A Confederate Girl's Diary


Read by Jacquerie

(4.5 stars; 88 reviews)

Sarah Morgan Dawson was a young woman of 20 living in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, when she began this diary. The American Civil War was raging. Though at first the conflict seemed far away, it would eventually be brought home to her in very personal terms. Her family's loyalties were divided. Sarah's father, though he disapproved of secession, declared for the South when Louisiana left the Union. Her eldest brother, who became the family patriarch when his father died in 1861, was for the Union, though he refused to take up arms against his fellow Southerners. The family owned slaves, some of whom are mentioned by name in this diary. Sarah was devoted to the Confederacy, and watched with sorrow and indignation its demise. Her diary, written from March 1862 to June 1865, discourses on topics as normal as household routines and romantic intrigues to those as unsettling as concern for her brothers who fought in the war. Largely self-taught, she describes in clear and inviting prose, fleeing Baton Rouge during a bombardment, suffering a painful spinal injury when adequate medical help was unavailable, the looting of her home by Northern soldiers, the humiliation of life under General Butler in New Orleans, and dealing with privations and displacement in a region torn by war. She was a child of her time and place. Her inability to see the cruelty and indignity of slavery grates harshly on the modern ear. Regardless of how one feels about the Lost Cause, however, Sarah's diary provides a valuable historical perspective on life behind the lines of this bitter conflict. (Introduction by Christine Dufour) (13 hr 12 min)

Chapters

Introduction 18:45 Read by Jacquerie
Book I, Part 1 25:42 Read by Jacquerie
Book I, Part 2 40:31 Read by Jacquerie
Book I, Part 3 14:21 Read by Jacquerie
Book I, Part 4 10:28 Read by Jacquerie
Book I, Part 5 17:21 Read by Jacquerie
Book I, Part 6 25:36 Read by Jacquerie
Book II, Part 1 22:16 Read by Jacquerie
Book II, Part 2 22:14 Read by Jacquerie
Book II, Part 3 19:15 Read by Jacquerie
Book II, Part 4 18:12 Read by Jacquerie
Book II, Part 5 21:07 Read by Jacquerie
Book II, Part 6 15:25 Read by Jacquerie
Book III, Part 1 27:09 Read by Jacquerie
Book III, Part 2 29:30 Read by Jacquerie
Book III, Part 3 24:18 Read by Jacquerie
Book III, Part 4 30:41 Read by Jacquerie
Book III, Part 5 26:21 Read by Jacquerie
Book III, Part 6 24:41 Read by Jacquerie
Book III, Part 7 25:01 Read by Jacquerie
Book III, Part 8 22:58 Read by Jacquerie
Book III, Part 9 27:43 Read by Jacquerie
Book III, Part 10 33:06 Read by Jacquerie
Book III, Part 11 20:24 Read by Jacquerie
Book IV, Part 1 26:51 Read by Jacquerie
Book IV, Part 2 23:03 Read by Jacquerie
Book IV, Part 3 30:22 Read by Jacquerie
Book IV, Part 4 19:07 Read by Jacquerie
Book IV, Part 5 20:55 Read by Jacquerie
Book IV, Part 6 30:11 Read by Jacquerie
Book IV, Part 7 17:19 Read by Jacquerie
Book V, Part 1 15:46 Read by Jacquerie
Book V, Part 2 17:42 Read by Jacquerie
Book V, Part 3 28:33 Read by Jacquerie

Reviews

Excellent


(5 stars)

An excellently written and excellently read! Great story! Very fascinating! I had to remind myself several times that this was true events written on the days they occurred by a girl, not a fictitious story by a profession novelist.

A young Southern woman in Civil War


(4 stars)

another important perspective. She was a very normal pretty young lady and lost almost everything. A whole society collapsing. A huge destruction within a few years. Also civillians suffered tremendously.


(4.5 stars)

Excellently read. For anyone who has had family members suffer in war, the story expresses well the evils of war and touches the heart.


(5 stars)

I enjoyed the reader. Good book for those interested in a woman’s perspective during war years.

Rebel girls view


(5 stars)

Gritty telling without modern P.C. bs

Kim Kardashian, Confederate Heroine


(5 stars)

Imagine a girl as spoiled, entitled and undeserving of wealth and status as Kim Kardashian, talking smack about how the South will conquer those dastardly Yankees, then changing her mindset and allegiances the second ONE Yankee officer marches through Baton Rogue to demand the city's surrender and you have this book pretty much nailed. Hilarious. Well read. Contains laugh out loud scenes like: Miss Morgan and her family fleeing the city, making one and a half miles on foot, and pulling up exhausted on the side of the road, having never done a day of work or walked that far in their spoiled lives. A classic of comeuppance, a paradigm of humanity's ability to delude itself and rationalize the pursuit of self interest, even to the point of selling out its own previously professed ideals. Very enlightening look into the mind of the Southern aristocracy that dragged the nation to war and cries about the outcome to this day.

Important perspective beautifully read


(5 stars)

A Confederate Girl's Diary provides an intimate view of a Confederate (not that I do not say "the") perspective. This book is of great value to true students interested in the study of primary documents to better understand history as opposed to merely reading someone else's version of it. Sarah Morgan Dawson's first-hand chronicle of her family's suffering in loss of life, home, and property juxtaposed against the playful spirit of a witty, well-bred young woman was a gift to future generations who desire to thoughtfully explore the Southern experience.

Five stars for the reader only!


(5 stars)

If Sarah Dawson Morgan was typical of Dixie ladies, I don't like Dixie Ladies. She is what I would call a bitch. No star for her or the book.