McGuire, Judith (White)Brockenbrough

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McGUIRE, Judith (White)Brockenbrough

Born 1813, Richmond, Virginia; died death date unknown

Daughter of William Brockenbrough; married John P. McGuire; children: two sons and several daughters

Judith Brockenbrough McGuire was the daughter of a member of the Virginia state Supreme Court. Her early life is obscure. We do know that she married the principal of the Episcopal High School of Alexandria, Virginia. At the beginning of the Civil War, the McGuires lived there with their two sons and several daughters.

McGuire began her diary, published in 1867 as The Diary of a Southern Refugee, in May 1861 with the breakup of her family. Rev. McGuire and the boys had enlisted while McGuire and her daughters were forced to leave Alexandria when federal troops occupied the town. "I am keeping this [diary]," she wrote, "for the members of the family who are too young to remember these days." The days to which she refers seem filled with movement and insecurity. The family traveled south through the Virginia countryside to Richmond. Along the way they stayed with friends and relatives, but, McGuire recalled, "while [their hospitality] is very gratifying, and delightful, yet we must find some place, however small and humble, to call home." By February 1862 they were in Richmond, trying desperately to find a home. Since Richmond had become the seat of the Confederate government, the city's population had doubled and lodgings were at a premium. After being refused board at several homes, McGuire was finally offered rooms at $3 less than her husband's monthly salary.

Finding the Confederate capital too expensive, McGuire and her daughters were on the move again, settling first in Lynchburg and then in Charlottesville, Virginia. There she hoped to get work in the Treasury Department, signing government notes. But widows and orphans were given preference for government jobs, so the family supported itself by making and selling soap. In November 1863 McGuire obtained a clerkship in the Army's Commissary Department. Like the other 35 refugee women, she worked from 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. daily and received $125 per month in depreciated Confederate paper money. In addition, she worked evenings as a volunteer nurse in local hospitals.

The diary ends abruptly in May 1865 with the notation that General Joseph E. Johnston had surrendered his army on April 26: "My native land, good night!" We do not know what happened to McGuire after the war, or whether the family was able to return to Alexandria. The end of her life, like the beginning, is a mystery. Unlike many of the other Confederate women whose diaries have been published, McGuire did not move in high social circles. Her diary does not record the comings and goings of the Confederacy's military and social elite. However, The Diary of A Southern Refugee is perhaps more valuable than other more widely known diaries because McGuire's experiences are more representative of the war's effect on Southern society. It is difficult for modern readers to imagine the constant fear and uncertainty under which most Confederates lived. They not only feared for their own safety at the hands of an enemy they believed was inhuman and for the safety of loved ones in the army, but they wondered where their next meal might come from, or whether they would have homes when the war ended. The refugee experience was far more common than most historians have realized, and McGuire's diary allows us to relive part of it.

The tone of the diary varies. At times McGuire is a dispassionate observer, merely chronicling the events of the war. At other times, she allows the reader to share her emotions. These latter passages are infrequent, as though McGuire feared to let herself feel too deeply, but when they occur, they are moving and effective. It is unfortunate The Diary of a Southern Refugee has been overlooked for so long.