Anderson, John W. (John Warwick), 1940-

Chronological account of his experiences with drawings, photographs and Confederate money inserted.

John W. Anderson was born 1 April 1834 to F.D. Anderson and Mary Silver Anderson of Hanford County, Md. John W. Anderson received his M.D. from the University of Maryland, and relocated to Sparta, Ala., establishing a successful medical practice. He married Rosalie Josephine Witter, and, by the time of the diary, four children had been born to the marriage, with only two surviving infancy, Francis Eugene Anderson (Frank) and Gertrude Corinne Anderson (Gertie). Rosalie's brother, Robert W. Witter, Jr. founded a small weekly newspaper in Sparta, Ala., called The Spartan, with Anderson becoming a full partner. In 1861, Anderson enlisted in a company of Alabama infantry which was soon disbanded. Anderson obtained an office in Montgomery, Ala. with the Confederate States of America Provisional Government as Corresponding Clerk in the office of C.G. Memminger, Secretary of the Treasury for the Confederacy. Anderson was later appointed Recording Clerk of the Confederate Senate. Anderson's brother-in-law, Robert B. Witter, had also obtained a position with the Confederate government in the First Auditor's Office. Both Anderson and Witter also served in Company F of the Virginia 3rd Regiment, and lived with their families in Richmond, Va. during the rest of the war. Periodic trips to Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, and Maryland, enrich the diary with descriptions of railroad and boat travel, hotel living, sightseeing and the ever-present wide-flung battlefield that the war had made of the South.