-December 27, 1860. The news of Lincoln's election

Raising the Palmetto flag

The author's husband resigns as United States senator

The Ordinance of Secession

Anderson takes possession of Fort Sumter

Montgomery, Ala., February 19, 1861-March 11, 1861. Making the Confederate Constitution

Robert Toombs

Anecdote of General Scott

Lincoln's trip through Baltimore

Howell Cobb and Benjamin H. Hill

Hoisting the Confederate flag

Mrs. Lincoln's economy in the White House

Hopes for peace

Despondent talk with anti-secession leaders

The South unprepared

Fort Sumter

Charleston, S.C., March 26, 1861-April 15, 1861. A soft-hearted slave-owner

Social gaiety in the midst of war talk

Beauregard as hero and a demigod

The first shot of the war

Anderson refuses to capitulate

The bombardment of Fort Sumter as seen from the housetops

War steamers arrive in Charleston harbor

"Bull Run" Russell

Demeanor of the negroes

Camden, S.C., April 20, 1861-April 22, 1861. After Sumter was taken

the jeunesse dorée

The story of Beaufort Watts

Maria Whitaker's twins

The inconsistencies of life

Montgomery, Ala., April 27, 1861-May 20, 1861. Baltimore in a blaze

Anderson's account of the surrender of Fort Sumter

A talk with Alexander H. Stephens

Reports from Washington

An unexpected reception

Southern leaders take hopeless views of the future

Planning war measures

Removal of the capital

Charleston, S.C., May 25, 1861-June 24, 1861. Waiting for a battle in Virginia

Ellsworth at Alexandria

Big Bethel

Moving forward to the battleground

Mr. Petigru against secession

Mr. Chesnut goes to the front

Russell's letters to the London Times

Richmond, Va., June 27, 1861-July 4, 1861. Arrival at the new capital

Criticism of Jefferson Davis

Solders everywhere

Mrs. Davis's drawing-room

A day at the Champ de Mars

The armies assembling for Bull Run

Col. L.Q.C. Lamar

Fauquier White Sulphur Springs, Va., July 6, 1861-July 11, 1861. Cars crowded with soldiers

A Yankee spy

Anecdotes of Lincoln

Gaiety in social life

Listening for guns

A horse for Beauregard

Richmond, Va., July 13, 1861-September 2, 1861. General Lee and Joe Johnston

The Battle of Bull Run

Colonel Bartow's death

Rejoicing and funerals

Anecdotes of the battle

An interview with Robert E. Lee

Treatment of prisoners

Toombs thrown from his horse

Criticism of the administration

Paying the soldiers

Suspected women searched

Mason and Slidell

Camden, S.C., September 9, 1861-September 19, 1861. The author's sister Kate Williams

Old Colonel Chesnut

Roanoke Island surrenders

Up Country and Low Country

Family silver to be taken for war expenses

Mary McDuffie Hampton

The Merrimac and the Monitor

Columbia, S.C., February 20, 1862-July 21, 1862. Dissensions among Southern leaders

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Conscription begins

Abuse of Jefferson Davis

The battle of Shiloh

Beauregard flanked at Nashville

Old Colonel Chesnut again

New Orleans lost

The battle of Williamsburg

Dinners, teas, and breakfasts

Wade Hampton at home wounded

Battle of the Chickahominy

Albert Sidney Johnston's death

Richmond in sore straits

A wedding and its tragic ending

Malvern Hill

Recognition of the Confederacy in Europe

Flat Rock, N.C., August 1, 1862-August 8, 1862. A mountain summer resort

George Cuthbert

A disappointed cavalier

Antietam and Chancellorsville

General Chesnut's work for the army

Portland, Ala., July 8, 1863-July 30, 1863. A journey from Columbia to southern Alabama

The surrender of Vicksburg

A terrible night in the swamp on a riverside

A good pair of shoes

The author at her mother's home

Anecdotes of negroes

A Federal cynic

Richmond, Va., August 10, 1863-September 7, 1863. General Hood in Richmond

A brigade marches through the town

Rags and tatters

Two love affairs and a wedding

The battle of Brandy Station

The Robert Barnwell tragedy

Camden, S.C., September 10, 1863-November 5, 1863. A bride's dressing table

Home once more at Mulberry

Longstreet's army seen going West

Constance and Hetty Cary

At church during Stoneman's raid

Richmond narrowly escapes capture

A battle on the Chickahominy

A picnic at Mulberry

Richmond, Va., November 28, 1863-April 11, 1864. Mr Davis visits Charleston

Adventures by rail

A winter of mad gaiety

Weddings, dinner-parties, and private theatricals

Battles around Chattanooga

Bragg in disfavor

General Hood and his love affairs

Some Kentucky generals

Burton Harrison and Miss Constance Cary

George Eliot

Thackeray's death

Mrs. R.E. Lee and her daughters

Richmond almost lost

Colonel Dahlgren's death

General Grant

Depreciated currency

Fourteen generals at church

Camden, S.C., May 8, 1864-June 1, 1864. A farewell to Richmond

"Little Joe's" pathetic death and funeral

An old silk dress

The battle of the wilderness

Spottsylvania Court House

At Mulberry once more

Old Colonel Chesnut's grief at his wife's death

Columbia, S.C., July 6, 1864-January 17, 1865. Gen. Joe Johnston superseded and the Alabama sunk

The author's new home

Sherman at Atlanta

The battle of Mobile Bay

At the hospital in Columbia

Wade Hampton's two sons shot

Hood crushed at Nashville

Farewell to Mulberry

Sherman's advance eastward

The end near

Lincolnton, N.C., February 16, 1865-March 15, 1865. The flight from Columbia

A corps of generals without troops

Broken-hearted and an exile

Taken for millionaires

A walk with Gen. Joseph E. Johnston

The burning of Columbia

Confederate money refused in the shops

Selling old clothes to obtain food

Gen. Joe Johnston and President Davis again

Braving it out

Mulberry saved by a faithful negro

Ordered to Chester, S.C.

Chester, S.C., March 21, 1865-May 1, 1865. How to live without money

Keeping house once more

Other refugees tell stories of their flight

The Hood melodrama over

The exodus from Richmond

Passengers in a box car

A visit from General Hood

The fall of Richmond

Lee's surrender

Yankees hovering around

In pursuit of President Davis

Camden, S.C., May 2, 1865-August 2, 1865. Once more at Bloomsbury

Surprising fidelity of negroes

Stories of escape

Federal soldiers who plundered old estates

Mulberry partly in ruins

Old Colonel Chestnut last of the grand seigniors

Two classes of sufferers

A wedding and a funeral

Blood not shed in vain.