The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 60, July 1956 - April, 1957 Page: 185

Book Reviews

than the diarist originally intended. Within its pages are con-
tained many bits of information concerning plantation manage-
ment, literary trends, popular songs, and everyday problems of
living in a beleaguered land. The feminine touch is persistently
apparent from the preoccupation with make-do fashions to what
might easily be described as the classic statement of extended
patriotism: "One must not distress a soldier by saying No when
he is on furlough."
Professor Anderson has done a commendable job of editing.
He has neither overwhelmed the reader with a profusion of foot-
notes nor has he interfered with the easy flow of the narrative.
As befits a competent editor, he has kept himself in the back-
ground and let Kate speak for herself. The end result is an in-
teresting, informative, and frequently entertaining volume which
sheds considerable light upon civilian life in the trans-Mississippi
Confederacy. OTIS A. SINGLETARY
The University of Texas
The Southern Claims Commission. By Frank W. Klingberg.
Berkeley and Los Angeles (University of California Press),
1955. Pp. xii+ i.+62. One map and index. $3.50.
In the southland in the tragic era of the Civil War many peo-
ple remained steadfastly loyal to the United States, some pro-
fessed loyalty at opportune moments, and some bleating and
blatant secessionists turned loyalist when the smoke cleared away
and the "lost cause" had become a reality. Many of these loyalists
or would-be loyalists gave aid and comfort to the Unionist
Armies and at war's end presented claims against the United
States Government for supplies furnished or for compensation
for property destroyed by the Federals. The Southern Claims
Commission was created by an act of Congress on March 3, 1871,
to settle these claims.
The author has examined, in a meticulous and scholarly
fashion, family history, letters, diaries, folklore, ledgers, entry
journals, account books, wills and testaments, maps, surveyor's
reports, newspapers, magazines, plantation accounts, crop inven-
tories, parish records, congressional records, attorney general's
rulings, justice department rulings, treasury department pay-

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