When I saw the Savas Beatie twitter feed tweet about an article on the new book they were releasing "The War Outside My Window: The Civil War Diary of LeRoy Wiley Gresham, 1860-1865" I was interested, but even more so after reading the article that gave more information about the book. I don't believe I've done any sort of review thread on any Civil War books I've read before but I wanted to do one about this book because I really enjoyed it and wanted to pass along my recommendation so others might check it out.
There have been diaries published from people that went through the Civil War, the diary by Mary Chesnut probably being the most well known. But I really enjoyed this book because it gave a daily perspective from a teenager from the beginning of the war until his death in June 1865. As someone that has done a lot of genealogical work on my own family since 2010, I found it fascinating to read about the daily life of someone who lived in those days because it was a small window into the normal every life of people in the 1860's. That being said, LeRoy Wiley Gresham had a better every day life than most others in the South, his father was mayor of Macon, Georgia twice and they had a couple of plantations. But wealthy family or not, Leroy could not escape tuberculosis and the fact that rich or poor there was no cure for it in those days. He also had plenty of time write in his diary because several years before he began the diary he had an unfortunate accident where a chimney from an old vacant home collapsed and crushed one of his legs.
As the war goes on, he is able to get battlefield reports pretty early on because of his father's stature in the area. I found myself watching the dates as I knew important battles were coming up in the time line so I could see his reaction to them. It is interesting the news that trickled down, how much of it was true or false, which often times it was more of the latter. LeRoy began to become more cynical about the veracity of the reports as the war went on and he realized how much was rumor or just plain falsehoods. More than just his thoughts on the war I found myself sympathizing with the pain that he must be enduring due to his tuberculosis and his leg injury that never healed. He could only travel by being pulled in a wagon and spent most of his days at home. As you read it becomes clear that LeRoy has not been told that his "cough" is terminal until near the end, which heightens the sadness for the reader as they see his many early entrees about hoping the cough will go away or his leg will heal, but knowing it never will.
More than just a diary on the war, you begin care more about the human element, the deaths from sickness all around him, and his own growing illness and daily suffering. I've always seen the statistics about how many soldiers died from disease during the war, but reading about the sickness of just one family and how often it happened, I came away with a much greater appreciation for the modern medical technology that we have around us now. By the end of the book, I was sad to see it end and know that LeRoy had died after reading page after page of his daily life. The book finishes with a heartrending emotional letter from his mother to her sister where she admits that they had not told LeRoy he was dying until he basically figured it out himself near the end.
This book is not about strategy or tactics of the Civil War so it may not be for all of our readers. But if you're looking for a small window into the time period from a perspective not often seen, then I highly recommend this book.
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