Three Months in the Southern States: Illustrated and Annotated

During the Civil War’s pivotal 1863 summer British Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Fremantle visited the Confederacy for three months. He entered Texas from Mexico on April 7, 1863. Fourteen weeks later he left New York to return to Britain. During the interval he visited every Confederate state except Florida and Arkansas. Along the way he called on more than a dozen Confederate leaders including Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis. He was an observer at the battle of Gettysburg where he is popularly remembered as a character in Michael Shaara’s, "The Killer Angels." During the final two days of his journey in New York he witnessed the draft riots. Throughout his 2,500-mile trip he maintained a diary, averaging 750 words daily. Owing to his neutrality, top-level access, and extensive travel, Fremantle’s observations are priceless. On such topics as slavery, race, civilian life, gender experience, wartime travel, combat, politics, and leadership his diary paints an insightful and sometimes iconoclastic picture. While he met an impressive number of leaders many are only dimly remembered today. Additionally he met some of the prominent ones when they focused on obscure matters. At other times he observed major events as they were developing and thereby failed to understand the significance of what he witnessed. Philip Leigh's 178 annotations and the added illustrations in this volume provide background on the obscure characters, explain the little-known incidents, and put Fremantle’s observations in proper context.