Research Catalog

Details

Description

1. .21 linear foot (1 volume)

Summary

1. This diary and notebook was kept by Mrs. C[atherine] V[irginia] Baxley of Baltimore, Maryland after her arrest as a blockade runner for the Confederacy and during her confinement at the Old Capital Prison, Washington, D.C. from February 24-July 2, 1865. It is written in a copy of Alfred Tennyson's Enoch Arden, (Boston, 1865) which was presented to her by Colonel N[ewton] P. Colby on February 14, 1865. Attached is a statement of Ellie E. Clark, a cousin of Mrs. Baxley, vouching for the authenticity of the record.
2. Entries include a list of women prisoners at the Old Capital Prison, including Mrs. Surratt and her daughter, and the causes for which they were arrested. Baxley also tells of the death of her own son, a Confederate soldier, in the same prison. The diary provides a valuable psychological record of the effects of confinement, and of war psychosis in the South. Baxley had been previously arrested as a spy, on December 30, 1861, and was one of the first women confined in the Old Capital Prison.

Subject

1. Prisoners > Mental health
2. Baxley, Catherine Virginia > Diaries
3. Washington (D.C.)
4. United States > History > Civil War, 1861-1865 > Personal narratives, Confederate
5. United States > History > Civil War, 1861-1865 > Women
6. Diaries
7. United States > History > Civil War, 1861-1865 > Prisoners and prisons
8. Imprisonment > Psychological aspects
9. Women prisoners of war > Diaries

Genre/Form

1. Diaries.

Call number

1. MssCol 229

Access (note)

1. Apply to Manuscripts and Archives Division for access at http://www.nypl.org/mssref.
2. Microfilm must be used in lieu of original volume.

Additional formats (note)

1. Available on microfilm;

Author

1. Baxley, Catherine Virginia.

Title

1. Catherine Virginia Baxley diary, 1865.

Restricted access

1. Apply to Manuscripts and Archives Division for access at http://www.nypl.org/mssref.
2. Microfilm must be used in lieu of original volume.

Additional formats

1. Available on microfilm; New York Public Library; *ZL-242.

Research call number

1. MssCol 229