United States History Student Edition

D

“The Spirit of Our People Will Be Broken” Mary Boykin Chesnut was the wife of James Chesnut, Jr., who served as a United States senator from South Carolina before the Civil War and as an aide to Jefferson Davis and a Brigadier General in the Confederate army. Mary was well educated and spoke fluent French and German. When the Civil War broke out, she began writing a detailed diary about living an upper-class life in South Carolina.

PRIMARY SOURCE: DIARY “ 1862 April 30th.

“ 1862

June 9th. When we read of the battles in India, in Italy, in the Crimea, what did we care? Only an interesting topic, like any other, to look for in the paper. Now you hear of a battle with a thrill and a shudder. It has come home to us; half the people that we know in the world are under the enemy’s guns. A telegram reaches you, and you leave it on your lap. You are pale with fright. You handle it, or you dread to touch it, as you would a rattlesnake; worse, worse, a snake could only strike you. How many, many will this scrap of paper tell you have gone to their death? ” — from A Diary From Dixie by Mary Chesnut

The last day of this month of calamities. Lovell left the women and children to be shelled, and took the army to a safe place. I do not understand why we do not send the women and children to the safe place and let the army stay where the fighting is to be. Armies are to save, not to be saved. At least, to be saved is not their raison d’être exactly. If this goes on the spirit of our people will be broken. One ray of comfort comes from Henry Marshall. “Our Army of the Peninsula is fine; so good I do not think McClellan will venture to attack it.” So mote it be. ”

raison d’être reason why something exists mote may

EXAMINE THE SOURCE 1. Analyzing Points of View Explain why Mary Chesnut expressed frustration in her April 30 diary entry. 2. Contrasting How are articles about battles in other countries different from those in the Civil War, according to Chesnut?

PHOTO: Fotosearch/Archive Photos/Getty Images; TEXT: Chesnut, Mary Boykin Miller. A Diary from Dixie. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1906.

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