Sarah Morgan Dawson lived in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, at the outbreak of the American Civil War. In March 1862, she began to record her thoughts about the war in a diary-- thoughts about the loss of friends killed in battle and the occupation of her home by Federal troops. Her devotion to the South was unwavering and her emotions real and uncensored. A true classic.

Sarah Morgan Dawson lived in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, at the outbreak of the American Civil War. In March 1862, she began to record her thoughts about the war in a diary-- thoughts about the loss of friends killed in battle and the occupation of her home by Federal troops. Her devotion to the South was unwavering and her emotions real and uncensored. A true classic.

The author, a native of Baton Rogue, Lousiana, records her experiences as a young lady living in the Confederacy during the War Between the States. The war divided her family when her eldest brother decided to remain loyal to the Union and three of her other brothers accepted positions in the Confederate Army and Navy. Her diary is filled with personal insights and emotion and is one of the more exceptional first-hand accounts of the war years of 1861-1865.

Nineteenth-century Louisiana writer Sarah Morgan Dawson is best known for the diary she kept during the Civil War. From March 1862 until April 1865, Dawson chronicled her thoughts and experiences, providing one of the most detailed accounts of civilian life in wartime Louisiana. A gifted storyteller, Dawson recorded her feelings about the Confederacy, war, politics, refugee life, and women's place in society against the backdrop of Louisiana's invasion and occupation by Union troops.Born in New Orleans on February 28, 1842, Sarah Ida Fowler Morgan was the seventh child of Judge Thomas Gibbes Morgan and his second wife, Sarah Hunt Fowler. In 1850, the family relocated to Baton Rouge, where Thomas worked as a district attorney and later a district judge. After less than a year of formal education, Dawson studied under the tutelage of her mother at the family home on Church Street. Her comfortable home life began to unravel at the beginning of the Civil War. Civil War DiaryIn April 1861, Dawson's brother, Henry Waller Fowler Morgan, died in a duel. Later the same year, her father—who opposed secession but supported his state once it seceded—died at home. When Dawson began her diary in January 1862, she was still mourning the loss of her kin in addition to the departure of her three remaining brothers—Thomas Gibbes Jr., George Mather, and James Morris Morgan—to the Confederate army and navy. In Baton Rouge with her mother and sisters, Dawson recorded the scarcity of food and household items as a result of the Union blockade, remarking that “Confederate” amounted to anything that was “rough, unfinished, unfashionable or poor.”In April 1862, David Glasgow Farragut captured New Orleans, and by May, the Federal onslaught on Baton Rouge had begun in earnest. With her “running bag” packed and her personal papers piled on her bed ready to burn, Dawson used her diary to record a warning to any Federal soldier who attempted to “Butlerize—or brutalize” her in the attack. “I will show you the use of a small seven-shooter,” she wrote, “and large carving knife which vibrate between my belt, and pocket, always ready for use.”Within days of the attack, Sarah, her mother, and her sisters, Miriam Antoinette Morgan and Eliza Ann Morgan LaNoue, were forced to abandon their home for safer quarters in Clinton. Inhabiting a sparsely furnished one-bedroom apartment, Dawson documented the hardships of refugee life. In August 1862, Dawson accepted an invitation from her sister-in-law, Lydia Carter Morgan, to visit the Carter plantation, Linwood, in East Feliciana Parish. At Linwood, she wrote about her isolation from the privations of the war, and the frequent visits by groups of Confederate soldiers encamped at nearby Port Hudson.

Not quite twenty-years old, Sarah Morgan began her diary in January 1862, nine months after the start of the Civil War. She writes of her many brothers, the turmoil of the devasted South and events of the war. For the first time, the entire diary has been published unabridged.

Excerpts from the diary of Carrie Berry, describing her family's life in the Confederate South in 1864. Supplemented by sidebars, activities and a timeline of the era.

If you were the privileged daughter of a wealthy judge, life in Louisiana in the years before the War Between the States was heavenly. 1862 brought a crashing halt to the good times. Life became hell on earth. Federal officials singled you out for the harshest punishment because you were a known "Rebel." Rabid secessionists, hated you if you didn't proclaim your hatred for the "Yankees." An intelligent young lady with brothers on both sides of the conflict was trapped in the middle of a war she never wanted. Sarah Morgan's diary relives her joys and sorrows as she watches her home town sacked, flees in the night to escape the exploding shells yet finds joy in trivial things. Her tiny canary, a gift from her brother is her favored pet. Outings with friends and quiet family gatherings share her chronicle with the death of her two brothers. Through it all Sarah recounts life as she lived it, always against the backdrop of the war that took her from her life of privilege to refugee hovels. As the war grinds to its final conclusion, Sarah must take refuge with her older brother who has remained loyal to the union. No account of this time is more poignant and more reveling of the real life of those who kept the home fires burning.