The journals of Josiah Gorgas, 1857-1878
By: edited by Sarah Woolfolk Wiggins ; with a foreword by Frank E. Vandiver.
Contributors: Wiggins, Sarah Woolfolk, 1934-
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
Published: 1995
Place of publication: Tuscaloosa
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 305
ISBN-13: 9780817307707
Subjects: Gorgas, Josiah, 1818-1883 -- Diaries.; Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877) -- Alabama.; Generals -- Confederate States of America -- Diaries.; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives, Confederate.; Alabama -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865.
Description: Josiah Gorgas was best known as the highly regarded Chief of Confederate Ordnance. Born in 1818, he attended West Point, served in the US Army, and later, after marrying Amelia Gayle, daughter of a former Alabama governor, joined the Confederacy. After the Civil War he served as President of the University of Alabama until ill health forced him to resign.

His journals, maintained between 1857 and 1878, reflect the family's economic successes and failures, detail the course of the South through the Civil War, and describe the ordeal of Reconstruction. An added dimension is the view of Victorian Family life as Gorgas explored his feeling about aspects of parental responsibility and transmission of values to his children - a rarely documented account from the male perspective.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [281]-288) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: Genealogy of the family of Josiah and Amelia Gorgas; title: Prologue; title: Antebellum : January 1857-March 1861.; title: Her affectionate companionship is sufficient for me; title: My great regret is the wandering life we are obliged to lead; title: Civil War : June 1862-May 1865.; title: Brilliant hopes which centered in the possession of Richmond; title: The Confederacy totters to its destruction; title: Has war ever been carried on like this; title: Such a war, so relentless and so repugnant; title: Can we hold out much longer?; title: The prospect is growing darker and darker about us; title: Reconstruction : May 1865-July 1878.; title: I am as one walking in a dream; title: Our works progress slowly; title: Harrassed with debt and surrounded with troubles; title: Our company affairs are very much embarrassed; title: I am now daily teaching; title: I was not well pleased with the action of the Board of Trustees; title: Epilogue; title: Biographical directory; title: Manuscript sources; title: Printed sources