"The 230 letters collected in this volume paint a portrait of southern life from the late antebellum era through Reconstruction.".

"Mary and her husband, Charles Leverett, an Episcopal clergyman and low country planter, raised five girls and four boys in Beaufort District near McPhersonville and in Richland District just outside Columbia. The family's correspondence, often written in a consciously literary style, describes the mundane and the extraordinary with equal vitality.

Revealing intimate perspectives on the war from the battlefield and the home front, the letters recount everyday sacrifices and landmark events, including the death of the commanding officer at Fort Sumter and the burning of Columbia. In addition, they provide insight into the importance of education, the challenges of providing for a large household, and the interactions between black and white for a family in many ways representative of the slaveholding planter class.".

"Unlike most collections of Civil War letters, the Leverett correspondence is remarkable for its inclusion of letters written before and after the conflict."--BOOK JACKET.