Mary Boykin Chesnut

Mary Boykin Chesnut is one of the most important voices of the American Civil War with her unique perspective from inside Confederate halls of power. Her husband James Chesnut, Jr, served in the South Carolina legislature, and in 1858 was elected to the U.S. Senate. He resigned from office after Lincoln's 1860 win, then returned south to help draft the ordinance of secession and attend the First Confederate Congress. He was a close aide to Jefferson Davis for much of the war as history unfolded.

Thursday, November 5, 2015

April 1865, Chester, South Carolina

"We are going to stay. Running is useless now. So we mean to bide a Yankee raid, which they say is imminent, Why fly? They are everywhere, these Yankees—like red ants—like the locusts and frogs which were the plagues of Egypt."