Mary Boykin Chesnut's Civil War diary is one of the most insightful and well-written accounts of the war and of life in the Confederacy. According to her biographer, Elisabeth Muhlenfeld, Chesnut's text is, "Of all the books to come directly out of the Civil War, one of the most remarkable" and "an important literary portrait of the Confederacy." Chesnut's blending of fiction with diary and memoir created an impressive work of personal recollection, social commentary, and literary anecdote. The liberties taken by her various editors altered Chesnut's work, sometimes significantly, causing some controversy and confusion about the diary, which Chesnut began writing just before the Civil War.

Born at Mount Pleasant, the home of her maternal grandparents in Statesburg (now Stateburg), South Carolina, to Mary Boykin and Stephen Decatur Miller, Mary Boykin Miller was the eldest of four children. Her father was a lawyer and politician, who served...