A Philadelphia Perspective: The Civil War Diary of Sidney George Fisher

A Philadelphia Perspective: The Civil War Diary of Sidney George Fisher
ISBN-10
0823227286
ISBN-13
9780823227280
Category
Biography & Autobiography
Pages
294
Language
English
Published
2007
Publisher
North's Civil War
Author
Sidney George Fisher

Description

An aristocratic member of a prominent Philadelphia family, Sidney George Fisher (1809-1871) was a prolific man of letters. Between 1834 and 1871, he kept a detailed diary that chronicled not only daily life in America's second city but also the key political, social, and cultural events of the nineteenth century. Published in 1967, Fisher's diary quickly became one of the most remarkable works of its kind; few published diaries are as incisive and illuminating of their era. This book makes available once again the pages of Fisher's diary written during the Civil War. As he wrote on November 9, 1861, "My diary has become little else than a record of the events of the war, which occupies all thoughts and conversation." His "record of the events" is a uniquely valuable portrait of a city, and a nation, at war. Fisher recorded nearly every aspect of his daily life, including conversations on street corners, arrests of civilians for treason (which included members of his family), critiques of partisan speeches, descriptions of battles, accounts of runaway slaves, and tales of mob violence. At the same time, he reports on dinners, parties, weddings, and funerals among the city's elite. Brilliant journalism, the Diary is rich with Fisher's own observations--on secession, war and peace, his admiration for Lincoln, and his complicated feelings about slavery and emancipation. The Diary, with a new introduction by Jonathan W. White, joins those of George Templeton Strong and Mary Boykin Chesnut as classic windows on America during the War Between the States.

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