War the Women Lived

Organized chronologically, these engrossing diary excerpts written by 23 white Southern women during the Civil War document the hardships they and their families endured, the suffering they witnessed and the risks many of them took. Although Sullivan, a novelist (A Time to Dance) and professor of English at Vanderbilt Univ., states in his introduction that the diarists opposed slavery, only Dolly Lunt Burge mentions having any qualms (``I have never felt that slavery was altogether right''), while most express a deep commitment to the Confederacy and a casual acceptance of the plight of African Americans. Rose O'Neal Greenhow and Belle Boyd were Confederate spies who provide details of their espionage activities, for which they were later imprisoned. There are many harrowing descriptions of the damage inflicted by Sherman's march through Georgia, as well as accounts of the compassionate nursing the women provided to wounded soldiers in makeshift hospitals. (Jan.)