Edited by Kristen
Brill
Lucy Wood Butler’s diary provides a compelling account of
one woman’s struggle to come to terms with the realities of war on the Confederate
home front. Expertly annotated and introduced by Kristen Brill, The Diary of
a Civil War Bride brings to light a vital archival resource that reveals
Lucy Butler’s intimate observations on the attitudes and living conditions of
many white middle-class women in the Civil War South.
The Diary of a Civil War Bride opens with a series of letters between
Lucy Wood and her husband, Waddy Butler, a Confederate soldier whom Lucy met in
1859 while he was a student at the University of Virginia. Serving with the
Second Florida Regiment, Butler died at the Battle of Chancellorsville. Lucy’s
diary spans much of the intervening years, from the spring of 1861 to the death
of her husband in the summer of 1863. Through the dual prism of her personal
marital union and the national disunion, the narrative delivers a detailed
glimpse into the middle-class Confederate home front, as Butler comments on
everyday conditions in Charlottesville, Virginia, as well as the greater
sociopolitical valence of the Civil War. In addition to the details of Lucy’s
courtship, marriage, and widowhood, the diary provides a humanistic and
sentimental lens through which readers can closely examine broader issues
surrounding the institution of slavery, the politics of secession, and the erosion
of Confederate nationalism.
Numerous canonical studies of southern women draw on
portions of Butler’s letters and diary, which offer insight not only into
women’s history but into the politics, social pressures, and values of the
Confederate South. Now available and unabridged for the first time in book
form, The Diary of a Civil War Bride provides an ordinary woman’s
perspective on extraordinary events.
ISBN 978-0807167410, LSU Press, © 2017, Hardcover, 152
pages, Indexed. $34.95. To purchase this book click HERE.
No comments:
Post a Comment