Voice from the Past: A Christmas Bundle

Good Morning! Today’s Voice from the Past is Julia Ellen LeGrand Waitz of New Orleans, Louisiana. The following excerpt is from a December 1861 diary entry.

Just completed another bundle of clothes for poor Claude, which we hope will reach him before Christmas, the other bundle having failed to reach him… My heart turns so lovingly to our poor brother — shall I ever see him again? Will he die in battle, or will this wretched cough that keeps me awake at night and makes me feel so worn and weak in the morning, kill me before he can return a victorious soldier?

Citation: Julia Ellen LeGrand Waitz, “Diary of Julia LeGrand Waitz, December, 1861,” in The Journal of Julia LeGrand, New Orleans 1862-1863 ( Rowland, Kate Mason and Croxall, Agnes E., eds. (Richmond, VA: Everett Waddey Co., 1911), 318.

Image Credit: Harper’s Weekly, January 4, 1862

Leave a Reply

A Lady and A Diary from Dixie

Good morning! Our Women’s History Month celebration continues with this tribute to Mary Boykin Chesnut. Mary Boykin Chesnut is perhaps the best known female diarist of the Civil War. Born…