Meeting Dates
The organization meets the fourth Tuesday of each month (September through May). Meetings are held in the Williamsburg Regional Library Theatre located at 515 Scotland St in Williamsburg, VA, unless otherwise posted. The meetings begin at 7 PM. Membership is open to the general public.
This Month's Speaker
Jeff Toalson
"Mama, I Am Yet Still Alive – A Composite
Diary of 1863 in the Confederacy"
Our March 25th meeting at 7PM in the Williamsburg Regional Library
Theatre will feature Jeff Toalson presenting “Mama, I Am Yet Still Alive
– A Composite Diary of 1863 in the Confederacy.”
When local Williamsburg author and historian Jeff Toalson was offered
access to a treasure trove of Civil War diaries, letters and journals at
the Brewer Library of the United Daughters of the Confederacy he
embarked on a two year effort to create a companion volume for his 2006
work: No Soap, No Pay, Diarrhea, Dysentery & Desertion – A Composite
Diary of the last 16 months of the Confederacy from 1864-1865.
Tonight you will take a journey through 1863 as Toalson shares selected
letters from farm wives, privates, doctors, ministers, sergeants,
clerks, nurses and refugees. He will complement his presentation
with a variety of historical artifacts and perhaps share some medical
‘wisdom’ form Mackenzie’s Five Thousand Receipts in all the Useful &
Domestic Arts including suggested cures for dysentery and other
ailments.
Toalson feels that there is no better historian than the common soldier
and civilian. Their correspondence is written ‘in the moment’ and
is intimate, personal and very revealing. He uses the ‘voices’ of
50 women and 220 men to tell the story of 1863. Three of the women
and twelve of the men are ‘major voices’ and appear in the
correspondence for each month and are ‘major voices’ that you met in No
Soap, No Pay, Diarrhea, Dysentery & Desertion. They are destined
to become your good friends and tour guides as you travel through 1863
and then on into 1864-1865.
The letter, diary and journal entries of more than 100 of the ‘voices’
in Mama, I Am Yet Still Alive were previously unpublished. These
soldiers and civilians provide us with rare personal glimpses into our
collective past.
Join local historian Jeff Toalson as he shares
stories from unpublished letters and diaries
while taking you on a journey back to 1863
Williamsburg Battlefield Added To List Of Endangered Sites
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