Yanks behaving like human beings with a few exceptions.
February 28, 2005 8:52 PM   Subscribe

Alice Williamson is bitterly resentful of the Union occupation. The diary of a 16 year old girl in Yankee-occupied Gallatin, Tennessee. Images of the actual diary and a text version with annotations.
posted by marxchivist (21 comments total)
 
Courtesy of the folks at Duke University's Rare Book, Manuscript and Special Collections Library. They have more cool online exhibits.
posted by marxchivist at 8:54 PM on February 28, 2005


Holy crap, I used to live there! (Between you and me, I think that some of Gallatin's residents are still a bit miffed about Yankee occupation.) Great find, Marxchivist, thanks!
posted by ChrisTN at 9:12 PM on February 28, 2005


Oh wow. My buddy Paolo worked on this.
posted by 3.2.3 at 9:13 PM on February 28, 2005


"Stop horning in on my schtick, Williamson."

-- Mary Chestnut
posted by Hildago at 10:01 PM on February 28, 2005


It's much better if you have that theme from the Civil War (Ken Burns documentary) playing wistfully in the background.
posted by antron at 11:00 PM on February 28, 2005


Payne's abuse of power sounds familiar.
posted by Cranberry at 11:40 PM on February 28, 2005


From page 2: "I suppose Payne's task is to furnish the contraband camp, i.e. the camp of his angels (colored)."

So she pretty much conforms to every stereotype about confederates except that she's literate.
posted by Mayor Curley at 3:40 AM on March 1, 2005


I'm surprised they dug into census records to learn more about the diarist, but never close the loop on her two brothers off fighting for the Rebs. Did they survive? I wish I knew.

Curley: War's over. Let it go.

d--n yank
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 4:36 AM on March 1, 2005


If you're interested in this sort of thing, there's also the diary of Emma LeConte, who was a 16-year-old girl in Columbia, SC when Sherman burned the city.

(and she's my great great great aunt...)
posted by socratic at 5:22 AM on March 1, 2005


awesome, thanks
posted by matteo at 5:32 AM on March 1, 2005


Lovely.

Letters to and from B. Frank Hall during his time as a Confederate soldier, and his later recollections of the war and Reconstruction in Wilmington, North Carolina. [self-links, transcriptions only]
posted by IshmaelGraves at 6:34 AM on March 1, 2005


.
posted by bardic at 8:09 AM on March 1, 2005


Lots of commentary on the weather... what is it with human nature and talking about the weather?

March 12th Weather moderate; so is old Payne, but as weather is changeable our general is too.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 8:54 AM on March 1, 2005



Lots of commentary on the weather... what is it with human nature and talking about the weather?


All over the world, strangers talk only about the weather. All over the world, it's the same, it's the same.

In this case it looked like she was sometimes using the weather as a metaphor for Gen. Payne's mood, too. She didn't do it all the time, and she didn't make it subtle enough that you'd think it was a code. Not sure what she was doing.
posted by Hildago at 9:16 AM on March 1, 2005


I would guess that there are so many notes on the weather in part because that is the one thing she can talk about regularly from her own direct observation. Most of her entries have to be rumors -- how else would a schoolgirl know so much of the daily comings-and-goings of a general's family? And the entries from April 6th-9th sound like ore for folk song ( "Mount that horse and say no more . . ." and "have fine fun chasing the boy with fresh horses").

Thanks for the link. It's something like a livejournal dispatch from the Dixie triangle.
posted by eatitlive at 9:48 AM on March 1, 2005


Nice link, Marx. One would think you do this sort of thing for a living...
posted by Pdubby at 10:08 AM on March 1, 2005


Lots of commentary on the weather... what is it with human nature and talking about the weather?

What eatitlive said, also I think if you live somewhere with only dirt roads, you probably do the majority of your work outside, and have to walk or ride a horse anywhere you go, the weather becomes a lot more important.

Nice link, Marx. One would think you do this sort of thing for a living...

Thanks, I get to play with stuff like this at a place down the road from Duke, but I don't get to make nice web pages like they do.
posted by marxchivist at 10:41 AM on March 1, 2005


Re the weather: And with no forecasting, direct observation also becomes that much more important.

And, Marx, we both know the place where you work is a real hole...
posted by Pdubby at 1:55 PM on March 1, 2005


when Sherman burned the city

Actually, the truth of what happened to Columbia is a little more complex than just "Sherman burned the city." As Marion B. Lucas notes, it was a attributable to a combination of burning cotton, whiskey, and wind.
posted by alumshubby at 2:18 PM on March 1, 2005


I guess they didn't teach proper English conventions in Gallatin's schools.

That thing is painful to read.
posted by Target Practice at 3:07 PM on March 1, 2005


I guess they didn't teach proper English conventions in Gallatin's schools.

Yeah, people sure were stupid in the 19th century, weren't they?
posted by marxchivist at 3:14 PM on March 1, 2005


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