A Confederate Girl's Diary

Many citizens wrote diaries during the Civil War. The surviving documents are an important first-person resource for historians studying the day-to-day effects of the war on the population. Sarah Morgan (1842 - 1909) was a former New Orleans debutant, having been born into an influential family. As she was to discover, her social status did not shield her from the frightful effects of the war. Her father, a prominent judge, died from an asthma attack. She lost one brother in a duel, and two others who died in battle. Yet, she had one brother who remained loyal to the Union. Sarah began her diary in 1861 and it finally consisted of six books ending in 1865. At war's end, she was living in New Orleans. She later moved to Columbia, SC, to live with her brother, James Morgan. In 1874, she married an Englishman, Francis W. Dawson, and never returned to Baton Rouge. In 1913 Sarah's son, Warrington Dawson, published a book, "A Confederate Girl's Diary", using his mother's six diaries, which she had instructed him to burn after her death. These diaries are a remarkable depiction of the occupation of Baton Rouge by the Union Forces. The war left her with feelings of bitterness that she never quite got over. Towards the end of her diary, she so poignantly remarked, "Let historians extol blood-shedding; it is woman's place to abhor it."