An interesting volume, to be sure. Wright was the daughter of Louis T. Wigfall, who was a U.S. Senator from Texas at the outbreak of the Civil War. As Texas was one of the last southern states to officially secede, Wigfall insisted on keeping his seat in the Senate until the bitter end. He was present and played an important, if controversial, role in the attack on and surrender of Fort Sumpter and served briefly in the Confederate Army before becoming a member of the Confederate senate. A close friend of Jefferson Davis at the outset of the war, Wigfall and the Confederate president became more and more estranged during the war years, especially over the conduct of the war and Davis' treatment of Wigfall's friend, General Joseph E. Johnston.

I mention all that because much of this book consists of letters from the Wigfall family archives, including many between Wigfall and Johnston and a few from Davis.

Louise Wright was 15 at the outbreak of the war, so this book covers years of her late teens. The memoir sections of the book, then, give us the point of view of a young girl of Richmond society. Wright's memories of those years, as rendered through several decades of time (the book was written and first published in 1905) are certainly interesting, though of fairly limited scope and seen through a rather romantic haze of sentiment for the "glorious lost cause."

The letters to and from Wright and her father and, especially her brother, a young officer at the front throughout the war, are more interesting, all in all. The letters involving her father give a rather one-sided, but still illuminating, picture of some of the internal politics of the Confederate government.

Wright was an unapologetic defender of slavery, even in 1905, when these memoirs were written. Happily, there is only one brief mention of this topic. There is one humorous insight into Wright's patrician upbringing and status early on, however. Speaking of a time spent in Washington before the war, Wright says (and remember this is being written in 1905):

"The winter of '60 saw us in Washington with our quarters changed to Wormley's. This was more than forty years ago and was in the dawn of Wormley's fame as a caterer. . . . I can recall now, in these degenerate times of discomfort and bad servants, the admirable service rendered . . ." ( )

CAYAA