A Diary from Dixie Annotated

This is the 1905 edition of "A Diary from Dixie," edited by Isabella D. Martin and Myrta Lockett Avary. It has been reprinted many times, but this edition has additional notes which are helpful in explaining backgrounds and situations of which she writes. This reprint has added photographs of more than ten of the characters. The diary is one of great popularity and significance among personal accounts and memoirs of the American Civil War. While officially called a "diary," historians of repute have declared that it is not a diary at all; rather a carefully revised and re-written account, worked on for years after the war. Whether that may be accurate or not, we shall leave those technicalities to the historians and simply enjoy Mrs. Chesnut's wartime narratives. These give an honest account of the goings on behind the scenes with the movers and shakers of the Confederacy. Our narrator is an erudite story-teller from an aristocratic background. Her character sketches are sometimes acerbic and caustic chinwags of officials hoping to get ahead in Confederate government circles. Her repartees and reflections of romancing by gallant officers and lovely belles are enchanting. Her words flow with extemporaneity and a total absence of holding-back. The result of the author's labours make for a sincere and captivating story affording one pleasurable reading.