Memoir, chiefly covering the years 1855-1868 and 1885, written as "an autobiography for my dear grandchildren" re her childhood in Kirkwood near Camden, S.C., life on the homefront during the Civil War years and death of her young husband, Alfred English Doby, in 1864. Description of her childhood during late antebellum period, "In the year 1855, I began school," family visits to resorts in the Carolinas (Sullivan's Island and the mountains of N.C.), as well as in the northeast (New York City, Niagra falls and elsewhere); outbreak of Civil War, Alfred Doby's education and travels in Europe for nine months (1860 until Jan. 1861), secession convention in Columbia, S.C.; enlistment of her 14 year old brother in Oct. 1863; marriage to Alfred English Doby; birth of their daughter, Elise Kennedy Doby; gift of a horse from her husband during Christmas, 1863, "Nobody had ever mounted the horse, and as she was a young, high-spirited animal...coming from the blue grass region of Kentucky.... I rode her well... for I was a good horsewoman, having been riding nearly all my life."; death of her husband, 6 May 1864, at the battle of The Wilderness. "We did not get the news sooner because no telegram could be sent to private families"; arrival of her husband's body, 3 Aug. 1864, "having first been buried at Gordonsville, Virginia... We buried him by the pale moonbeams' light.... the moonlight and the torches adding to the solemnity."
