James Rumley, an ardent southern sympathizer who lived in Beaufort, NC, at the southern tip of North Carolina's Outer Banks, kept a diary of his experience under Union military occupation during the Civil War. Rumley's diary is an extraordinary journal. It is one of the only published diaries of a secessionist living under Union occupation in the South. Rumley's hometown of Beaufort was occupied by the Union army on March 26, 1862, and remained under continuous Union occupation until the end of the war. As a result, Rumley's diary is an exceptional window into the nature of Union occupation; it records his reactions to the social, cultural, political, military, and economic upheavals that occupation brought to the community. The diary also records the point of view of a decidedly pro-Confederate resident of that occupation, revealing the issues that greatly disturbed the local white population during the occupation, expecially the attempt to politically restore the region to the Union, the empowerment of their former slaves, and the imposition of martial law. The diary that is presented in this volume has an enigmatic history. Paper 199 pages, including List Of Illustrations, Introduction,Bibliography, Index. |