THE CIVIL WAR DIARY OF EMMA MORDECAI

A Jewish daughter of the Confederacy tells her story.

Of 150,000 Jews among 31 million Americans in 1860, between 20,000 and 25,000 lived in the South—about 0.2% of the population. Like those in the North, they considered themselves ordinary citizens, if suffering some traditional antisemitism. Scholars have barely explored the avalanche of 19th-century diaries resting in archives and state historical societies. One of them is Mordecai’s 1864-1865 journal, which occasionally delivers a vivid snapshot of the Civil War’s final year. Middle-aged and unmarried, Mordecai was living in Richmond, Virginia, when the Union army moved south in the spring of 1864. With the city threatened, she moved to a nearby farm owned by her sister-in-law, settled into a room, and began her diary. Both she and her sister-in-law owned slaves (she refers to them as “servants”). Literate and pious, she remained a loyal woman of the South, detesting Yankees and convinced that slavery was an admirable institution. Routine activities take up most of the text: chats with friends, sewing, meals, chores, weather, the contents of letters. Except for reports of Jewish holidays and appeals to God, her Jewishness plays a modest role; many of her family had converted to Christianity. As she wrote, armies clashed. She grew skilled at interpreting the source of cannon fire, but the news she received, mostly announcing Yankee defeats, doesn’t match the historical record. Soldiers appeared to appeal for water and food, and occasionally to steal, yet her farm remained untouched; a few relatives serving in Robert E. Lee’s army dropped in. Raw diaries are best skimmed. Fortunately, editors Ashton and Klapper do their duty with a long, insightful introduction on the historical background, Mordecai’s life before and after the war, and an overview of the diary’s contents.

Good niche history.