This is a diary , memoir, biography of a Salome Meyers Stewart of Gettysber. It is an item of Civil War memorabilia and is fits into a library of Americana , and specifically that genre of Civil War history . It has the feel of a local history project and the book is the outcome of research by a great, great granddaughter of the diarist . Iit is of particular interest to Civil War history buffs and those interested in Gettysburg history . The diary extends over the period 1854 to 1922, so runs well beyond the Civil War. Salome or Sallie was a daughter , sister, wife , mother, and ultimately a matriarch of her family . Her descendants are still alive today . She was born in 1842 and died in 1922 and lived long enough to achieve the vote. She was educated, literate, intelligent and her life and diary illustrate a life of industry , Chrisian endeavour and earnestness as well as one of fierce independence . Sallie applied herself to learning Latin, astronomy and music . She was a talented seamstress , a self taught nurse of men wounded in the Battle of Gettysburg and then a teacher and supported herself and her young son through these efforts. The US Civil War and the Battle of Gettysburg marked the defining and catastrophic events of her life and and her lifespan . Nothing was ever the same thereafter . I found it interesting to read about a woman who was a feminist and an independent thinker a long time before feminism was politically labelled . She married the man of her dreams but he was a disabled civil war veteran who died within 11 months of her marriage . Sallie gave birth to her son Henry (she financed his education and ultimately he became a doctor) shortly thereafter but never married again and managed to support herself through sewing , dressmaking and teaching . The diary entries are short and very staccato like , and in recording the daily happenings of an ordinary life of a woman of her times, quite ordinary and sometimes boring . The fascination of her story lies in the era and that this is a direct voice from the Civil War. what was it like to live through a massive battle in your town and live to tell the tale. This is a real Gone with the Wind epic life . It is remarkable too that the diary, although some has been lost, was written up so consistently , over so many decades and so carefully preserved. . The diary makes a book of substance because it has been expanded and placed at least in a local history context by family letters, and editorial elaboration . The most absorbing chapters are about the battle and the soldiers nursed by Sallie . Photographs bring the characters of soldiers to life. Here was a woman who had to rise to the challenge of living in the midst of a fierce and brutal civil war and had to offer human care, and compassion to the men who were wounded. She was heroic and courageous without ever setting out to be so. Remarkably this was a woman ahead of her time who as a pioneering teacher , believed in equality of education for black and whites in America and for over 16 years selflessly taught in a school for black children in Gettysburg . The weakness of the book is that it does not rise above being the story of one woman , to use this unusual document and remarkabke life to say more about the evolution of women's rights in America or to ask broader questions about class and social mobility or to probe the significance of Gettysberg in the Civil War or even to explain the background to the war and the flow of events. In summary, this is a sound book and a personal or family history story of note , but it could have been a great book with more reflection about context and meaning. ( )