Civil War Diary Edited by Nancy Baird Receives Award

The Military Order of the Stars and Bars has selected Josie Underwood’s Civil War Diary, edited by Nancy Disher Baird as the winner of the 2009 Basil W. Duke Award, which recognizes the publisher who reissues the best work in Confederate history.

Available for the first time in print, Josie Underwood’s Civil War Diary offers a vivid, firsthand account of a family that owned slaves and opposed Lincoln, yet remained unshakably loyal to the Union. Josie’s father, Warner, played an important role in keeping Kentucky from seceding. Among the many highlights of the diary is Josie’s record of meeting the president in wartime Washington, which served to soften her opinion of him. Josie describes her fear of secession and war, and the anguish of having relatives and friends fighting on opposite sides, noting in the spring of 1861 that many friendships and families were breaking up “faster than the Union.” The diary also brings to life the fears, frustrations, and deprivations of living under occupation in strategically important Bowling Green, KY known as the “Gibraltar of the Confederacy” during the war. Despite the wartime upheaval, Josie’s life is also refreshingly normal at times and she recounts travel, parties, local gossip, and the search for her “true Prince.”

6 Comments

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6 Responses to Civil War Diary Edited by Nancy Baird Receives Award

  1. timothy mullin

    This is a wonderful read… a fascinating tale, and available at the Kentucky Library & Museum gift shop.

  2. I really enjoy reading the libraries blog.

  3. James

    Where can we buy it from?

  4. Joy Medley Lyons

    The book deserves this award and should be considered for many others! I lvoed reading it and wil keep the book in my personal library. I also bought a copy for the Mammoth Cave National Park Library.

  5. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.

  6. It absolutely looks to be so.Great post by the way!