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Rose Cottage Chronicles: Civil War Letters of the Bryant-Stephens Families of North Florida
Rose Cottage Chronicles Civil War Letters of the BryantStephens Families of North Florida Author:Arch Fredric Blakey (Editor), Ann Smith Lainhart (Editor), Winston Bryant Stephens Jr. (Editor), Ann S. Lainhart (Editor), Winston B. Stephens (Editor) As fresh and poignant today as when they were written, these touching letters and diaries capture the heart of everyday life during the Civil War. Set both at home in northern Florida and on the battlefront, the letters were written from 1858 to mid-1865 by two generations of the Bryant and Stephens families, ordinary Confederate folk whose memb... more »ers included radical secessionists, moderates and even a few Unionists.
The letters also tell a love story. The courtship of Winston Stephens and Octavia Bryant was prolonged, erratic and stormy; their married life at Rose Cottage was nearly perfect -- and brief. Four years and three months after their wedding -- during the final months of the Confederate clock -- Winston was killed in battle. Days later their only son was born.
Virtually all the letters -- more than one thousands exchanged between eight major and four minor correspondents -- survive in the family saga, a riveting human and historical chronicle set in the foreground of the Civil War.« less