Mama, I Am Yet Still Alive
A Composite Diary of 1863 in the Confederacy
by
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In the far back corner of the research library of the United Daughters of the Confederacy Memorial Building in Richmond, Virginia, stand a row of neglected file cabinets. Hiding inside are thousands of unpublished letters, diaries and journals of common soldiers, wives and civilians from every state of the Confederacy. Their heirs have been forwarding originals, copies and transcriptions of these treasures to the UDC since 1958. When Jeff Toalson was shown these files, and given the opportunity to mine these treasures, his research for Mama, I Am Yet Still Alive – A Composite Diary of 1863 in the Confederacy began. More than a hundred of the two hundred and twenty ‘voices’ who tell this story are unpublished and you will ‘hear’ them speak for the first time in over one hundred and forty-nine years.
Sgt. Robert Elliott of the 35th Alabama writes from the swamps of Mississippi, “we have camped in nothing but a swamp full of some of the biggest snakes that I have ever seen in My life all we need now is a few aligaters to make the place interesting . . .”
Miss Emily Robbins, a young woman from St. Louis, Missouri, notes in a letter to her brother, everybody is getting married . . . I believe I will get married too – no I wont either . . . [but] if this war continues in a year or two there will not be many masculines left . . .”
Private Norval Baker of the 18th Virginia Cavalry writes from near the Potomac River, “Our horses backs were raw with ulcers one and two inches deep and full of maggots. The green flies had put up a job on us . . .”
As 1863 draws to a close Private J. H Armstrong of the 14th Texas writes from Bayou De Glaze, Louisiana, “ . . . the long moss grows here on nearly every tree and from 2 to 3 feet long and we can get enough in half an hour to make a layer 3 or 4 inches thick under us, it is a great help to the soldiers . . . Pray that this foolish & wicked war may soon pass away . . .”
These four writers will ‘speak’ to you fifteen times and two hundred and sixteen of their fellow citizens will tell you seven hundred more stories. These are not the ‘voices’ of generals and politicians. These are farmers, nurses, clerks, nuns, privates, sailors, chaplains and farm wives. The magic of their ‘voices’ will humble you with their simple, honest power.
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About the Book
Civil War studies normally focus on military battles, campaigns, generals and politicians, with the common Confederate soldiers and Southern civilians receiving only token mention. Using personal accounts from more than two hundred forty soldiers, farmers, clerks, nurses, sailors, farm girls, merchants, surgeons, chaplains and wives, author Jeff Toalson has created a compilation that is remarkable in its simplicity and stunning in its scope.
These soldiers and civilians wrote remarkable letters and kept astonishing diaries and journals. They discuss disease, slavery, inflation, religion, desertion, blockade running, and their never-ending hope that the war would end before their loved ones died. A major portion of these documents were unpublished and were made available by the Brewer Library of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
With this, his third significant contribution to Civil War literature, Jeff Toalson joins the select company of Thomas W. Cutrer and Bell I. Wiley as historians who have devoted their body of work to preserving the ‘voices’ of common Confederate soldiers and civilians.
About the Author
Missouri native Jeff Toalson earned a BS in business management from Missouri State University. He is the author of numerous works on the Civil War. Toalson lives in Williamsburg, Virginia, with his wife, Jan.