Josie Underwood's Civil War Diary
"Winner of the 2009 Basil W. Duke Award given by the Military Order of the Stars and Bars" --""A little gem of Civil War literature… It gives a uniquely clear and penetrating analysis of the home front in the 'brothers' war,' with a vivid picture of a family who owned slaves, believed in slavery, hated abolitionism, opposed Lincoln and held him in utter contempt, yet was unshakably loyal to the Union."--Charles P. Roland, Alumni Professor of History Emeritus, University of Kentucky" --""This private journal of an educated woman, a lady of the slaveholding gentry in Bowling Green, is written with clarity giving details of lengthy conversations, opinions and explanations for the differing beliefs." --Louisville Courier Journal" --""An important primary source.... Baird's attention to detail and context in the editing... increases its value, both as a general read and as a research tool."--Journal of Southern History" --""Josie Underwood's diary is the most valuable addition to Kentucky Civil War history in years, and has been edited to give readers an easy yet thorough glimpse at the tensions of the era." --Bowling Green Daily News" --""The Underwood diary provides fascinating descriptions of the Civil War's devastating effects within Kentucky, one of the four Union slave-holding "border states" that occupied Lincoln's political and military thinking in the early years of the war." --President Lincoln's Cottage" --""The diary provides a good examination of the war in south-central Kentucky and lends another quality female voice to the growing number of published wartime diaries." --Register of the Kentucky Historical Society" --""As a Unionist in one of the more pro-Southern sections of the state, Underwood provides a fascinating window into the early years of the Civil War in Kentucky.--Ohio Valley History" --""There are common pleasures, the efforts at normalcy, of 'southern people loving the south,' amid the desciptions of destruction, death, and loss. Her voice is animated and personal."--Kentucky Libraries" --""Josie's diary is lively and keeps the reader enthralled by relating what was happening to her and around her."--Daily Oklahoman" --