A Confederate Diary (Abridged)

This is the diary of a North Carolina farmer, Bartlett Yancey Malone, who fought during the American Civil War from July, 1861, to November, 1863, when he was captured and made prisoner. He performed no extraordinary feat of heroism, at least none was recorded; he participated with distinction in no political movement of importance; he played no role which would cause historians to single him out for particular notice. But his diary is of great human interest which reveals, with often comical quaintness of expression, the thoughts of a simple soldier of the ranks—the thoughts, it is to be presumed, of a mass of men, which have oftentimes been inarticulate. There is a frankness about this diary that conveys inevitably—the conviction of sincerity. Half the fun of reading Bart's diary is trying to ferret out his meanings: "A certen cewer for the Toothack if the tooth is hollow take a pease of the scale that is on a horses leg and put it in the hollow of the tooth It is a serten cewer so sais J. H. Lyon." [A certain cure for the toothache, if the tooth is hollow, take a piece of the scale that is on a horse's leg and put it in the hollow of the tooth. It is a certain cure, so says, J.H. Lyon.] Every memoir of the American Civil War provides us with another view of the catastrophe that changed the country forever.