Introduction
Diary of a Southern Refugee During the War provides Judith McGuire’s account of her Civil War experience. McGuire recorded the struggles she and her family encountered as wartime refugees, as well as her contributions to the Confederate war effort. In the introduction to Diary of a Southern Refugee During the War, Judith McGuire claimed she only intended for her family to read her wartime journal, not the general public. Others encouraged her to have it published to reveal the wartime suffering of the South. The Diary first became available to readers in an 1867 printing by E.J. Hale of New York. A second printing occurred the following year. J.W. Randolph & English of Richmond, VA published a third edition in 1889. (1)
Competing with male-dominated accounts of the Civil War
Civil War memoirs by soldiers and politicians sold far more copies than McGuire’s Diary. Readers of the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries valued the male perspective of the Civil War over the female perspective of the War. Although such works may have overshadowed McGuire’s work during that time, readers did appreciate the historical content the Diary provided. One Judith McGuire obituary in The Times (Richmond, VA.) states that the Diary “has been considered the best inside history of the Confederate war.”(2) Matthew Page Andrews’s The Women of the South in War Times, first published in 1920, contains excerpts from various diaries and letters in order to make the reader aware of the sacrifices women made for the Confederacy. In this work, Andrews showers McGuire’s Diary with the following praise: “Her story is the simple record of a courageous, self-sacrificing wife and mother who endured privations without complaint, encourage Southern soldiers on the way to battle, and comforted the sick and wounded sent back to homes or to hospitals.” A large amount of McGuire’s Diary entries are provided in this work.(3)
Civil War Books: A Critical Bibliography, edited by respected Civil War historians Allan Nevins, James I. Robertson, Jr., and Bell I. Wiley came out in 1967. This work reviews Matthew Page Andrews’s The Women of the South in War Times. Civil War Books mentions that Andrews’s work contains excerpts from McGuire’s Diary, which the editors claim to be “one good Civil War diary” containing details on Richmond during the war.(4)
The Diary’s value during the rise of Herstory
During the 1960’s, women’s accounts of historical events began to be widely used by historians in their scholarly works and narratives, providing the public with accounts and recollections of history from a female perspective. In 1966, Mary Elizabeth Massey’s Bonnet Brigades provided accounts of southern and northern women’s activities and contributions during the American Civil War. Massey also authored Refugee Life in the Confederacy and Ersatz in the Confederacy: Shortages and Substitutes on the Southern Homefront, both of which were published prior to the Bonnet Brigades. All three of Massey’s works mention accounts from McGuire’s Diary of a Southern Refugee during the War.(5)
One would think that Judith McGuire’s Diary of a Southern Refugee during the War would be a more valued research tool to historians as women’s history becomes mainstream. However, McGuire had competition from other diarists and women in Confederate and Civil War history. Whereas McGuire’s Diary has been public since 1867, historians were discovering other sources that appealed more to their tastes of women making achievements during the War. Why has McGuire’s Diary struggled to appeal to historians?
In identifying with the Confederate cause, Judith McGuire contributed to the war effort through typical gender roles of the times. Society regarded sewing, bringing food and cheer to soldiers, and, to a minor extent, visiting the wounded as acceptable wartime functions for women.(6) Judith McGuire did manage to live up to these expectations during the war for a few years, despite the limitations she encountered as a refugee. She sewed and, for the most part, supported the soldiers with enthusiasm. The visitation of the wounded was a long-term devotion she made throughout the war. Even home manufacture and clothing repairs for herself were acceptable tasks, although McGuire’s engagement in these tasks did end her sewing for soldiers. However, with the Confederate economy in shambles, it was necessary for McGuire to join the workforce. Not only was it inappropriate to McGuire, but working limited the time she devoted to the Robertson Hospital. Judith McGuire did not view joining the workforce to be an accomplishment.(7) As a result, her views about gender roles during the Civil War may disenchant readers with a more liberal, feminist viewpoint.
Other southern women diarists went beyond gender roles of the time or challenged them. Some embraced the opportunities the Civil War provided them. Kate Cumming and Phoebe Yates Pember took pride in their employment at Confederate hospitals, at times going beyond the call of duty.(8) Judith McGuire was a volunteer who read the Bible to patients. Cumming, Pember, and many others managed their hospitals. Their achievements may be more impressive to historians researching women in the workforce.
Mary Chesnut overshadows Judith McGuire
Other diarists, notably Mary Boykin Chesnut, privately expressed in journals their frustrations regarding gender roles of the time.(9) Historian Sylvia D. Hoffert wrote an article titled “Mary Boykin Chesnut: Private Feminist in the Civil War South,” providing several explanations for the popularity of Mary Chesnut to historians and the public. Chesnut never publicly challenged the gender role expected of her, which, according to Hoffert, appeals to conservative readers of Chesnut’s diary. Yet, because Mary Chesnut’s diary also contains feminist views, she appeals to liberal historians and readers. Chesnut also questioned some of slavery’s evils, especially miscegenation. Although she did not denounce the institution of slavery or the benefits it provide her, her doubts about certain aspects of slavery appeal to liberal readers, according to Hoffert. Judith McGuire, on the other hand, wholeheartedly supported the gender roles of her time, as well as slavery. Such viewpoints do not appeal to progressive historians and readers. Perhaps these are the reasons Anne Frior Scott does not cite McGuire in “The War” chapter of The Southern Lady: From Pedestal to Politics, a book that highlights Southern women’s history.(10)
The late eighties and early nineties saw two new works focusing on the economic changes white southern women endured during the Civil War, as well as the challenges such women faced while retaining the traditional racial and gender roles during and after the War. George C. Rable quotes from McGuire’s Diary in Civil Wars: Women and the Crisis of Southern Nationalism. Rable, however quotes and cites Mary Chesnut’s work far more frequently. Drew Gilpin Faust’s Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War only mentions McGuire twice in this study. Accounts from other elite southern women, including Chesnut, receive more attention. Both historians admit they had a wealth of resources for their works.(11) It appears that Chesnut and the other sources added more value to these narratives of the southern women’s Civil War experience than Judith McGuire’s Diary of a Southern Refugee.
Judith McGuire is even overshadowed in encyclopedias. The “Diaries, Civil War” entry in The Companion to Southern Literature gives McGuire a two sentence description, mostly about her work as a Commissary Department clerk. Mary Chesnut, of course, gets an entire paragraph, as do other women diarists.(12)
Judith McGuire does not have an entry in the four-volume Encyclopedia of the Confederacy. Mary Chesnut has a page and a half. McGuire is mentioned in the entry for “Plantation Mistress.” However, McGuire was a minister’s wife, not a plantation mistress.(13) Other works briefly mention McGuire and classify her in error. Kirsten Wood mentions McGuire in her work Masterful women: slaveholding widows from the American Revolution through the Civil War, although McGuire was not a widow until after the Civil War.(14) Little is known of Judith McGuire, resulting in mistakes by scholars.
Scholars know more about Mary Chesnut than Judith McGuire. Mary Chesnut’s Civil War edited by C. Vann Woodward is an excellent work that makes Chesnut accessible. Woodward explains the evolution of Chesnut’s journal into printed format. He also provides a brief Mary Chesnut biography. The diary itself is annotated, providing additional background information to the reader. Readers of Mary Chesnut’s Civil War obtain a better understanding of Chesnut than by reading Chesnut’s A Diary from Dixie.(15)
Although C. Vann Woodward found gaps in the actual “journal” Mary Chesnut kept during the Civil War, he did have access to notes, newspaper clippings, and revisions Chesnut added to her diary over a twenty year period.(16) Unfortunately, the original diary McGuire kept cannot be compared to the printed editions, because the original diary is not known to exist. In her article “Judith W. McGuire. A Lady of Virginia,” Willie T. Weathers claimed that a portion of the Diary’s manuscript was found in Tappahannock, Virginia decades after McGuire’s 1897 death. This copy was subsequently donated to the Museum of the Confederacy. The Museum of the Confederacy reported this item missing in 1999.(17) Therefore, any content McGuire added or omitted from her original record is unknown.
Although Judith McGuire’s Diary of a Southern Refugee during the War was republished in 1972 and 1995, these editions do not annotate McGuire’s Diary. The 1995 edition has an introduction to the Diary by historian Jean V. Berlin. However, the introduction is more of a summary of the Diary rather than a biographical sketch of McGuire.(18) In any future reprint, Diary of a Southern Refugee during the War should be modeled after C. Vann Woodward’s Mary Chesnut’s Civil War.
Recent recognition of Diary’s value
Some historians feel that McGuire’s Diary of a Southern Refugee has been overlooked. Jean Berlin states in her 1995 introduction to Diary of a Southern Refugee during the War that Mary Chesnut dominates the subject of women in Civil War Richmond, Virginia. Berlin concludes that Diary of a Southern Refugee during the War should be regarded as a genuine wartime experience of McGuire’s class.(19) Janet E. Kaufman authored Judith McGuire’s entries in the first and second editions of American Women Writers. Kaufman concludes both entries by stating that it’s “unfortunate” McGuire’s Diary hasn’t received major attention.(20)
Several works from the last decade have given Judith McGuire notoriety. The encyclopedia Women in the American Civil War gives McGuire a full entry. The Virginia at War 1861-1864 books, edited by William C Davis and James I. Robertson Jr., includes the full Diary of a Southern Refugee entries up to 27 July 1864. The remainder of the Diary will appear in the forthcoming Virginia at War, 1865. In each Virginia at War volume, Robertson provides background information about McGuire and the Diary. The reprint of the Diary, edited by Robertson, contains annotations explaining, verifying, and disputing McGuire’s account of events.(21) This source is a good introduction to Judith McGuire and her Diary of a Southern Refugee during the War.
Conclusion
It is doubtful that the Diary of a Southern Refugee during the War will ever be a lost account of the Civil War. However, this resource will continue to be overshadowed by other accounts of the Civil War. Readers may find the Diary too conservative. More articles should be written about McGuire and the Diary. A fully-annotated, one-volume edition of Diary of a Southern Refugee would enhance McGuire’s work. Once such an edition is published, perhaps Judith McGuire may rival Mary Chesnut as the southern woman’s account of the Civil War.
Endnotes
(1) [Judith W. McGuire], Diary of a Southern Refugee During the War, Third edition (Richmond: J.W. Randolph & English, Publishers, 1889), [5] (contains all quotes); In 1867, Diary of a Southern Refugee During the War was first published by E.J. Hale & Son of New York, then reprinted in 1868. J.W. Randolph & English of Richmond, VA published a third edition in 1889. All three editions have the same pagination. I prefer the third edition because it contains an appendix, titled “Corrections,” that lists most of the full names that were abbreviated or left blank in the text of the Diary. Return to text
(2) “OBITUARY: Mrs. Judith W. McGuire,” The Times (Richmond, VA.), 23 March 1897. Return to text
(3) Matthew Page Andrews, The Women of the South in War Times (Baltimore: Norman, Remington Co., 1920), p.71-72 (contains quote), 73-104, 155-196, 372-397, 404-412. Return to text
(4) Allan Nevins, James I. Robertson, and Bell Irvin Wiley. Civil War books; a critical bibliography (Baton Rouge: Published for the U.S. Civil War Centennial Commission by Louisiana State University Press, 1967), 180, 196. Return to text
(5) Mary Elizabeth Massey, Bonnet Brigades (New York: A. A. Knopf, 1966; reprinted as Women in the Civil War, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994); Mary Elizabeth Massey, Refugee life in the Confederacy (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1964); Mary Elizabeth Massey, Ersatz in the Confederacy (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1952). Return to text
(6) For more information regarding slaveholding Southern women, their opinions regarding slavery, and their support for the Confederacy, see the following works: Mary Elizabeth Massey, The Bonnet Brigades (New York: A. A. Knopf, 1966; reprinted as Women in the Civil War, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994); Anne Firor Scott, The Southern Lady. From Pedestal to Politics 1830-1930 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970; reprint, Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1995); Drew Gilpin Faust, Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996; New York: Vintage Books, 1997); George C. Rable, Civil Wars: Women and the Crisis of Southern Nationalism (Urbana IL: University of Chicago Press, 1991); Edna Susan Barber, “Sisters of the Capital:” White Women in Richmond, Virginia, 1860-1880 (PhD. diss., University of Maryland, 1997); Amy E. Murrel, Two Armies: Women’s Activism in Civil War Richmond, (honors thesis, Duke University, Spring 1993). Return to text
(7) Tim Sheehan, Economy Rules the Day: The The Civil War Sacrifices of Judith Walker McGuire (2005), http://historynut.info/economyrules/index.html. Return to text
(8) Kate Cumming, A Journal of Hospital Life in the Confederate Army of Tennessee : from the Battle of Shiloh to the end of the War: with Sketches of Life and Character, and Brief Notices of Current Events during that period (Louisville, KY: John P. Morton & Co., 1866); Kate Cumming, Kate: The Journal of a Confederate Nurse, ed. Richard Barksdale Harwell (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Univ. Press, 1959); Phoebe Yates Pember, A Southern Woman’s Story; Life in Confederate Richmond. Including Unpublished letters written from the Chimborazo Hospital (Jackson, TN: McCowat-Mercer Press, 1959); Kate Stone, Brokenburn; The Journal of Kate Stone, 1861-1868 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, [1955]). To locate other Confederate women's diaries, see “Diaries, Civil War,” The Companion to Southern Literature: Themes, Genres, Places, People, Movements, and Motifs, ed. Joseph M. Flora and Lucinda H. Mackethan (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2002), 207-211. Return to text
(9) Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut, A Diary from Dixie, as written by Mary Boykin Chesnut, wife of James Chesnut, Jr., United States Senator from South Carolina, 1859-1861, and afterward an aide to Jefferson Davis and brigadier-general in the Confederate army, ed. Isabella D. Martin and Myrta Lockett Avary (New York, D. Appleton and company, 1905). For an excellent edited edition of A Diary from Dixie, see Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut, Mary Chesnut’s Civil War, ed. C. Vann Woodward. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981). Return to text
(10) Sylvia D. Hoffert, “Mary Boykin Chesnut: Private Feminist in the Civil War South,” Southern Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of the South (Volume 16, no. 1, Spring, 1977): 81-89. Return to text
(11) George C. Rable, Civil Wars: Women and the Crisis of Southern Nationalism (Urbana IL: University of Chicago Press, 1991); Drew Gilpin Faust, Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996; New York: Vintage Books, 1997). Return to text
(12) “Diaries, Civil War,” The Companion to Southern Literature: Themes, Genres, Places, People, Movements, and Motifs, ed. Joseph M. Flora and Lucinda H. Mackethan (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2002), 207-211. Return to text
(13) Encyclopedia of the Confederacy, ed. Richard Nelson Current (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993), Plantation mistress entry on page 1218, Chesnut entry on page 298. Return to text
(14) Kirsten E. Wood, Masterful Women: Slaveholding Widows from the American Revolution through the Civil War (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004), 166-167. Return to text
(15) Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut, Mary Chesnut’s Civil War, ed. C. Vann Woodward. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981); Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut, A Diary from Dixie, as written by Mary Boykin Chesnut, wife of James Chesnut, Jr., United States Senator from South Carolina, 1859-1861, and afterward an aide to Jefferson Davis and brigadier-general in the Confederate army, ed. Isabella D. Martin and Myrta Lockett Avary (New York, D. Appleton and company, 1905). Return to text
(16) C. Vann Woodward, “Diary in Fact - Diary in Form,” Mary Chesnut’s Civil War, ed. C. Vann Woodward. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981), xv-xxix. Return to text
(17) Willie T. Weathers, “Judith W. McGuire: A Lady of Virginia,” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography (vol. 82, no. 1, 1974): 100-113; Email, John M. Coski to Tim Sheehan, 14 June 1999. Return to text
(18) [Judith W. McGuire], Diary of a Southern Refugee During the War (New York: Arno Press, 1972); Jean V. Berlin, “Introduction,” Diary of a Southern Refugee During the War, by a Lady of Virginia (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press,1995). Return to text
(19) Jean V. Berlin, “Introduction,” Diary of a Southern Refugee During the War, by a Lady of Virginia (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press,1995), xiii. Return to text
(20) Janet E. Kaufman, “Judith White Brockenbrough McGuire,” American Women Writers: a Critical Reference Guide from Colonial Times to the Present, ed. Lina Mainiero (New York: Ungar, 1979), 94-95. Return to text
(21) Amy Minton, “McGuire, Judith White Brockenbrough (1813-1897),” Women in the American Civil War, ed. Lisa Tendrich Frank (Santa Barbara, CA.: ABC-CLIO, 2008), 387; Although Virginia at War, 1861 provides all entries from 1861, it does not provide the reader with McGuire's introduction found in other editions of Diary of a Southern Refugee During the War. Judith Brockenbrough McGuire, “Diary of a Southern Refugee During the War, 1861,” edited by James I. Robertson, Virginia at War, 1861, ed. William C. Davis and James I. Robertson (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2005); Virginia at War, 1862 contains January through 30 August 1862 entries. Judith Brockenbrough McGuire, “Diary of a Southern Refugee During the War, January-July 1862,” edited by James I. Robertson, Virginia at War, 1862, ed. William C. Davis and James I. Robertson (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2007); Virginia at War, 1863 contains entries from 2 September 1862 through 28 May 1863. The entry listed as “13th [November 1862]” in Virginia at War, 1863 page 149 is listed as the “12th” in the 1867 and 1889 editions of the Diary. Judith Brockenbrough McGuire, “Diary of a Southern Refugee During the War, September 1862-May 1863,” edited by James I. Robertson, Virginia at War, 1863, ed. William C. Davis and James I. Robertson (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2009); Virginia at War, 1864 contains entries from 1 June 1863 through 27 July 1864. While the content of the 26 June 1863 entry is in Virginia at War, 1864 page 164, it is not listed as the “26th” as it is listed in the 1867 and 1889 editions of the Diary. Judith Brockenbrough McGuire, “Diary of a Southern Refugee During the War, June 1863-July 1864,” edited by James I. Robertson, Virginia at War, 1864, ed. William C. Davis and James I. Robertson (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2009). According to various online retailers, the expected release date of Virginia at War, 1865 is 3 November 2011. Return to text
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