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  A VIRGINIA GIRL IN THE
  CIVIL WAR




  A VIRGINIA GIRL
  IN THE CIVIL WAR
  1861-1865

  BEING A RECORD OF THE ACTUAL EXPERIENCES
  OF THE WIFE OF A CONFEDERATE OFFICER

  _COLLECTED AND EDITED BY_
  MYRTA LOCKETT AVARY

  [Illustration]


  NEW YORK
  D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
  1903




  COPYRIGHT, 1903
  BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY


  _Published February, 1903_




INTRODUCTION


This history was told over the tea-cups. One winter, in the South, I
had for my neighbor a gentle, little brown-haired lady, who spent many
evenings at my fireside, as I at hers, where with bits of needlework
in our hands we gossiped away as women will. I discovered in her
an unconscious heroine, and her Civil War experiences made ever an
interesting topic. Wishing to share with others the reminiscences she
gave me, I seek to present them here in her own words. Just as they
stand, they are, I believe, unique, possessing at once the charm of
romance and the veracity of history. They supply a graphic, if artless,
picture of the social life of one of the most interesting and dramatic
periods of our national existence. The stories were not related in
strict chronological sequence, but I have endeavored to arrange them
in that way. Otherwise, I have made as few changes as possible. Out of
deference to the wishes of living persons, her own and her husband’s
real names have been suppressed and others substituted; in the case of
a few of their close personal friends, and of some whose names