ISBN: 9781450585941

Nineteenth-century Louisiana writer Sarah Morgan Dawson is best known for the diary she kept during the Civil War. From March 1862 until April 1865, Dawson chronicled her thoughts and exp… More...

Nineteenth-century Louisiana writer Sarah Morgan Dawson is best known for the diary she kept during the Civil War. From March 1862 until April 1865, Dawson chronicled her thoughts and experiences, providing one of the most detailed accounts of civilian life in wartime Louisiana. A gifted storyteller, Dawson recorded her feelings about the Confederacy, war, politics, refugee life, and women's place in society against the backdrop of Louisiana's invasion and occupation by Union troops. Born in Nineteenth-century Louisiana writer Sarah Morgan Dawson is best known for the diary she kept during the Civil War. From March 1862 until April 1865, Dawson chronicled her thoughts and experiences, providing one of the most detailed accounts of civilian life in wartime Louisiana. A gifted storyteller, Dawson recorded her feelings about the Confederacy, war, politics, refugee life, and women's place in society against the backdrop of Louisiana's invasion and occupation by Union troops. Born in New Orleans on February 28, 1842, Sarah Ida Fowler Morgan was the seventh child of Judge Thomas Gibbes Morgan and his second wife, Sarah Hunt Fowler. In 1850, the family relocated to Baton Rouge, where Thomas worked as a district attorney and later a district judge. After less than a year of formal education, Dawson studied under the tutelage of her mother at the family home on Church Street. Her comfortable home life began to unravel at the beginning of the Civil War. Civil War DiaryIn April 1861, Dawson's brother, Henry Waller Fowler Morgan, died in a duel. Later the same year, her father-who opposed secession but supported his state once it seceded-died at home. When Dawson began her diary in January 1862, she was still mourning the loss of her kin in addition to the departure of her three remaining brothers-Thomas Gibbes Jr, George Mather, and James Morris Morgan-to the Confederate army and navy. In Baton Rouge with her mother and sisters, Dawson recorded the scarcity of food and household items as a result of the Union blockade, remarking that "Confederate" amounted to anything that was "rough, unfinished, unfashionable or poor."In April 1862, David Glasgow Farragut captured New Orleans, and by May, the Federal onslaught on Baton Rouge had begun in earnest. With her "running bag" packed and her personal papers piled on her bed ready to burn, Dawson used her diary to record a warning to any Federal soldier who attempted to "Butlerize-or brutalize" her in the Books, Biography & Autobiography~~Historical, Confederate-girls-diary~~Sarah-Morgan-Dawson, 999999999, A Confederate Girl's Diary, Sarah Morgan Dawson, Joe Henry Mitchell (Compiler), 1450585949, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, , , , , CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform<

ISBN: 9781450585941

Many citizens wrote diaries during the Civil War. The surviving documents are an important first-person resource for historians studying the day-to-day effects of the war on the populatio… More...

Many citizens wrote diaries during the Civil War. The surviving documents are an important first-person resource for historians studying the day-to-day effects of the war on the population. Sarah Morgan (1842 - 1909) was a former New Orleans debutant, having been born into an influential family. As she was to discover, her social status did not shield her from the frightful effects of the war. Her father, a prominent judge, died from an asthma attack. She lost one brother in a duel, and two Many citizens wrote diaries during the Civil War. The surviving documents are an important first-person resource for historians studying the day-to-day effects of the war on the population. Sarah Morgan (1842 - 1909) was a former New Orleans debutant, having been born into an influential family. As she was to discover, her social status did not shield her from the frightful effects of the war. Her father, a prominent judge, died from an asthma attack. She lost one brother in a duel, and two others who died in battle. Yet, she had one brother who remained loyal to the Union. Sarah began her diary in 1861 and it finally consisted of six books ending in 1865. At war's end, she was living in New Orleans. She later moved to Columbia, SC, to live with her brother, James Morgan. In 1874, she married an Englishman, Francis W. Dawson, and never returned to Baton Rouge. In 1913 Sarah's son, Warrington Dawson, published a book, "A Confederate Girl's Diary", using his mother's six diaries, which she had instructed him to burn after her death. These diaries are a remarkable depiction of the occupation of Baton Rouge by the Union Forces. The war left her with feelings of bitterness that she never quite got over. Towards the end of her diary, she so poignantly remarked, "Let historians extol blood-shedding; it is woman's place to abhor it. Books, Biography & Autobiography~~Historical, Confederate-girls-diary~~Sarah-Morgan-Dawson, 999999999, A Confederate Girl's Diary, Sarah Morgan Dawson, Joe Henry Mitchell (Compiler), 1450585949, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, , , , , CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform<

ISBN: 1450585949

A Confederate Girl's Diary: INTRODUCTION: IT is perhaps due to a chance conversation, held some 17 years ago in New York, that this Diary of the Civil War was saved from destruction. A Ph… More...

A Confederate Girl's Diary: INTRODUCTION: IT is perhaps due to a chance conversation, held some 17 years ago in New York, that this Diary of the Civil War was saved from destruction. A Philadelphian had been talking with my mother of North and South, and had alluded to the engagement between the Essex and the Arkansas, on the Mississippi, as a brilliant victory for the Federal navy. My mother protested, at once; said that she and her sister Miriam, and several friends, had been witnesses, from the levee, to the fact that the Confederates had fired and abandoned their own ship when the machinery broke down, after two shots had been exchanged: the Federals, cautiously turning the point, had then captured but a smoking hulk. The Philadelphian gravely corrected her; history, it appeared, had consecrated, on the strength of an official report, the version more agreeable to Northern pride. "But I wrote a description of the whole, just a few hours after it occurred " my mother insisted. "Early in the war I began to keep a diary, and continued until the very end; I had to find some vent for my feelings, and I would not make an exhibition of myself by talking, as so many women did. I have written while resting to recover breath in the midst of a stampede; I have even written with shells bursting over the house in which I sat, ready to flee but waiting for my mother and sisters to finish their preparations." "If that record still existed, it would be invaluable," said the Philadelphian used books,books Books, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform<