True Tales of the South at War: How Soldiers Fought and Families Lived, 1861-1865 Book

Although a compilation consisting mainly of short excerpts from the original sources - often with limited or no attributes - I found Clarence Poe's book to be a helpful snapshot of southern feelings.

This is indeed a confederate work - by the grandson of a confederate soldier - focused on the experiences and the plight of those in the southern states during the Civil War. You have wartime letters, diaries, reminiscences, and summaries of the difficulties experienced by those at home as they attempt to provide support to the army, and some of the letters they received in response.

In the diaries, in particular, you hear of the support of the cause - for southern rights and liberty - and concern and support for their loved ones in the army. You hear of the betrayal experienced as slaves "abandon" the family. You also hear of the potential granting of freedom to the slaves as a last-ditch southern effort to win the war, and the dismay of the diary writers. Of the slaves that stuck with their families no matter what, due to "loyalty." And of the devastation - emotional and physical - that the south undergoes as the war is lost.

What you don't hear is any remorse at owning slaves, or any statement around slavery as the basis of the war. The war, in the southern letters and diaries here, is centered around the"southern liberty" and "southern freedom." If you see irony there, you're not alone.

I don't believe any of the letters and diaries are available, unedited, in other books or resources - but hopefully there are more complete excerpts in other sources. The diaries of Looking Glass Plantation, near Raleigh, and of a woman working in Richmond Virginia, offered particular insight.

As an aside, it's remarkable how similar the unverified rumors, alarms, and concerns - documented by these women in the middle of war - are to the misinformation I see on every day on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and in my snail mail. We're not at war now, but sometimes this 2020 election makes it feel like we are, and that made the hyperbole of this book, on top of its oblivion to human rights, even more uncomfortable to read.