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About Mary Boykin Chesnut
(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut (March 31, 1823 – November 22,
1886) was a South Carolina woman famous for keeping an extremely
detailed diary describing the American Civil War.
She was born in Statesburg, South Carolina, to Mary Boykin
and Stephen Decatur Miller, who had been a U.S. Senator and
governor of South Carolina. On April 23, 1840, she married
James Chesnut, Jr., who was elected to the Senate in 1850.
Once the Civil War broke out, James became an aide to Jefferson
Davis and a brigadier general in the Confederate Army. They
lived in Charleston, South Carolina.
Mary's diary began on February 15, 1861, and ended on August
2, 1865. It was a diary on her impression of events as they
unfolded during the Civil War. Because she had no children,
the diary passed to one of her friends upon her death. It
was first published in 1905 as A Diary from Dixie, and an
expanded edition was published in 1949. Yet another edition,
edited by C. Vann Woodward and entitled Mary Chesnut's Civil
War, was published in 1981 and won a Pulitzer Prize the next
year.
About The Kershaw-Cornwallis House
(Work Sited: Gayle P. Clement)
The Kershaw-Cornwallis House was originally built in 1777.
It was reconstructed in 1977. Home of Camden's founder, Joseph
Kershaw, it was used as headquarters for General Lord Cornwallis,
Lord Rawdon, Banastre "Bloody" Tarleton, and other British
officers during the occupation of 1780-81. Kershaw, in the
meantime, was exiled to Bermuda until after the war. He died
at the house in 1791.
At the end of the Kershaw ownership in 1805, the house was
used as an orphanage, a school, then again as a residence.
It eventually declined into use as a Confederate warehouse.
During the short Union occupation of Camden in 1865, it was
burned to the ground. After the old house was gone, the ground
continued to be used for exercises by local militia; the water
head at the foot of the hill still bears the name of Muster
Spring. The Kershaw-Cornwallis House is part of the Historic
Camden 107-acre outdoor museum complex that offers a view
of life during the Colonial and Revolutionary War periods
in Camden and Kershaw County. For more information please
visit http://www.camden-sc.org/
About King Haigler, Catawba Indian Nation
King Hagler, Chief of the Catawba Nation (1750-1763). A noble
Catawba Indian who befriended early Camden settlers, King
Haiglar is often called "The Patron Saint of Camden." Today,
he reigns over Camden in the form of a life-sized weather
vane which graces the tower of what once was the circa-1886
Opera House, now a local department store. 950 Broad Street,
Camden.
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