25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
interesting look at home life very near battlefields, November 15, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: A Woman's Civil War: A Diary with Reminiscences of the War, from March 1862 (Wisconsin Studies in Autobiography) (Paperback)
I read this journal/reminiscence during a short period in whichI read several other Confederate women's diaries and reminiscences,and something that made this one particularly significant in my opinion was that unlike some of the other southern women whose writings I read, Cornelia McDonald lived along a major battlefront of the Civil War from the early months on. Thus, although she definitely preferred to have the Confederate forces around her and appears to have retained some bitterness toward the Union government after the war, she had a more complex view of Union soldiers than did some other Confederate women who lived further from the warfront through much of the war. She mentions the kindness of a shoemaker in her town who sympathized with the Union cause but made shoes for her large family of children even though she could not pay him, and at one point she even has a good word for the Union general who heads the forces occupying the town where she lives. The story of her struggle to feed and protect her children, help nurse soldiers, maintain tense but somewhat peaceable relations with soldiers who occupy her home, and support her family when she is eventually left alone is a story of courage, resourcefulness, pain, and gratitude. Cornelia had not lived only the life of a sheltered belle before the war, and despite the chaos around her, she manages to combine practicality and a love of beauty to keep enough sanity to survive the war and go on with family life afterward.
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An insight to life during the Civil war, September 8, 2005
I stumbled on Cornelia Peake McDonald when I discovered she was a relation. Of course I had to obtain this book when I was surprised to find her diary(or in this case an edited form of it) still in print.
This book is not for the light hearted history buff that wants the stories of battle. It is the diary of a woman living through extra-ordinary times. A diary that her husband asked her to keep when he announced that their town was going to be taken by the union while he had to go to Richmond. Col. Angus W. McDonald organized the 7th Virginia Cavalry and served on the staff of his friend Jefferson Davis.
The town of Winchester changed hands a few times. As such Cornelia was on the front lines. She had to deal with the union occupiers who were not too gentlemenly with seccesionists. Cornelia refused to turn over her house several times. Food was hard to obtain as access was denied to people that did not take an oath to the union. Yet she talks of union soldiers that violate orders and trade for flour and bread. As a good conferate she does not like the union forces as she describes life on the occupation. Yet she finds decent people that help her to what extent they can. In fact she even spoke up for a doctor that stayed in her house and did not bother her too much and kept soldiers from pillaging too much.
She speaks of fears of the occupation as everyday more and more mistreatment happens as people are forced from their homes. Some dropped in the middle of nowhere without food or money. The fact that women are accosted if they walk around in pairs. You feel hear heart ache at the loss of her youngest child.
Eventually she and her family become refugees to Lexington. You learn of her hardships as she deals with starvation and tried to get firewood for the family. Creating Confederate Candles, spinning wool for clothing. She even had to beg a man to make shoes for her boys.
She was faced with breaking up her family. Especially after the Col. died. She decided to keep them together no matter what. After the war, they learn their homestead was unusable and decide to stay where they are.
You also get to hear about the personalites of the war. She sits in a pew near Stonewall Jackson in church. Dinners with the Ashby brothers, meeting Robert E. Lee after the war. There are others that I will leave for you to find. :)
Cornelia is an interesting woman and a product of her era. She speaks out against slavery and yet is offended by actions of freed slaves. She speaks of the short lived effort of reconcelliation of the North that was destroyed by John Wilkes Booth. At first she is happy with Lincolns death as she thinks he got what he deserved. And yet on reflection she realizes it was a big mistake that will hurt the South. She talks about the abuse of Jefferson Davis and the fact an innocent woman and her innocent son go to the gallows for the assassanation.
It should be mentioned this is not the full diary and the fact she lost some of it as she moved around. Yet her memory is rather good as she rewrote events that were lost. She eventually penned a copy for each of her children.
All in all a facinating read about a tough resourcefull woman struggling to keep and feed her family.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A compelling read, March 19, 2006
This book provides a glimpse into the struggles and mindset of a southern wife & mom and her family during the civil war. Cornelia McDonald's fortitude and faith under extraordinary trials and tragedies is inspirational. We are a homeschooling family and I think this would be an excellent supplement to a high school student's studies of this time period.
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