Brokenburn

by Anderson, John Q.

• ISBN13: 9780807120170
• ISBN10: 0807120170
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1995-05-01
• Publisher: Louisiana State Univ Pr

Summary

This journal records the Civil War experiences of a sensitive, well-educated, young southern woman. Kate Stone was twenty when the war began, living with her widowed mother, five brothers, and younger sister at Brokenburn, their plantation home in northeastern Louisiana. When Grant moved against Vicksburg, the family fled before the invading armies, eventually found refuge in Texas, and finally returned to a devastated home. Kate began her journal in May, 1861, and made regular entries up to November, 1865. She included briefer sketches in 1867 and 1868. In chronicling her everyday activities, Kate reveals much about a way of life that is no more: books read, plantation management and crops, maintaining slaves in the antebellum period, the attitude and conduct of slaves during the war, the fate of refugees, and civilian morale. Without pretense and with almost photographic clarity, she portrays the South during its darkest hours.

Table of Contents

Foreword	xi
Preface	xv
Introduction	xvii
John Q. Anderson
Introduction	xxix
Drew Gilpin Faust
In Retrospect	3	(376)
1861: ``Our Cause is Just''	13	(64)
1862: ``These Troublous times''	77	(90)
1863: ``Strangers in a strange land''	167	(74)
1864: ``Disaster and despair''	241	(70)
1865: ``The darkest hour''	311	(57)
1867: ``The burden of defeat''	368	(7)
1868: ``The outlook is brighter''	375	(4)
Index	379