The Private Mary Chesnut: The Unpublished Civil War Diaries (review)

Abstract

184civil war history The most interesting aspect ofthe journal, however, is the deep concern frequently expressed by Agnes regarding her religious faith, and her struggle with haunting doubts about her own worthiness and piety. "Will I ever be a Christian? Ever be worthy ofthe love and esteem ofanyone? O I hope so—but I am afraid not" (61). "How I wish I could ever be pure and holy ..." (95). "Much would I love to receive the holy communion also, but oh! my deep unworthiness makes me shrink from so blessed a privilege ..." (132). Many young women in the antebellum South had similar doubts and conflicts, as they struggled to meet the demands of church and family. Manuscript sources and edited letters and diaries such as this provide a fertile field for study of the role of religion in the molding of Southern women during the nineteenth century. The work ofJean E. Friedman, The Encfosed Garden: Women and Community in the Evangelical South, 1830-1900, scheduled for publication in the fall of 1985, promises to illumine this interesting and relatively neglected subject. Mary Custis Lee DeButts, editor ofAgnes Lee's journal, is the daughter of Robert E. Lee, Jr., Agnes's younger brother. We are indebted to Mrs. DeButts for making this interesting journal available and to Mary Tyler Freeman Cheek and Robert Edward Lee DeButts, Jr. for providing useful background information. The footnotes, although not documented, are helpful in identifying people and places mentioned in the journal, and the index is adequate. One disappointing aspect of the journal, however, is the fact that nowhere in the concluding section of "Recollections of Mildred Lee" and "Family Letters" is there any mention ofthe cause ofAgnes's early death at age thirty-two years. The reader's curiosity in this regard might easily have been satisfied with a simple footnote by the editor. This oversight, although minor, leaves the reader with a sense of frustration and incompleteness . Mary D. Robertson Armstrong State College The Private Mary Chesnut: The Unpublished CivilWar Diaries. Edited by C. Vann Woodward and Elisabeth Muhlenfeld. (New York: Oxford University Press/1984. Pp. xxix, 292. $8.95.) C. Vann Woodward and Elisabeth Muhlenfeld have each made important contributions to the historical understanding ofMary Boykin Chesnut, the most prominent diarist of the Confederate South. Now, together, they provide another significant volume in The Private Mary Chesnut: The Unpublished Civü War Diaries. Here, for the first time in print, are Chesnut's surviving journals written between 1861 and 1865. Edited for readability, with helpful, detailed footnotes, this is a welcome and valuable addition to the primary literature ofthe war period. book reviews185 These private journals contain the author's immediate, candid descriptions ofimportant persons and events ofConfederate history as well as her depiction ofpersonal life and concerns. Chesnut used them in the 1880s as the basis for an expanded literary work which she composed in diary form. She significantly revised the journal accounts, often omitting indiscreet or personal segments. Not published before her death (1886), this manuscript was twice extensively edited and issued as A Diaryfrom Dixie (1905, 1949); and, edited by Woodward, it appeared in 1981 as Mary Chesnut's Civil War. Chesnut's work has traditionally been an important resource for scholars. Now, The Private Mary Chesnut permits a more direct experience with Civil War events and luminaries as Chesnut privately described them, and with Chesnut herself. Chesnut's complex personal characteristics show clearly in these original diary entries. Although a slaveholder, she deplored slavery ("a monstrous system"); and, while a Southern lady in a male environment, she had strong feminist tendencies ("Oh, if I could put some of my reckless spirit into these discreet, cautious, lazy men"). An intelligent woman who attracted admirerers, she could nevertheless be a severe judge. Confederate notables were among her regular acquaintances but her private opinions were often harsh. Jefferson and Varina Davis, for example, were coarse-spoken; the president was "greedy for military fame"; and William L. Yancey was "a common creature." Chesnut was particularly caustic concerning women she disliked. One, she declared, was a "horrid woman," while others were "fat and stupid." She intended herjournals "to be entirely objective," and her observations...