Twilight on the South Carolina Rice Fields, Letters of the Heyward Family, 1862-1871
During his short 43 years on this earth, Edward Barnwell (Barney) Heyward left behind a tremendous volume of family letters, most of which he wrote to his wife and children. As stated in the title, this work is a day-to-day exploration of life on the rice field plantations during the Civil War. Though not a combat book, it offers the civilian perspective on the war and some of its participants. Concerning Gen. John Bell Hood, Barney perceptively wrote to his wife, “Tat,” on July 28, 1864, “The news from Georgia is unsatisfactory … Gen’l Hood is not the man for the place. His telegram of his first fight … sounds so boyish. I am afraid we shall see trouble in that quarter.” The ever-observant Barney never hesitated to speak openly to his wife about the officers he met while serving as a military engineer near the Combahee River. Of his captain, he noted, “He cant stand trouble ….He is a miserable manager and I am sometimes down right put out with him.” He waxed less kindly in his assessment of Maj. Gen. Samuel Jones, under whose jurisdiction he labored. He was “… full of gas as usual ….He was very polite to all of us, but a big goose.” Throughout his writings, Barney Heywood comes across as a true gentleman and a doting husband and father. When his one son fell ill while he was away, he specifically told his wife not to let the doctor use his regular medicine for the malady and suggested the “proper” medication. He wrote home asking for better clothes for a young slave who was with him. He said that should they not arrive in a timely fashion he would keep the boy warm at nights by sharing his bed with him. This book is social history at its best — from the writings of an esteemed, well-educated plantation owner. Most certainly not “A Gone with the Wind,” Twilight on the South Carolina Rice Fields clearly and honestly illustrates life as experienced by the Southern aristocracy sans “moonlight and magnolias.” Reviewer: John Michael Priest John Michael Priest is a 30-year Civil War and U.S. history teacher in Washington County, Maryland, high schools. A member of Historical Miniature Wargaming Society, he is an avid 54mm wargamer--French and Indian War through the U. S. Civil War. He has written four Civil War books and has a manuscript under consideration at the University of Kentucky Press.
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Illustrated, notes, index, 427 pp., 2010, University of South Carolina Press, $39.95, softcover.