![[3734132] A Diary with Reminiscences of the War and Refugee Life in the Shenandoah Valley 1860-1865. (With letters from author, publisher, etc.). Cornelia McDonald.](https://rareamericana.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/3734132.jpg?width=768&height=1000&fit=bounds&auto=webp&v=1716405308)
A Diary with Reminiscences of the War and Refugee Life in the Shenandoah Valley 1860-1865. (With letters from author, publisher, etc.)
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Scarce first edition. This copy includes a notable full-page quarto letter, written in the year of publication, by Hunter McDonald, the annotator of the diary and contributor of a supplement, providing insights into the book’s publishing history and offering additional details about the McDonalds during the Civil War. Additionally, it includes a typed letter signed by the publisher elaborating on the work and a 4-page publisher’s prospectus.
Described by Coulter as “a valuable commentary on conditions in the Confederacy both in the territory occupied by Federal troops and in the Confederate regions. [Cornelia McDonald] lived in Winchester, Virginia, until Lee’s retreat from Gettysburg, where upon she became a refugee, going first to Amherst for a few months and then to Lexington, with a few visits to Richmond and Lynchburg… Mrs. McDonald was in Lexington when Hunter devastated the city in 1864 and gives first-hand descriptions of the burning of Governor Letcher’s home and the Virginia Military Institute, and with comments on the solemn respect these Federal troops showed to the memory of Stonewall Jackson when they marched by the cemetery where he lay buried.”
Description: A Diary with Reminiscences of the War and Refugee Life in the Shenandoah Valley 1860-1865. (With letters from author, publisher, etc.)
Nashville: Cullom & Ghertner Co., [1935]. Octavo. 540pp. Complete with three folding maps and numerous plates, some in color. Some soiling and darkening to publisher’s cloth binding and top-edge; light internal foxing; very good.
[3734132]Nevins, II:196. Coulter 307. In Tall Cotton 118 —“This is an excellent diary and commentary.” Eicher 363 — “McDonald delivers a diary account of the war as seen from her home in Winchester, Virginia. The work was expanded and written 10 years after the war (but not published until 1935), giving it a fullness it previously lacked, and apparently not diminishing the truthfulness of what it contains. Living in one of the most frequently occupied and counter-occupied towns of the war allowed this woman to witness much of significance. Her observation of Confederate and Union forces continued until the summer of r863, when she became a refugee and lived in several Virginia towns with relatives and friends.”
Price: $275.00