Bacot, a 27-year-old widowed South Carolina plantation owner who was devoted to God and the Confederacy, found an answer to her prayer for ``something to do'' when her state recruited nurses. With other volunteers she headed for Charlottesville, Va., and a converted hotel run by what Berlin describes as the ``chaotic Confederate medical system.'' While most of the medical duties were handled by men--the wards being considered ``scarcely a place for a lady''--Bacot and the other volunteers tended to housekeeping, cooking and laundering for the patients, one of whom she married. Still, there was time for social activity which she recounts with zest. Berlin, a former history professor at the University of Virginia, who annotates the diary, emphasizes the importance of Southern women's contribution to the war effort. And though Bacot's relationships to her own slaves are beyond the scope of her diary, Berlin points out that the author reflects the plantation owner's paternalistic belief in the inferiority of blacks. (Dec.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

At the beginning of the Civil War Ada Bacot was a young, childless widow living on a plantation in South Carolina. Imbued with Confederate fervor and resenting the dependence of widowhood, she volunteered as a nurse at a hospital for South Carolinians in Charlottesville, Virginia. Her diary reports her efforts to secure approval for the trip and her adventures in Virginia from December 1861 until she returned home in January 1863. With an eye for readability, Berlin, an editor of Sherman's correspondence, has selected text (60 to 75 percent was cut) and annotated all references to people and places. The diary is quite good, providing insights on varied topics: relationships between nurses and doctors, race relations, the inner workings of southern hospitals, daily life in wartime, state rivalries within the Confederacy, and, above all, the ambivalent feelings of a woman striving to be both traditional and independent. A preface and epilogue supply additional information on Bacot; there is also an excellent index. Highly recommended for libraries collecting in women's history, the Civil War, and southern history. All levels. P. F. Field; Ohio University

Berlin, who coedited the correspondence of William T. Sherman, has selected entries from the Civil War diaries of a devout and intelligent slaveowner whose wartime nursing experiences proved both fulfilling and liberating. Few such diaries have been published, which makes Bacot's account of hospital routine especially valuable. Bacot was an intensely patriotic South Carolinian and Confederate. Her story will help to inform current scholarly debates over the role of women in the Confederacy (for another view, see Catherine Clinton's Divided Houses: Gender and the Civil War , Oxford Univ. Pr., 1992). Bacot's difficulties in dealing with slaves will be of interest to readers of Elizabeth Fox-Genovese's Within the Plantation Household ( LJ 12/88). Recommended for collections of Civil War history, women's history, Southern history, and medical history.-- Paul M. Pruitt Jr., Univ. of Alabama Sch. of Law Lib., Tuscaloosa (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.