Cyrena Stone’s Civil War: the “Miss Abby” diary and the Confederate home front

Cyrena Stone was a Southern Unionist living in Atlanta, Georgia, during the Civil War. While she kept her Unionism hidden, she logged her thoughts in a diary written under the pseudonym “Miss Abby.” This essay argues that though much of the work focuses on Stone’s Unionism, the document opens a wider window into the challenges of the Confederate home front. Stone proved an adept observer of the Confederacy’s internal problems. As such, this essay builds on research concerning the Confederate home front, showing how issues involving gender, conscription, and the resistance of enslaved people collapsed the Confederacy from within.