PENNSYLVANIA IN CIVIL WAR

Ashhurst, Mary Hazlehurst. Diaries (1863-1864)
Ashhurst Family Papers
Collection No. 1992

Mary Ashhurst, wife of Lewis Ashhurst, a Philadelphia merchant and bank director, wrote daily journals throughout her life (1809-1890), including two during the war years. The first of these began in 1863, when Ashhurst was 54, and she described her daily routine in some detail. Religion and prayer were important to her, as she often referred to them in her entries. She spent a great deal of time sewing for soldiers she knew and mailing items to them when she could, which is a typical example of an older woman’s approach to helping the war effort.

Ashhurst kept abreast of the current events surrounding the Civil War, which by 1863 was raging throughout the South. She recorded Grant’s success in the southwest and the Battle of Vicksburg. In addition, Ashhurst noted local rumors of a Confederate invasion in the North and feared for the city of Philadelphia, where she resided during these years. Most of the information she repeated in her diary was derived from newspapers she had read.

Her remarks on the Battle of Gettysburg were detailed and in depth. She wrote of the fighting raging there and felt it was too close to her home for comfort. She prayed General Meade would “keep the Rebels from Philadelphia.” By July 4, she had read in the local papers that “Meade [had] repulsed Lee,” but there were “no particulars yet” as to the casualties and other statistics except that Meade had reportedly captured 7000 prisoners.

In the second volume of her diary, beginning on November 9, 1864, Ashhurst wrote of the reelection of President Lincoln and how joyous she was with this outcome. He, she said, would bring “peace and prosperity” to the country and for that she was “truly thankful." Later, she noted his assassination and the attempted murder of Secretary of State William Seward. She wrote that these “two men stood between the South’s extreme measures.” Ashhurst noted the city was in a state of complete mourning and all the flags were “draped in black” while the nation tried to deal with this “great distress.”

Ashhurst’s diaries are rather hard to follow because she used initials rather than first names to identify people when she wrote about them. There were no months written on the entries, making it difficult to know when events were occurring. These diaries document an older woman with friends involved in the fighting who was interested in the war effort and concerned for her own safety as well as that of the soldiers.

Pennsylvania Gazette, page [3], vol. VII, iss. 794
Publication Date:
March 1, 1744
Published as:
The Pennsylvania Gazette
Location:
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Article below not in Mary's original but might be the one she mentioned.

http://sites.google.com/site/markoeoffshore/Home/reminiscnces-of-mary-hazlehurst-ashhurst

http://www.hsp.org/node/2028