Women's Civil War Diaries
Women's Diaries Online Give Insight into the Civil War
I'm researching the lives of my Civil War ancestors, Abraham Bates Tower and his wife, Nancy Angeline, I was delighted that he had a pocket diary that was passed down in the family. How wonderful it would be to have a diary for his wife too. This made me wonder about other women of the Civil War era and what their diaries would tell us about their lives and the effect of the war on women and children.
Fortunately there are some women's diaries published in book form and some that can be read online. Others are carefully secured in the rare book collections of universities and museums. Some remain in the possession of descendants of the original writer and may eventually become available for researchers and Civil War buffs with the easier methods of self-publishing available now.
Perfect Penmanship - Beautiful Antique Engraving by AntiqueImages
Women in Illinois in the Civil War - Video from YouTube
Illinois During the Civil War, 1861-1865: Women and Gender Roles in Civil War Illinois and the North
Dolly Lunt Burge's Civil War Diary - Read it online
- Diary of Dolly Lunt Burge
Originally from Maine, Dolly Lunt Burge married a Southerner and after his death ended up running the plantation during the difficult Civil War years.
The Civil War Diary of Rachel Cormany - Franklin County, Pennsylvania Read it online.
- Rachel Cormany Civil War Diary
Franklin County: Diary of Rachel Cormany (1863) Rachel Cormany was originally born in Canada but moved to Chambersburg with her husband, Samuel, during the war. She ...
Listen to a Reading of Marie Ester Brandt's 1861 Diary (Hanover, Indiana)
Diary of Sarah Morgan Dawson - to read online
- Sarah Morgan Dawson.A Confederate Girl's Diary
A Confederate girl's diary, by Sarah Morgan Dawson, 1842-1909 This was published as a book, but can be read in total online.
Mary Chesnut's Illustrated Diary - from the Civil War
Belle Edmondson's Diary - to read online
- Belle Edmondson. Diary, January-November, 1864.
Diary of Belle Edmondson of Tennessee, January - November, 1864, by a young woman who lived 1840-1873. - Belle Edmondson
Learn the background on the diary's author who acted as a spy for the Confederacy.
Links to Women's Civil War Diaries - that you can read online
Duke Libraries
Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture
- Alice Williamson Diary - Duke University SpecialCollections Library
This site includes 4 diaries from 1862 to 1865 that you can read online. Nancy Emerson Diary, 1862 (Virginia) Carrie Berry Diary August 1, 1864-January 4, 1865 (Atlanta) Rachel Cormany Diary, June 14-July 6, 1863 (Pennsylvania) Alice Williamson Diary - The Cormany Diaries: A Northern Family in the Civil War - Read it online at Google Books
This unique pair of diaries offers an unforgettable account of the life of an average Northern family coping with the dangers and tensions of the Civil War. There were thousands like them, but few left such a clear and indelible record. - Carrie Berry: A Young Girl's Diary of the U.S. Civil War
Carrie, age 10, gives a firsthand account of day-to-day life during the siege, occupation, and burning of Atlanta.
Women in the Civil War
Here are diaries that have been published and some social histories.
Diaries Create a Picture in Our Minds of a Person and a Time - that is long gone
The Civil War Diary of Anna Mellinger - Available to read online
- Anna Mellinger's Diary
Anna, a farmer's wife in Pennsylvania, kept a diary and recorded the Southern attack on Chambersburg.
we have to sit in the dark except for an hour or so that the children are learning their lessons
Nancy Emerson's Civil War Diary - Read it online
- Diary of Nancy Emerson | 1862-1864
The sister of a minister in Augusta County, Virginia. Her diary is staunchly in favor of the Confederacy.
Women's Civil War Diaries - in the collection of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania
- Women During the Civil War | www.hsp.org
The collections housed at The Historical Society of Pennsylvania provide an exceptional source of women's writings during the Civil War years. These are not available for reading online.
Not a Diary, But a Memoir of a Freed Slave - She married a soldier and traveled with a black regiment serving as a nurse
You can read the whole book online.
- Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33rd United States Colored Troops late 1st S.C. Volunteers
REMINISCENCES OF MY LIFE IN CAMP by Susie King Taylor
Civil War Diary of Cornelia Henry - A North Carolina woman's journal
Fear in North Carolina - The published diary of Cornelia Henry and family
