A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital

Book excerpt: The most quoted journal of the Civil War years came from the pen of a New Jersey civilian who went South at war's outbreak and worked for four years as a clerk in the Confederate States War Department. John B. Jones' detailed chronicle, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, remains today among the top dozen printed primary sources on government and politics in the beleaguered South. Its entries cover every day of the conflict; Jones never left Richmond for the entire four years of the war. He was the constant spectator to men and events in a swollen, bustling city that was both the center of the Confederacy and the principal target of Union military might. Jones's position as a high-level clerk in the War Department gave him an extraordinary perspective from which to view the Southern government in action; it also provided him access to confidential department files- the contents of which leaked sporadically into the unofficial diary that Jones maintained. This journal is also one of the few sources from the time that mention prices and weather -- Provided by publisher.