On the night of March 11, 1862, as the heavy tramp of Confederate marching troops died away in the distance--her husband's regiment among them--Cornelia Peake McDonald began her diary of events in war-torn Winchester, Virginia.
McDonald's story of the Civil War records a personal and distinctly female battle of her own--a southern woman's lonely struggle in the midst of chaos to provide safety and shelter for herself and her children. For McDonald, history is what happens "inside the house." She relates the trauma that occurs when the safety of the home is disrupted and destroyed by the...