Civil War diarist’s photos reunited with journals

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Nearly 200 photographs that famed Civil War diarist Mary Boykin Chestnut collected to illustrate her epic story have been reunited with her original journals, 125 years after her death.

Chestnut’s descendants have given the photos to the University of South Carolina, where several dozen will be on display through Jan. 31. Chestnut’s journals have been at the university since the early 1960s.

Her great-great grand-niece Marty Daniels says the photos confirm and illustrate Chestnut’s panoramic view of the Civil War as a great epic tragedy. The images include Abraham Lincoln, Gen. Robert E. Lee, secessionist leaders, and the heads of other nations.

The donation comes four years after the family won the three albums at auction. Considered lost to history, the albums had been advertised on eBay in 2007.