Georgietta W. Savage McLaughlin diaries, 1860-1867 (bulk 1861-1864)

Name:

McLaughlin, Georgietta Wade Savage

Timespan:

Civil War, 1861-1865

Date:

1860/1867

Description:

Initially a haphazard diarist, Georgietta starts dated entries in 1860 at the age of nineteen. The first volume (binding lost) begins with short essays apparently first written when she was a student at Wesleyan Female College. Also included in both volumes are poems, some written by others and some by Georgietta. In March 1863 Georgietta's husband asks her to be more conscientious about her diary, requesting that she try to write something every day. These entries end on 28 April 1865. One last dated entry occurs on 16 June 1867. Also included are three clippings, originally pinned onto pages of the diary; a letter, dated 31 May 1864, Lynchburg, from Dr. McLaughlin to Georgietta; a letter, dated 15 May 1864, from J. Jeffris to Georgietta; and a few other stray pieces. The diarist is fiercely loyal to the Confederacy and comes from a slave-holding family; she records military news as well as her experiences as a "refugee," having been forced to relocate several times during the course of the war, including such destinations as the Virginia towns of Williamsburg, Richmond, and Lynchburg, and finally Tallahassee, Florida.

Language:

English

Provenance:

Sold at Cowan's Auctions, 23 June 2011, lot 94.; Sold by Michael Brown Rare Books, list 114 (2011), no. 22.

Subject:

History

Form/Genre:

Diaries; Commonplace books; Manuscripts, American; Personal narratives

Physical Description:

2 volumes

Geographic Subject:

Virginia -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Women; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives, Confederate; United States; Virginia

Rights:

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/

Notes:

Georgietta Wade Savage was born in either 1840 or 1841 to George Wade Savage and his second wife, Frances Dunn, of Warwick County, Virginia. Georgietta graduated from Wesleyan Female College (now Wesleyan College) in Macon, Georgia, where she was inducted into the Philomathean Society. In 1860 she and her widowed mother were living in Hampton, Virginia. On 23 September 1862 she married Dr. David Linneus McLaughlin, a surgeon in the Confederate army. McLaughlin was born on 28 May 1832 in West Winfield, New York; he moved to Louisiana before the Civil War began. The couple had four children: Mary Virginia, born 23 February 1864; William Russell, born 16 July 1866; George, born in West Winfield, New York on 6 June 1868 (he died at the age of 32); and Linnetta Milton, born in Lekamah, Nebraska on 12 August 1874.; Acquired with the support of David Levine.

Physical Location:

Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Manuscripts, Ms. Coll. 842