Diaries

Diaries record the daily events of the writer's life. The Heritage Center has a number of diaries. According to the database, there are 146 diaries at the Center. Some are well-known, like Jane Beale's, Woman in a War Torn Town or excerpts published in the Central Virginia Battlefield Trust Journals, others are notes on the day's happenings like weather, birthdays, illnesses, deaths, by Togo Gray and W.F. Liebenow.

Keith Pitzer (1920 - 1973) was a Fredericksburg artist who lived at the Lewis Store, 1200 Caroline Street. Pitzer, known for his paintings and for his cartoons in "Diamond Dust," a daily newsletter for the 5th Infantry Division during World War II, kept a diary between 1935 and 1936.

War at our Doors: The Civil War Diaries and Letters of the Bernard Sisters of Virginia, by Rebecca Campbell Light, is a first person account by Helen Bernard of Gay Mont near Port Royal, who observed the Civil War from her home.

Then there is The 1861 Diary of Ann (Forrest) Green of Rosedale. Mrs. Green lived in the Tenleytown area of Washington, DC. She kept a diary for her daughter, Mary Imogene Green Lewis (1832 - 1913), of Marmion in King George. Mrs. Green had no idea when she started the diary on January 2, 1861, of the events that would evolve during the following year. Tensions were building, men were joining regiments, soldiers were drilling and Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth, a New York Zouave and close friend of President Lincoln was killed at the Marshall House Hotel in Alexandria on May 26th. There was illness and many deaths. The First Battle of Manassas or Bull Run was fought on July 23; Mrs. Green could hear the cannon fire.

Even when we know the outcome, reading these first-hand observation is so personal and much more interesting than just recounting events and dates.

Come and immerse yourself in history by reading some diaries at the Heritage Center.