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The War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl, 1864-1865
In the fall of 1864 General Sherman and his army cut a ruinous swath across Georgia, and outraged Southerners steeled themselves for defeat. Threatened by the approach of the Union army, young Eliza Frances Andrews and her sister Metta fled from their home in Washington, Georgia, to comparative safety in the southwestern part of the state. The daughter of a prominent judge who disapproved of secession, Eliza kept a diary that fully registers the anger and despair of Confederate citizens during the last months of the Civil War.
Traveling across Georgia, Eliza observes Sherman’s devastation. A lively social life is maintained at her eldest sister’s plantation, where she and Metta take refuge, but Eliza’s sense of doom is clear. Rumors are rife—the fall of Richmond, the surrender of General Lee, the imminent approach of the Yankees. On returning to the family home, she sees the Old South crumble before her eyes.
The War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl depicts the chaos and tumult of a period when invaders and freed slaves swarmed in the streets, starved and beaten soldiers asked for food at houses with little or none, and currency was worthless. Eliza’s agony is complicated by political differences with her beloved father. Edited and first published nearly a half century after the Civil War, her diary is a passionate firsthand record.
Traveling across Georgia, Eliza observes Sherman’s devastation. A lively social life is maintained at her eldest sister’s plantation, where she and Metta take refuge, but Eliza’s sense of doom is clear. Rumors are rife—the fall of Richmond, the surrender of General Lee, the imminent approach of the Yankees. On returning to the family home, she sees the Old South crumble before her eyes.
The War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl depicts the chaos and tumult of a period when invaders and freed slaves swarmed in the streets, starved and beaten soldiers asked for food at houses with little or none, and currency was worthless. Eliza’s agony is complicated by political differences with her beloved father. Edited and first published nearly a half century after the Civil War, her diary is a passionate firsthand record.
403 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1908
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364 people want to read
About the author
Eliza Frances Andrews
30 books4 followersA popular Southern writer of the Gilded Age. Her works were published in popular magazines and papers, including the New York World and Godey's Lady's Book.[1] Her longer works included The War-Time Journal of a Georgian Girl (1908) and two botany textbooks.[2]
Eliza Frances Andrews gained fame in three fields: authorship, education, and science. Her passion was writing and she had success both as an essayist and a novelist.[3] Financial troubles forced her to take a teaching career after the deaths of her parents, though she continued to be published. In her retirement she combined two of her interests by writing two textbooks on botany entitled Botany All the Year Round and Practical Botany,[3] the latter of which became popular in Europe and was translated for schools in France.[4] Andrews's published works, notably her Wartime Journal of a Georgia Girl along with her novels and numerous articles, give a glimpse into bitterness, dissatisfaction, and confusion in the post-Civil War South.
Eliza Frances Andrews gained fame in three fields: authorship, education, and science. Her passion was writing and she had success both as an essayist and a novelist.[3] Financial troubles forced her to take a teaching career after the deaths of her parents, though she continued to be published. In her retirement she combined two of her interests by writing two textbooks on botany entitled Botany All the Year Round and Practical Botany,[3] the latter of which became popular in Europe and was translated for schools in France.[4] Andrews's published works, notably her Wartime Journal of a Georgia Girl along with her novels and numerous articles, give a glimpse into bitterness, dissatisfaction, and confusion in the post-Civil War South.
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May 21, 2023
Eliza Frances Andrews published this book in 1906, taking her journal that she wrote during the Civil War and editing it for publication. She states in her introduction that she removed items that her older self wouldn't say about certain personages that she did say as a young woman in her mid 20's. Despite her editing of the journal it is still quite candid about individuals if not insightful about herself.
Her father, Judge Garnett Andrews was a pro-Union slave owner, a holder of many plantations and once ran for Governor of Georgia on the Know-Nothing ticket. He wanted to stay in the Union because he believed the U.S. Constitution sanctioned slavery and that secession could endanger his way of life.
This journal is hard reading at time as Fannie Andrews does not hide her racism and is flabbergasted when any of the slaves in the household want their freedom after the South was defeated. Also despite her protestations of how poor the family has become during the summer of 1865 the parties, dances and dinners never seem to end. This is a worthwhile read that illuminates the attitudes of a certain population at the end of the Civil War.
Her father, Judge Garnett Andrews was a pro-Union slave owner, a holder of many plantations and once ran for Governor of Georgia on the Know-Nothing ticket. He wanted to stay in the Union because he believed the U.S. Constitution sanctioned slavery and that secession could endanger his way of life.
This journal is hard reading at time as Fannie Andrews does not hide her racism and is flabbergasted when any of the slaves in the household want their freedom after the South was defeated. Also despite her protestations of how poor the family has become during the summer of 1865 the parties, dances and dinners never seem to end. This is a worthwhile read that illuminates the attitudes of a certain population at the end of the Civil War.
November 17, 2013
This was a fascinating read, and yet a difficult one. On the one hand, it is an important document regarding what it felt like to be there, in the moment, as soldiers used your land and rubbed your nose in the loss of a four-year conflict. On the other, the racism which, in so many ways, has yet to leave the American consciousness, is hard to read with anything other than nausea.
Eliza Frances Andrews was living in Washington, Georgia, and went on a trip to Southwest Georgia just after Sherman's troops went through on their infamous March to the Sea. She describes in vivid detail the scorched earth and the blackened chimneys of once-proud homes in the land that, until then, had been bountiful. She also describes with great fury the "theft" of her family's "property," which she euphemistically refers to as "servants," but the correct word is slaves.
She loathes the Yankees, and has trouble finding kind things to say for even the kinder ones. When she describes the conditions at Andersonville, which were ugly beyond belief, she maintains that the Northern newspapers blew it out of proportion and that it was the Yankees' fault anyhow, because they wouldn't exchange prisoners. She views the "servants" and the freedman as little more than children or trained pets.
I think the whole of her point of view can be summed up in this quote from the text:
"Some future Motley or Macaulay will tell the truth about our cause, and some unborn Walter Scott will spread the halo of romance around it. In all the poems and romances that shall be written about this war, I prophesy that the heroes will all be rebels, or if Yankees, from some loyal Southern State. The bare idea of a full-blown Yankee hero or heroine is preposterous. They made no sacrifices, they suffered no loss, and there is nothing on their side to call up scenes of pathos or heroism."
Her point of view is plain, and given that she wrote it in 1864-1865, it is not surprising. Her explanatory remarks, written in 1905, only dig the racist hole deeper, I believe. Even though her father was a clear-eyed Union man who saw failure in the Confederate cause and suffered for it even in his own home, she still maintained that she thought the cause just and glorious, and was sad at its lack of success.
Eliza Frances Andrews was living in Washington, Georgia, and went on a trip to Southwest Georgia just after Sherman's troops went through on their infamous March to the Sea. She describes in vivid detail the scorched earth and the blackened chimneys of once-proud homes in the land that, until then, had been bountiful. She also describes with great fury the "theft" of her family's "property," which she euphemistically refers to as "servants," but the correct word is slaves.
She loathes the Yankees, and has trouble finding kind things to say for even the kinder ones. When she describes the conditions at Andersonville, which were ugly beyond belief, she maintains that the Northern newspapers blew it out of proportion and that it was the Yankees' fault anyhow, because they wouldn't exchange prisoners. She views the "servants" and the freedman as little more than children or trained pets.
I think the whole of her point of view can be summed up in this quote from the text:
"Some future Motley or Macaulay will tell the truth about our cause, and some unborn Walter Scott will spread the halo of romance around it. In all the poems and romances that shall be written about this war, I prophesy that the heroes will all be rebels, or if Yankees, from some loyal Southern State. The bare idea of a full-blown Yankee hero or heroine is preposterous. They made no sacrifices, they suffered no loss, and there is nothing on their side to call up scenes of pathos or heroism."
Her point of view is plain, and given that she wrote it in 1864-1865, it is not surprising. Her explanatory remarks, written in 1905, only dig the racist hole deeper, I believe. Even though her father was a clear-eyed Union man who saw failure in the Confederate cause and suffered for it even in his own home, she still maintained that she thought the cause just and glorious, and was sad at its lack of success.
August 9, 2017
The Confederacy produced many interesting and talented women who left valuable accounts of their experiences and observations, but Eliza Andrews was in a class by herself. Later a noteworthy teacher, novelist, and botanist, her youthful journal of War and Reconstruction is characterized by a sharp eye, intelligence, and smooth prose. It's a great pity that she destroyed most of it in a moment of self-doubt; the surviving portions cover Christmas Eve, 1864 through August, 1865.
Her viewpoint is that of a sophisticated member of the Southern elite: there is adoration of knightly Confederate officers; loathing for the barbarous, hypocritical Yankees; racism mingled with compassion for the slaves, developing into sorrow, suspicion, and fear once they are emancipated (although a modicum of mutual loyalty persisted, and her family offered support to some of them for the rest of their lives); the white lower orders are seen as colourful, sometimes admirable, but definitely other.
There's not much sign of Southern patriarchy here: not only was Eliza highly educated and accustomed to mingling with the leaders of society, but she often expresses regret about browbeating her father for his pro-Union beliefs (during Reconstruction he appears to have been something of a scalawag, but she loyally refuses to elaborate). However, she was expected to keep her strong opinions within the bounds of feminine propriety, and occasionally wishes she could cuss like the men.
The anticapitalist strain in Southern thought (so readily dismissed by Northern writers) reached remarkable fruition in Eliza's case: her contempt, derived from personal experience, for the North's mask of rectitude inoculated her against comfortable myths about the War, and when she prepared her diary for publication in 1918, she had become convinced that both sides were merely unconscious agents in the evolution of society:
[The South] was the last representative of an economic system that had served the purposes of the race since the days when man first emerged from his prehuman state until the rise of the modern industrial system made wage slavery a more efficient agent of production than chattel slavery. . . . [The War] was a pure case of economic determinism, which means that our great moral conflict reduces itself, in the final analysis, to a question of dollars and cents, though the real issue was so obscured by other considerations that we of the South honestly believe to this day that we were fighting for States Rights, while the North is equally honest in the conviction that it was engaged in a magnanimous struggle to free the slave. . . . The truth of the matter is that the transition to wage slavery was the next step forward in the evolution of the race, just as the transition from wage slavery to free and independent labor will be the next.
She concludes:
In the clearer understanding that we now have of the laws of historical evolution, we know that both [sides] were right, for both were struggling blindly and unconsciously in the grasp of economic tendencies they did not understand, toward a consummation they could not foresee. . . whatever praise or blame may attach to either side for their methods of carrying on the struggle, the result belongs to neither; it was simply the working out of that natural law of economic determinism which lies at the root of all great struggles of history.
Most of Eliza's fellow diarists never got anywhere near this level of dispassionate analysis. When memoirs of this sort began flooding the publishers around the turn of the century, they were usually characterized by safe and unthreatening "We loved the South but we now really, really love the Union" smarminess. Eliza's smart astringency sets her apart, and earns the reader's respect.
The only real problem with her book is that she, herself, never got away from the life of privilege: her life, even during the collapse of the Confederacy, was essentially a round of parties (the difficulty of setting a presentable table when the only food to be had was ham and peas was much on her mind). There are stories of practical jokes with friends, and sing-alongs, and outings; apart from having to do her own cleaning once the slaves began to leave, she rarely got her hands dirty. So, valuable and insightful as her account may be, it lacks the visceral impact of Kate Cumming's hospital journal and some of the books by former soldiers. The horror of war does not come through, but she convincingly sketches the breakdown of society in the wake of war, and the anxieties and fears of defeat and occupation.
Her viewpoint is that of a sophisticated member of the Southern elite: there is adoration of knightly Confederate officers; loathing for the barbarous, hypocritical Yankees; racism mingled with compassion for the slaves, developing into sorrow, suspicion, and fear once they are emancipated (although a modicum of mutual loyalty persisted, and her family offered support to some of them for the rest of their lives); the white lower orders are seen as colourful, sometimes admirable, but definitely other.
There's not much sign of Southern patriarchy here: not only was Eliza highly educated and accustomed to mingling with the leaders of society, but she often expresses regret about browbeating her father for his pro-Union beliefs (during Reconstruction he appears to have been something of a scalawag, but she loyally refuses to elaborate). However, she was expected to keep her strong opinions within the bounds of feminine propriety, and occasionally wishes she could cuss like the men.
The anticapitalist strain in Southern thought (so readily dismissed by Northern writers) reached remarkable fruition in Eliza's case: her contempt, derived from personal experience, for the North's mask of rectitude inoculated her against comfortable myths about the War, and when she prepared her diary for publication in 1918, she had become convinced that both sides were merely unconscious agents in the evolution of society:
[The South] was the last representative of an economic system that had served the purposes of the race since the days when man first emerged from his prehuman state until the rise of the modern industrial system made wage slavery a more efficient agent of production than chattel slavery. . . . [The War] was a pure case of economic determinism, which means that our great moral conflict reduces itself, in the final analysis, to a question of dollars and cents, though the real issue was so obscured by other considerations that we of the South honestly believe to this day that we were fighting for States Rights, while the North is equally honest in the conviction that it was engaged in a magnanimous struggle to free the slave. . . . The truth of the matter is that the transition to wage slavery was the next step forward in the evolution of the race, just as the transition from wage slavery to free and independent labor will be the next.
She concludes:
In the clearer understanding that we now have of the laws of historical evolution, we know that both [sides] were right, for both were struggling blindly and unconsciously in the grasp of economic tendencies they did not understand, toward a consummation they could not foresee. . . whatever praise or blame may attach to either side for their methods of carrying on the struggle, the result belongs to neither; it was simply the working out of that natural law of economic determinism which lies at the root of all great struggles of history.
Most of Eliza's fellow diarists never got anywhere near this level of dispassionate analysis. When memoirs of this sort began flooding the publishers around the turn of the century, they were usually characterized by safe and unthreatening "We loved the South but we now really, really love the Union" smarminess. Eliza's smart astringency sets her apart, and earns the reader's respect.
The only real problem with her book is that she, herself, never got away from the life of privilege: her life, even during the collapse of the Confederacy, was essentially a round of parties (the difficulty of setting a presentable table when the only food to be had was ham and peas was much on her mind). There are stories of practical jokes with friends, and sing-alongs, and outings; apart from having to do her own cleaning once the slaves began to leave, she rarely got her hands dirty. So, valuable and insightful as her account may be, it lacks the visceral impact of Kate Cumming's hospital journal and some of the books by former soldiers. The horror of war does not come through, but she convincingly sketches the breakdown of society in the wake of war, and the anxieties and fears of defeat and occupation.
February 18, 2016
I read this as a companion book to The Killer Angels, a Book Club read. It provides a great historical perspective to events during Sherman's march through Georgia and also the effects felt by the South, especially Georgia plantation owners, at the end of the civil war. It is noted that the sentiments simply reflect some of the biases of the times in that part of the country, and references to slavery are certainly disturbing to read today. Many parts of the journal are missing and these are noted. The author went on to become a journalist, author and botanist of note - impressive accomplishments for a woman in those times. Her father, a respected judge in Washington, Georgia, while supportive of the Confederate troops, was himself a strong supporter of the Union. An interesting and insightful read.
August 4, 2019
She has a good command of the English language...
and it was enlightening to read the southern well-off young person's point of view of the Civil War and immediate aftermath from her own experience, but I must agree with some reviewers that the author's war was quite tame and comfortable compared to some. All the parties, dancing and meals fed to countless visitors seemed to belie any real suffering. So she got sick of peas and couldn't have new dresses all the time. What a shame. There seemed to be a lot of visiting back and forth and laughing. No one died. A quite biased account of the glories of the Olde South and how nasty it all was that the awful Yankees came down and spoiled everything. Oh well, from her privileged perspective, it must have been horrid. Insightful.
and it was enlightening to read the southern well-off young person's point of view of the Civil War and immediate aftermath from her own experience, but I must agree with some reviewers that the author's war was quite tame and comfortable compared to some. All the parties, dancing and meals fed to countless visitors seemed to belie any real suffering. So she got sick of peas and couldn't have new dresses all the time. What a shame. There seemed to be a lot of visiting back and forth and laughing. No one died. A quite biased account of the glories of the Olde South and how nasty it all was that the awful Yankees came down and spoiled everything. Oh well, from her privileged perspective, it must have been horrid. Insightful.
August 4, 2010
This book gives an interesting view of the feelings of the Southern slave holding families at the end of the Civil War and into Reconstruction. From a 2010 point of view the reader has to remind themselves that we are reading a historical viewpoint from 1865 - a very different set of circumstances shaped the feelings of the author i.e. elite slaveholding, wealthy class whose entire world is being turned up side down but try to hold onto and justify their beliefs about race and slaveholding wrong though it may be.
Read
February 14, 2012If u want to really know about the south and the war read this
From a young girls life
From a young girls life
January 20, 2020
Definitely worth reading. It is the account of a southern family who went from prosperity and having 200 slaves to losing their wealth after the defeat of the south. Her journal covers the end of the war and the beginning of the reconstruction era in Washington, Georgia.
From about half way through the book it becomes very disturbing to read her journal and she starts manifesting her white supremacist's view point. I understand that she was very upset since they had lost to the North, but her racist's viewpoint was absolutely horrifying. She gives you a viewpoint of a believer in the institution of slavery and one can understand that the only way for a change was the devastating war. While reading her diaries I wondered if the founding fathers like Jefferson, Madison, and Washington who were slave holders like Eliza's family also thought like her and helped with the institution of slavery in US.
From about half way through the book it becomes very disturbing to read her journal and she starts manifesting her white supremacist's view point. I understand that she was very upset since they had lost to the North, but her racist's viewpoint was absolutely horrifying. She gives you a viewpoint of a believer in the institution of slavery and one can understand that the only way for a change was the devastating war. While reading her diaries I wondered if the founding fathers like Jefferson, Madison, and Washington who were slave holders like Eliza's family also thought like her and helped with the institution of slavery in US.
July 13, 2020
In reading accounts of the American Civil War, it is important to delve into the lives of those who lived it. It is always easy to look into a conflict 160 years later through the lenses of our modern values. The writer of that journal herself, looking back into what she wrote 50 years later, warned us in her prologue that this was a journal written at a specific time of her life and in the history of her State. Parts of it are hard but it is within that context that we should read this great journal that gives us a peak into a Lost World of American History. It reminds me a lot of similar journals written by men and women in pre-revolutionary Russia or Stefan Zweig's World of Yesterday describing Habsburg Austria and Europe before World War I. Those are echoes of a past that, for the better or the worse, make part of a Human History that we should not ignore.
May 20, 2019
Interesting how the armies came through Washington Ga after the fighting ended and then the transition to Northern army units. Diary sure paints the picture of how difficult social and economic shifts were. Travel was sure difficult. Many dances, calling visits and such got a bit repetitive but guess that makes sense in that was what they did.
For a diary book I much preferred ‘Fear in North Carolina’.
For a diary book I much preferred ‘Fear in North Carolina’.
November 19, 2015
This book is so interesting. It is a real life account of life of a young woman at the wane of the Civil War. She goes visiting, dancing and has a vibrant social life as they evade the Yankees. I enjoyed this book except all the very racist things that the author thinks. I know that's how lots of people felt but it's still shocking to read.
June 2, 2019
Gave a good insight of the South following the war. Some of the thoughts and feelings still remain sadly today. Shows just what the southerns thought of the North and the black former slaves. Also showed how freedom affected them too. Would have liked to know what happened to her later in life. Did she ever marry and have children. Did her family ever regain any wealth?
July 10, 2015
Was interesting to see that Margaret Mitchell captured the time period perfectly in GWTW or she ripped off the journals of Fanny Andrews.... And to say that South Georgia is a better climate and more beautiful than the Piedmont region... I have my doubts at this point.
May 7, 2019
Exceptional Memoir
Without a doubt the best memoir of life in the deep South I've read. Ms. Andrews has chronicled so much of life and the hardships brought about not by the Civil War, rather those of the obscene behaviors of the occupiers.
Without a doubt the best memoir of life in the deep South I've read. Ms. Andrews has chronicled so much of life and the hardships brought about not by the Civil War, rather those of the obscene behaviors of the occupiers.
June 1, 2019
Georgia girl Review
This is a vivid account of the tragedy of civil war on a population. It speaks frankly of the perceptions of the southern women regarding slavery and injustices on both sides of the war. War is war and it is never good.
This is a vivid account of the tragedy of civil war on a population. It speaks frankly of the perceptions of the southern women regarding slavery and injustices on both sides of the war. War is war and it is never good.
July 9, 2020
Great Read
Hearing first hand what the southerners life was like after the civil war was an eye opener. Hearing how they all pulled together to help each other and continue on with their lives.
Hearing first hand what the southerners life was like after the civil war was an eye opener. Hearing how they all pulled together to help each other and continue on with their lives.
August 31, 2014
Fascinating account of the realities of war for civilians following the Civil War and the early days of reconstruction. A must read for any Southerner.
Want to read
December 16, 2016* Understanding Oppression: African American Rights (Then and Now)
The War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl, 1864-1865 by Eliza Frances Andrews #civilwar
The War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl, 1864-1865 by Eliza Frances Andrews #civilwar
August 29, 2018
A very disturbing look at a young girl’s impression in the aftermath of the civil war.
May 23, 2019
Enlightening Read
I enjoy non-fiction historical books and this did not disappoint! She says just what she feels. Excellent insight into her life and times.
I enjoy non-fiction historical books and this did not disappoint! She says just what she feels. Excellent insight into her life and times.
June 24, 2019
A woman's perspective.....
One of the best Civil War biographies I've ever read! Scarlett O'Hard has been reborn in this biography.....a MUST READ!
One of the best Civil War biographies I've ever read! Scarlett O'Hard has been reborn in this biography.....a MUST READ!
July 7, 2019
Worst Book Ever
I can not imagine why someone would write this book. I can not believe I read it. It is rife with racism and privilege . One star is too many.
I can not imagine why someone would write this book. I can not believe I read it. It is rife with racism and privilege . One star is too many.
February 12, 2022
It is a good historical read and makes you realize how hard it was for Southerners after the war while the victors from the North wrote the history.
June 11, 2025
Eliza Frances Adams (1840-1931) was a close contemporary of Elizabeth Bacon Custer (1842-1933), and I think there may be a Doctoral Dissertation lying out there somewhere that attempts to compare and contrast the two. Quite different; quite similar. Both reflecting the worlds in which they lived; both writers; both had black servants at some point; both were the to-some-degree random outcomes of the infinite range of possibilities for women of that generation. Lots of material for late night rumination. I can’t help but wonder if they read each others’ works and if they ever corresponded. They should have.
However, first focusing on EFA’s journal, there really are two stories to consider. One is the journal itself.
EFA’s journal starts in late 1864 and finishes around the end of 1865. A good portion of it struck me as frivolous—clothes and social life—but as the Confederacy collapses and the post-war period begins, EFA’s writing gets more interesting. She describes some pretty intense scenes. It’s worth a read.
Yet, as a historical record, what impresses me most is the unbending stupidity of ‘the southern woman’. To my mind, EFA and her confreres, as much as any one individual can be, are responsible for the misery that the South, by choosing War, brought upon itself. EFA NEVER deviates from her position that the South was Right in asserting its Rights, that the Old South was the Highest Form of Civilization yet achieved in the long History of Human Evolution, that human racial differences are as fundamental as those between the hippopotamus and the___ (I forget), and that if We don’t heed Her Word, the Book of Revelation will be like a children’s fairy tale compared to what is inevitably going to befall us.
I have to almost laugh at the indignation and contempt, hatred even, that she has for the occupying yankee soldiers who consort openly with comely young negresses (hey, even a colored girl got to eat!), but has no comment at all about that tried and true outlet for plantation owners’ baser instincts and the mixed blood offspring that sprout up all about looking an awful lot like Ole Marse. At least Mary Chesnut recognizes and mentions (and deplores) this aspect of the civilization EFA thinks so highly of.
(Advice to starving young girls brought to that condition by EFA’s pro-secession proclivities: “Close your eyes and think of Dixie” Or whistle it while you work…)
With women like EFA to urge us on, what could a southern boy do, bursting with nobility and chivalry, but spew blood from his mouth and nostrils while skewered on a yankee bayonet?
But what does EFA think is going to befall us??? That would be the second part of the story.
“It is only fair to explain here that the action of the principle of economic determinism …as enunciated by Karl Marx…means simply that the economic factor plays the same part in the social evolution of the race that natural selection and survival of the fittest are supposed to play in physical evolution.”
“The truth of the matter is that the transition from chattel to wage slavery was the next step forward in the evolution of the race, just as the transition from wage slavery to free and independent labor will be the next.”
Both quotes are from her Prologue. She even knows Nietzche’s Ubermensch (1883.)
That an unrepentant apostle of chattel slavery should evolve into a Socialist …national or international?…should not surprise. Socialism, as practiced ANYWHERE is the purest form of total slavery (totalitarianism) that ever existed.
Perhaps EFA, in the era of Eugene Debs—Bernie Sanders’ progenitor—did not know this. The book came out in 1908. She should perhaps be forgiven her ignorance. The Soviets—Lenin and Stalin—were still a few years away, in the future not the past.
But it doesn’t surprise me that an Old South Slaveholder would evolve into a Socialist. Call it historical inevitability. By asserting Economic Determinism and throwing in a little Darwin, EFA is able to say, “It’s not my fault!”
But it IS her fault. As are the next hundred years of socialist lies and distortions and misery. She may blame historical forces, but people like EFA would be pathetic if they weren’t so murderous.
I prefer Libby Custer.
However, first focusing on EFA’s journal, there really are two stories to consider. One is the journal itself.
EFA’s journal starts in late 1864 and finishes around the end of 1865. A good portion of it struck me as frivolous—clothes and social life—but as the Confederacy collapses and the post-war period begins, EFA’s writing gets more interesting. She describes some pretty intense scenes. It’s worth a read.
Yet, as a historical record, what impresses me most is the unbending stupidity of ‘the southern woman’. To my mind, EFA and her confreres, as much as any one individual can be, are responsible for the misery that the South, by choosing War, brought upon itself. EFA NEVER deviates from her position that the South was Right in asserting its Rights, that the Old South was the Highest Form of Civilization yet achieved in the long History of Human Evolution, that human racial differences are as fundamental as those between the hippopotamus and the___ (I forget), and that if We don’t heed Her Word, the Book of Revelation will be like a children’s fairy tale compared to what is inevitably going to befall us.
I have to almost laugh at the indignation and contempt, hatred even, that she has for the occupying yankee soldiers who consort openly with comely young negresses (hey, even a colored girl got to eat!), but has no comment at all about that tried and true outlet for plantation owners’ baser instincts and the mixed blood offspring that sprout up all about looking an awful lot like Ole Marse. At least Mary Chesnut recognizes and mentions (and deplores) this aspect of the civilization EFA thinks so highly of.
(Advice to starving young girls brought to that condition by EFA’s pro-secession proclivities: “Close your eyes and think of Dixie” Or whistle it while you work…)
With women like EFA to urge us on, what could a southern boy do, bursting with nobility and chivalry, but spew blood from his mouth and nostrils while skewered on a yankee bayonet?
But what does EFA think is going to befall us??? That would be the second part of the story.
“It is only fair to explain here that the action of the principle of economic determinism …as enunciated by Karl Marx…means simply that the economic factor plays the same part in the social evolution of the race that natural selection and survival of the fittest are supposed to play in physical evolution.”
“The truth of the matter is that the transition from chattel to wage slavery was the next step forward in the evolution of the race, just as the transition from wage slavery to free and independent labor will be the next.”
Both quotes are from her Prologue. She even knows Nietzche’s Ubermensch (1883.)
That an unrepentant apostle of chattel slavery should evolve into a Socialist …national or international?…should not surprise. Socialism, as practiced ANYWHERE is the purest form of total slavery (totalitarianism) that ever existed.
Perhaps EFA, in the era of Eugene Debs—Bernie Sanders’ progenitor—did not know this. The book came out in 1908. She should perhaps be forgiven her ignorance. The Soviets—Lenin and Stalin—were still a few years away, in the future not the past.
But it doesn’t surprise me that an Old South Slaveholder would evolve into a Socialist. Call it historical inevitability. By asserting Economic Determinism and throwing in a little Darwin, EFA is able to say, “It’s not my fault!”
But it IS her fault. As are the next hundred years of socialist lies and distortions and misery. She may blame historical forces, but people like EFA would be pathetic if they weren’t so murderous.
I prefer Libby Custer.
December 17, 2025
It's always a good thing when you can read what was going on during the Civil War from the viewpoint of a regular person rather than someone who was doing the fighting. In this case you have a young woman living in the South very near the end of the war and for a while thereafter.
The book discusses a number of points:
How not everyone owned slaves.
Good things about the Southern culture. (There was a great deal of entertaining and visiting going on despite the war. Sometimes it seems that her entire day was spent visiting people or people visiting her.)
Description of a place after Sherman's army went through it. (This was very well done.)
Anderson prison.(35,000 Union soldiers at one time.)
Terms used at the time in the South for blacks including 'darkies.'
Her very negative view of the Northern soldiers such as riff-raff.
Lincoln's assassination.
How Southern soldiers went through the town after the war was ended, how the Union soldiers came in and what happened after that.
A major problem of plundering.
Her intense dislike bordering on hatred of Yankee soldiers dancing with black women.
Black brothels set up. (Note; she uses the term 'negro' mainly.)
Her belief that a race war would come sooner or later.
How union soldiers took over houses and various items as plunder.
The book discusses a number of points:
How not everyone owned slaves.
Good things about the Southern culture. (There was a great deal of entertaining and visiting going on despite the war. Sometimes it seems that her entire day was spent visiting people or people visiting her.)
Description of a place after Sherman's army went through it. (This was very well done.)
Anderson prison.(35,000 Union soldiers at one time.)
Terms used at the time in the South for blacks including 'darkies.'
Her very negative view of the Northern soldiers such as riff-raff.
Lincoln's assassination.
How Southern soldiers went through the town after the war was ended, how the Union soldiers came in and what happened after that.
A major problem of plundering.
Her intense dislike bordering on hatred of Yankee soldiers dancing with black women.
Black brothels set up. (Note; she uses the term 'negro' mainly.)
Her belief that a race war would come sooner or later.
How union soldiers took over houses and various items as plunder.
June 28, 2020
I started this book out of curiosity. I think I would have done better if I had read the book, instated of listening to it on Audible. The Audible version was annoying to anyone who is familiar with Georgia or Alabama. The cadence of the speech was wrong and There are several names that are pronounced wrong. I know Opelika is hard for a lot of people, but Montgomery and Albany should not be that hard for anyone.
The story starts slow, with lots of complaining about travel and weather. However, when Jerrferson Davis arrives toward the end of the war, it gets very interesting.
The introduction by the author is one of the best explanations I have ever read about the Southern view of the Civil War in the early 1900s. Some of the views on race will make modern readers cringe, but we should realize that Miss Andrews views were those of most white folks from that age.
I think this is definitely worth reading, but avoid the Audible version.
The story starts slow, with lots of complaining about travel and weather. However, when Jerrferson Davis arrives toward the end of the war, it gets very interesting.
The introduction by the author is one of the best explanations I have ever read about the Southern view of the Civil War in the early 1900s. Some of the views on race will make modern readers cringe, but we should realize that Miss Andrews views were those of most white folks from that age.
I think this is definitely worth reading, but avoid the Audible version.
January 31, 2021
A Hard, Good Read
This is a hard, but timely and good read. The harshness of the tone and air of superiority toward people of color is difficult to endure, but it is so timely in regards to the divisions in America today. The reader may be put off by the author's apparent prejudice and racism, and even by her Southern pride, but if the reader can disregard that and see the circumstances through the author's lens, then it is difficult to blame her for her righteous indignation toward "Yankees."
Hindsight gives us a clearer view of how erroneous the South's cause was. This account, written at the time, will hopefully give us some insight and foresight into our current political struggles, reminding us that both sides can have some so!cement of both right and wrong in their cause and course.
This is a hard, but timely and good read. The harshness of the tone and air of superiority toward people of color is difficult to endure, but it is so timely in regards to the divisions in America today. The reader may be put off by the author's apparent prejudice and racism, and even by her Southern pride, but if the reader can disregard that and see the circumstances through the author's lens, then it is difficult to blame her for her righteous indignation toward "Yankees."
Hindsight gives us a clearer view of how erroneous the South's cause was. This account, written at the time, will hopefully give us some insight and foresight into our current political struggles, reminding us that both sides can have some so!cement of both right and wrong in their cause and course.
February 26, 2025
An interesting first-hand account. Andrews lived a very extreme life of privilege. The Civil War seemed almost a inconvenience to her and her social circle. She spends so much time traveling, going to parties and dinners, and discussing outfits. Even in the final days of the war and Reconstruction, her family is still in their house, with plenty to eat and able to share. With modern eyes, she is insufferable and oblivious. But the news items that break through are interesting and the contemporary writing lends a great perspective.
November 22, 2021
Couldn't get through it, just didn't hold my interest. It took me several months just to get to 42% of the book because I would get bored with it and put it away, then tell myself I had to finish it and begin again. It's more a daily list of activities than anything else. This epic war is raging all around and the journal is focusing on trivialities. I thought it would be more descriptive of what life was like during the wartime period but was disappointed.
May 23, 2025
Unfiltered Southern View of the Civil War
Hard to sympathize with the entire Southern Aristocratic society. As her country burned around her, the writers focused largely on social engagements, dances, plays and dinner parties... Unreal.
General Sherman and those damned Yankees are the antagonists. Her attitudes prove Sherman was right. "Let them feel the heavy hand of war."
Hard to sympathize with the entire Southern Aristocratic society. As her country burned around her, the writers focused largely on social engagements, dances, plays and dinner parties... Unreal.
General Sherman and those damned Yankees are the antagonists. Her attitudes prove Sherman was right. "Let them feel the heavy hand of war."
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