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
~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
[This diary] of wartime accounts is a welcome new addition written by women from Kentucky
~HistoryNet
A personal and enlightening chronological account of the impact of the bloodiest episode in our nation's still-evolving history on one person's life and family.
~Bowling Green Daily News
