Chesnut later became the first southerner to resign his seat in the US Senate, following Lincoln's victory in the presidential election.Ĭhesnut was present at the birth of the Confederacy in Montgomery, Alabama in February 1861, witnessing the inauguration of President Jefferson Davis. Amid the strong personalities of the Chesnut clan, Mary struggled to adjust and found life more stimulating once they moved to Washington DC when her husband took his seat at the Senate. They went to live with James’ parents at Mulberry, the Chesnut plantation three miles south of Camden. In April 1840, she married Chesnut, eight years her senior and another member of South Carolina’s leading class. Mary Boykin Miller was born on March 31, 1823, the daughter of Stephen Decatur Miller, an eminent South Carolina politician, who served as governor and in Congress. Her diary provides a unique perspective on the political and societal realities of life in the Confederacy as well as first-hand accounts of important events like the bombardment of Fort Sumter and the start of the Civil War. Mary Chesnut, wife of former US Senator James Chesnut, started to write a diary as South Carolina made the momentous decision to be the first state to secede from the Union.
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