Mary Boykin Miller An American Diarist And Writer During...

Mary Boykin Chesnut was born March 31, 1823 in Stateburg, South Carolina. She was an American diarist and writer during the Civil War was in session. Her birth name was Mary Boykin Miller, oldest daughter of Mary Boykin Miller and Stephen Decatur Miller. The Miller family was a wealthy owner of a plantation. Plantation had a large farm with resident workers and slaves. Her father was a politician who supported states` rights over the national government and set their own policies and having the power to legalize slavery. Her family and she moved from South Carolina to capital city of Columbia and then returned to Camden. In Camden she began attending school at the age of ten years old. At the age of Thirteen she was sent to a Madame Talvande`s French School for Young Ladies in Charleston, South Carolina. In 1836 she meets her husband James Chesnut Jr when he was on a visit with his niece. Over the years he showed love attractions with her. James Chesnut Jr is a Princeton University Graduate. Mary returned to Camden in 1838 when her when her dad died. James and Mary got married on April 23, 1840 at the age of seventeen and settled outside of Camden. (Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2015) James Chesnut and Mary Boykin Chesnut spent 20 years in Camden and then James was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1858 and served as a confederacy aide of Jefferson Davis. He moved down to the very highest circles of southern society and took Mary with him (Civil War Trust, 2014). During the