GLEANINGS FROM SOUTHLAND: Sketches of Life and Manners of the People of the South Before, During and After the War of Secession, with Extracts from the Author's Journal and an Epitome of the New South
Birmingham: Roberts & Son, 1895. First Edition. Hardcover. Cumming (c.1828-1909) was a Civil War nurse and diarist whose writings are an invaluable source on southern nursing, Confederate hospitals, military movements, women's experiences in the war, and the gradual breakdown of the Confederacy. This work is an annotated revision of her book, A Journal of Hospital Life in the Confederate Army of Tennessee from the Battle of Shiloh to the End of the War (1866). In keeping with her belief in Lost Cause ideology, she dropped passages critical of various southerners' actions during the war, including cotton planters who refused to grow food and wealthy women who did not nurse, as well as those sections that highlighted the lack of southern unity during the war. Octavo: 277, [1, blank] pp. with a frontispiece portrait. Original cloth binding, with blind-stamped borders and gilt-stamped titling. Period ink gift inscription to the front flyleaf. The spine is toned, with some rubbing to the corners and tips; else very good. Very good. Item #80083
Price: $150.00