Summary Of Civil War By Mary Chesnut

Mary Boykin Chesnut was a prominent member of the upper-class society in the South during the Civil War. She was married to James Chesnut, the general of the South Carolina reserves. Mary Chesnut is the author of her Civil War diary which details the society of Southerners during the war. She had access to a great deal of information through her husband, and she relays this information through her diary. Chesnut’s diary gives insight into pivotal events during the war and details her own opinions about the Civil War. Throughout her diary, Mary Chesnut details the upper-class society in the South, documents the divisions between Southerners during the war, and questions many of the beliefs of Southerners. Mary Chesnut was a prominent member

Mary Chesnut recorded each of the several events as she witnessed them, and also stated how she felt about them too. The first notable event that caused a division among Southerners was the election of President Lincoln. “ ‘That settles the hash.’ … ‘Lincoln's elected.’ … The excitement was very great. ‘The die is cast: no more vain regrets, sad forebodings are useless: the stake is life or death.’ … ‘Now that the black radical Republicans have the power I suppose they will Brown us all.’ No doubt of it” (Chesnut “Mary Chesnut Anticipates”). Some people absolutely despised the fact that Lincoln was elected, while others simply thought of it as any other election, and not the turning point for secession. Southerners were willing to go above and beyond for the sake of their state, beliefs, and neighbors, and Lincoln’s elections pushed their resentment for the North over the edge. Another division between Southerners was the issue of secession. This issue was a monumental division among Southerners in South Carolina. The majority of South Carolinians wanted to secede, but some wholeheartedly opposed the idea. “At Fernandina I saw young men running up a Palmetto flag, and shouting a little prematurely, ‘South Carolina has seceded!’ ” (Chesnut “Mary Chesnut Anticipates”). Chesnut did not know how she felt about this news, she was hesitant

One of the most controversial issues she wrote about is slavery. The question of slavery was a moral one. People were faced with the question of whether slavery was or was not okay for people to practice. Mary Chesnut often questioned slavery too. She detailed her opinions and experiences with slaves in her diary. “I wonder if it be a sin to think slavery a curse to any land … God forgive us, but ours is a monstrous system, a wrong and an iniquity!” (Chesnut “Excerpt from a Diary”). She once witnessed a female slave being sold at an auction, and she was immediately stricken with remorse and guilt. “The creature looked so like my good little Nancy, a bright mulatto with a pleasant face” (Chesnut “Mary Chesnut’s Civil”). She stated that she felt terrible for what they did to these slaves. “As a woman, her choices in regard to slavery were certainly limited, for she herself owned no slave property to free. But even her attitudes seem to reveal more of uncertainty and ambivalence than of the kind of implacable opposition abolitionism implies” (Faust). Chesnut felt bad for what the slaves had to go through, but she certainly was not an abolitionist. She showed sympathy for slaves, and she often doubted the practice of slavery too. She was not completely against slavery, but she did not promote it herself. One of the other beliefs Chesnut doubted was the southern patriarchy. “Chestnut's dissatisfactions with southern