Another Year Finds Me in Texas : : The Civil War Diary of Lucy Pier Stevens / / Vicki Adams Tongate.

• VerfasserIn: Tongate, Vicki Adams,
• Place / Publishing House: Austin : : University of Texas Press, , [2021]; ©2016
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (382 p.)

Lucy Pier Stevens, a twenty-one-year-old woman from Ohio, began a visit to her aunt’s family near Bellville, Texas, on Christmas Day, 1859. Little did she know how drastically her life would change on April 4, 1861, when the outbreak of the Civil War made returning home impossible. Stranded in enemy territory for the duration of the war, how would she reconcile her Northern upbringing with the Southern sentiments surrounding her? Lucy Stevens’s diary—one of few women’s diaries from Civil War–era Texas and the only one written by a Northerner—offers a unique perspective on daily life at the fringes of America’s bloodiest conflict. An articulate, educated, and keen observer, Stevens took note of seemingly everything—the weather, illnesses, food shortages, parties, church attendance, chores, schools, childbirth, death, the family’s slaves, and political and military news. As she confided her private thoughts to her journal, she unwittingly revealed how her love for her Texas family and the Confederate soldier boys she came to care for blurred her loyalties, even as she continued to long for her home in Ohio. Showing how the ties of heritage, kinship, friendship, and community transcended the sharpest division in US history, this rare diary and Vicki Adams Tongate’s insightful historical commentary on it provide a trove of information on women’s history, Texas history, and Civil War history.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- Acknowledgments -- Editorial Practices -- Dramatis Personae -- Timeline -- Map of Texas -- Introduction. Lucy: Herself, Her Family, Her Friends -- Chapter 1. January 1863 -- Chapter 2. February 1863 -- Chapter 3. March 1863 -- Chapter 4. April–May 1863 -- Chapter 5. June–July 1863 -- Chapter 6. August–September 1863 -- Chapter 7. October–December 1863 -- Chapter 8. January–February 1864 -- Chapter 9. March–April 1864 -- Chapter 10. May–June 1864 -- Chapter 11. July–September 1864 -- Chapter 12. October–December 1864 -- Chapter 13. January 1865 -- Chapter 14. February–March 1865 -- Chapter 15. April 1–16, 1865 -- Chapter 16. April 17–May 4, 1865 -- Lucy: Her World after Tex -- Bibliography -- Index