Winner of the 1982 Pulitzer Prize in History

“A great epic drama of our greatest national tragedy.”—William Styron, New York Review of Books
 
“A feast for Civil War buffs…. One of the best firsthand records of the Confederate experience…. Electrifying.”—Walter Clemons, Newsweek
 
“Here is a book to curl up with over a whole lifetime—to read and reread, to ponder and savor.”—Selma R. Williams, Boston Globe
 
“A painfully brilliant record of our old America at daggers drawn…. Mary Chestnut’s wit and shrewdness, her fierce abhorrence of slavery, her feminist ambitions, maker her observations peculiarly modern… C. Vann Woodward’s editing… is exemplary…. He has reacquainted us with a remarkable woman; and she has reacquainted us with the living past.”—Andrew Klavan, Saturday Review
 
“Here is the rich and full context, as the author herself recreated it. It is by all odds the best of all civil War memoirs, and one of the most remarkable eye-witness accounts to emerge from that or any other war.”—Louis D. Rubin, Jr., New Republic
 
“Chestnut’s prose and insights dazzle. Lively sketches, biting characterizations, entertaining anecdotes, and vivid reflections fill the page.”—Catherine Clinton, Journal of American History 
 
“Thanks to [C. Vann Woodawrd], we have the first authoritative text of this great work now revealed as the masterpiece it is; the finest work of literature to come out of the Civil War, perhaps one of the half dozen or so most important diaries in all literature; if you will, a Southern War and Peace.”—Reid Beddow, Washington Post Book World