Book description
A well-educated, outspoken member of a politically prominent family in
Bowling Green, Kentucky, Josie Underwood (1840-1923) left behind one of
the few intimate accounts of the Civil War written by a southern woman
sympathetic to the Union. This vivid portrayal of the early years of the
war begins several months before the first shots were fired on Fort
Sumter in April 1861. “The Philistines are upon us,” twenty-year-old
Josie writes in her diary, leaving no question about the alarm she feels
when Confederate soldiers occupy her once-peaceful town. Offering a
unique perspective on the tensions between the Union and the
Confederacy, Josie reveals that Kentucky was a hotbed of political and
military action, particularly in her hometown of Bowling Green, known as
the Gibraltar of the Confederacy. Located along important rail and water
routes that were vital for shipping supplies in and out of the
Confederacy, the city linked the upper South's trade and population
centers and was strategically critical to both armies. Capturing the
fright and frustration she and her family experienced when Bowling Green
served as the Confederate army's headquarters in the fall of 1861, Josie
tells of soldiers who trampled fields, pilfered crops, burned fences,
cut down trees, stole food, and invaded homes and businesses. In early
1862, Josie's outspoken Unionist father, Warner Underwood, was ordered
to evacuate the family's Mount Air estate, which was later destroyed by
occupying forces. Wartime hardships also strained relationships among
Josie's family, neighbors, and friends, whose passionate beliefs about
Lincoln, slavery, and Kentucky's secession divided them. Published for
the first time, Josie Underwood's Civil War Diary interweaves firsthand
descriptions of the political unrest of the day with detailed accounts
of an active social life filled with travel, parties, and suitors.
Bringing to life a Unionist, slave-owning young woman who opposed both
Lincoln's policies and Kentucky's secession, the diary dramatically
chronicles the physical and emotional traumas visited on Josie's family,
community, and state during wartime. Nancy Disher Baird is the author
of Healing Kentucky: Medicine in the Bluegrass State and coauthor of
Western Kentucky University: The First 100 Years. Since 1975 she has
served as professor and special collections librarian at Western
Kentucky University.
