Civil War Diary of Betty Herndon Maury

The House on Caroline Street will begin publishing in serial form here the Civil War Diary of Betty Herndon Maury in the very near future.

Elizabeth Herndon Maury was the daughter of Matthew Fontaine Maury, also known as Pathfinder of the Seas. She and her husband were living in Washington, D.C. before the outbreak of the war. She left Washington for Fredericksburg, Virginia, where she began her diary on June 3, 1861. The diary chronicles her life from then until February 18, 1863, when she breaks off in Richmond, about to be evicted from the house she has been renting there, eight months pregnant, fearful for the future.

This transcription of Betty Herndon Maury's diary was made from a microfilm copy of the handwritten diary and seeks to preserve Betty's spelling, grammar and punctuation.

Betty's sister, Diana Fontaine Maury Corbin, later published a biography of their father: A Life of Matthew Fontaine Maury, which can be found at:

http://books.google.com/books?id=-xEDAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=matthew+fontaine+maury&as_brr=1