Mary Boykin Chesnut was the daughter of a wealthy and influential South Carolina politician. Married to a brilliant politician, James Chesnut, Jr., Mary Chesnut was able to circulate among the elite of Charleston, Washington and Richmond. During the Civil War, she began a diary that has become known as one of the finest accounts of that conflict. Thanks to her observations—by turns witty, insightful and biting—we can chronicle the reaction of the Southern elite to the rise and fall of the Confederacy.
