Books

Primary sources are usually the best starting point for research. Many women wrote diaries and books about their experiences during the Civil War. Their first-hand accounts are wonderful sources of information on clothing, food, manners and customs of the 1860s.

There are literally hundreds of these diaries and reminiscences available online and in libraries and collections. This is a short list of books that are generally available on major online bookstores such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Check to see if the book is also available for free on places like Kindle, Google Books or Archives.org.

Civil War Digital is a free resource that has many of these books and more. 

BOOKS WRITTEN BY CONFEDERATE LADIES

Baker, Cheryl Jackson, Affectionately Your’s: The Civil War Letters of William R. Jackson and His Wife Julia

Henrietta Fitzhugh Barr, The Civil War Diary of Mrs. Henrietta Fitzhugh Barr, 1862-63

Fannie A. Beers, Memories: A Record of Personal Experience and Adventure during Four Years of War

Belle Boyd, Bell Boyd in Camp and Prison
Bell Boyd, Confederate Spy

Laura Nisbet Boykin, Shinplasters and Homespun: Diary of Laura Nisbet Boykin

Mary Polk Branch, Memoirs of a Southern Woman "Within the Lines"

Lucy Buck; Sad Earth, Sweet Heaven: The Diary of Lucy Rebecca Buck

Mary Adelia Byers, Torn by War: The Civil War Journal of Mary Adelia Byers

Susan Caldwell, My Heart Is So Rebellious: The Caldwell Letters 1861-1865

Mary Chesnut, A Diary From Dixie

Anna Maria Cook, The Journal of a Milledgeville Girl, 1861-1867

Kate Cumming, Kate: The Journal of a Confederate Nurse

Belle Edmondson, A Lost Heroine of the Confederacy: The Diaries and Letters of Belle Edmondson

Catherine Ann Devereux Edmondston; Journal of a Secesh Lady: The Diary of Catherine Ann Devereux Edmondston, 1860-1866

Augusta Jane Evans, Augusta Evans Wilson, 1835-1909: A Biography

Mary Ann Harris Gay, Life in Dixie during the War

Rose O'Neal Greehow, My Imprisonment and the First Year of Abolition Rule at Washington

Parthenia Antoinette Hague, A Blockaded Family: Life in Southern Alabama During the Civil War

Elizabeath P. Hardin, The Private War of Lizzie Hardin: A Kentucky Confederate Girl's Diary of the Civil War in Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia

Emma Holmes, The Diary of Miss Emma Holmes, 1861-1866

Julia LeGrand, The Journal of Julia Le Grand, New Orleans, 1862-1863

Betty Herndon Maury, The Confederate Diary of Betty Herndon Maury, 1861-1863

Maverick, Mary A., Memoirs of Mary A. Maverick: A Journal of Early Texas

Cornelia Peake McDonald, A Woman's Civil War: A Diary, with Reminiscences of the War, from March 1862

Cotton, Gordon A. ed, From the Pen of a She-Rebel: The Civil War Dairy of Emilie Riley McKinley

Judith McGuire, Diary of a Southern Refugee during the War

McNeill, Sallie, The Uncompromising Diary of Sallie McNeill: 1858-1867

Sarah Morgan, The Civil War Diary of Sarah Morgan

Elizabeth Scott Neblett, A Rebel Wife in Texas: The Diary and Letters of Elizabeth Scott Neblett 1852-1864

Laetitia LaFon Ashmore Nutt, Courageous Journey: The Civil War Journal of Laetitia LaFon Ashmore Nutt

Kate Featherson Peddy, Saddle Bag and Spinning Wheel: Being the Civil War Letters of George W. Peddy and Kate Featherson Peddy

Phoebe Yates Pember: A Southern Woman's Story: Life in Confederate Richmond

Journal of Mrs. Eugenia Levy Phillips, 1861-1862

Margaret Junkin Preston, The Life and Letters of Margaret Junkin Preston

Sara Agnes (Mrs. Roger) Pryor, Reminiscences of Peace and War

Kate Stone, The Journal of Kate Stone, 1861-1868

Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas, The Secret Eye: The Journal of Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas, 1848-1889

Wright, Louise Wigfall.  A Southern Girl in ’61: The War-Time Memories of a Confederate Senator’s Daughter


BOOKS WRITTEN BY UNION LADIES

Maria Lydig Daly, Diary of a Union Lady, 1861-1865

Hannah Ropes, Civil War Nurse: The Diary and Letters of Hannah Ropes

Harriet Eaton, This Birth Place of Souls: The Civil War Nursing Diary of Harriet Eaton

Louisa May Alcott, Hospital Sketches

Frances Dallam Peter, A Union Woman in Civil War Kentucky: The Diary of Frances Peter

Caroline Cowles Richards, Village Life in America 1852-1872 Including the period of the American Civil War as told in the diary of a school-girl
Sarah Jane Full Hill, Mrs. Hill's journal: Civil War reminiscences  

Mary A. Livermore, My Story Of The War: The Civil War Memoirs Of The Famous Nurse, Relief Organizer, And Suffragette

James C. Mohr, Ed., The Cormany Diaries: A Northern Family in the Civil War

Cornelia Hancock, Letters of a Civil War Nurse: Cornelia Hancock, 1863-1865

Salome Myers Stewart, The Ties of the Past: The Gettysburg Diaries of Salome Myers Stewart, 1854-1922

G. W. Cable, Ed., War Diary of a Union Woman in the South

Richard L. Kiper, Ed., Dear Catharine, Dear Taylor: The Civil War Letters of a Union Soldier and his Wife 

Georgeanna Woolsey Bacon & Eliza Woolsey Howland, My Heart Toward Home: Letters of a Family During the Civil War 

Clara Barton, The Story of the Red Cross
Clara Barton, The Story of My Childhood