Mary Gresham’s grief over invalid son’s death echoes from 1865

[Rsmyth]

Roger, Laurie, thank you for posting this historical record of a bygone era and the sorrow felt by a mother for the death of a son who suffered for years but brought her joy. Leroy's daily notations of life in the south during the war are enlightening. Some sections of the diary and the mother's letter to her sister makes one think of the turmoil that brought about the war. The son of a privileged planter, the family had about 70 slaves at their in town mansion and plantation. Leroy writes almost nonchalantly that a neighbor hung one of his slaves for insubordination and the mother decries that not one of their recently set free slaves returned to pay their respects when her son died. I am sure the sister agreed that it was quite an insult. The diary is written honestly by a teenager suffering physically, isolated and engulfed by the war time drama around him. It is quite remarkable.