Kate Stone was a twenty-year-old southern belle, who lived in Northeastern Louisiana at the commencement of the American Civil War. Her family, the proprietors of Brokenburn, a 1,260-acre plantation; in addition, Kate’s family owned approximately 150 slaves, who worked throughout the cotton plantation, therefore provided the Stones with a very rich lifestyle. In Monroe County, where Brokenburn was located, the slaves outnumbered whites nine to one. Kate’s journal articulated her experiences during the war and created an analysis of the world through her point of view and thoughts. Kate revealed her ardent support of the war effort as well as her misconceptions of the consequences to not only society but to herself and her family.

Kate, in 1861, perceived the War as a just and necessary progression toward independence of the Southern Confederacy. Kate’s pride in her Uncle Bo and eldest brother, William, who traveled to Virginia to join the Confederate Army, is an indication of her full support of the Cause. She thought highly of both men prior to the War and felt more pride in them after they volunteered. It was difficult for Kate to comprehend why any man would pass up the opportunity to fight for such a just cause, especially when so many she knew were running to enlist. She talked of young men of her acquaintance who could not wait for the time to go to war. Some of the younger men lied about their age in order to get into the Confederate Army. However, she noted that very few of the overseers joined the army. These men, according to Kate had the attitude of "let the rich men go who are most interested-they will stay at home. Such craven spirits. So few overseers have gone". Kate viewed these men, who refused to go to War as traitors to the Cause and the South, to the point wherein she described them as being analogous to a plague of frogs upon the landscape. She further complained that the supposed lack of patriotism and sense of rightness of the Cause was proof of their untrustworthiness.

Social changes during 1861 were a part of the War experience that Kate had not counted on. Kate was upset and amazed that the generals and soldiers were unconcerned with the normal and differential treatment of women in the South. Her description of General Butler’s proclamation that attacks on soldiers by women in New Orleans would lead to criminal prosecution and gave permission to soldiers to treat the women as they chose brought fear and anger to Kate. She did not view this as a protective measure by General Butler but as proof of the "scorn and hatred" of women in New Orleans by General Butler and his "vandal hordes".

Shortages of medicines and food staples caused death and illness to be an even more difficult problem during the War. Kate’s family and slaves lost members due to inadequate food supplies and medicines, which were necessary to aid in the recovery of illnesses and injuries. Yellow fever and malaria caused many deaths on the plantations in Louisiana and weighed heavily on Kate, as loss often does. As the War progressed, newspapers and magazines were no longer readily available throughout the south, especially Northern publications, such as Harper’s. Kate saw this as a definitive problem and complained about the only news received was through letters from their friends and soldiers, which were far and few, but more often than not filled with rumors.

The sacrifices and living without the niceties of her normal life was a strain on Kate. As prices loomed higher and higher on items that had once been daily requirements of her life and those around her, merchants refused to extend credit and no longer bartered for items. Kate illustrated this point by listing the amounts that the family paid for items they could not do without, $500 for a yard of silk, $15 for a pair of shoes, $50 for riding boots, but the most understandable upset was $50 for a barrel of flour. Kate’s neighbors hoped for the capture of a well-stocked Northern city to diminish their needs. As the prices of foodstuffs and necessities continued to rise, many of Kate’s neighbors deserted their plantations and moved west. To add further insult to Kate’s world, runaway slaves from neighboring plantations began turning over other plantation owners as possible places to raid for supplies for the Federal Army. Many of Kate’s neighbors began purchasing supplies from the Union Army as it passed down the Mississippi River. Kate viewed this with disgust and animosity, not only toward the Union Army but also against the people who lowered themselves to such deeds. As the Union Army gained more control of the Mississippi River, Kate realized the severity of the situation in Louisiana and the danger, which was coming to her home. Many of the plantation owners had stores of cotton from the previous harvest, as did Kate’s family, owners decided to burn the cotton before the Yankees could destroy the crop or confiscate it. In doing so, the Southern plantation owners created their own demise. Without the cotton to sell, the plantation owners had no way of obtaining seed for future crops and the investment in that crop went, literally, up in smoke. Kate described the burning and smoke as a sign that resistance would continue in the South.

Kate talked of her feelings toward the slaves who stayed on the plantations and the runaways; she often described them as lazy, cowards and traitors. Kate stated that she often felt sorry for slaves but also felt that slavery was the best thing for them. She saw Abraham Lincoln’s preliminary Emancipation Proclamation as a "diabolical move", which would ultimately cause the deaths of thousands. Kate showed her anger in Lincoln’s decision by her tempered statement of "I think there is little chance of a happy hereafter for President Lincoln. A thousand years of repentance would be but brief time to wipe out his sins against the South." She did not see slavery as being a problem, only as an economic workforce. She owned one slave, a maid, for whom she found to be lazy and impudent. Her maid was one of the first to run away from the plantation when the Union Army gains control of Northern Louisiana.

In 1862, Kate and her family began their own trek as refugees as they moved to Texas for what would end up being for the duration of the War. Kate, saw the war as an inevitable win for the South, considered the move as just an inconvenience to their social existence, but vowed to make the best of it. The move to Texas proved to be a bigger challenge than Kate bargained for. In Texas, Kate’s family was not treated as well as they were at home, but disapprovingly by the "natives" and her prejudices against her neighbors, were depicted in her description of their attire, which was most often hooped skirts and bare feet. Some of the changes in society that the War brought appalled Kate, an example of this was the worry that people had stopped grieving their dead as they had prior to the conflict. People had begun to live in the present and found no time for worrying over the past. Kate stated that if not for this change, many people would have gone crazy with grief, as many had lost more than one loved one due to the War. This provided her an outlet to confirm the way lives had changed and the differences in her home society and that of the native Texans.

As the family and other refugees began their lives in Texas, the rate of exchange climbed to four Confederate dollars to one gold dollar, which made purchasing and renting of homes nearly impossible for some of the refugees. Kate and her family moved several times throughout 1862-1865 due to changes in funding and new refugees moving into the area. Completely unprepared for the role as a refugee Kate did not immediately understand why the norms of Louisiana were so different from those of Texans. The refusal of the native Texans to integrate the refugees into their society was difficult on Kate, at least until more of their neighbors from Monroe County moved into the area of Tyler, Texas, where Kate’s family settled. In one instance, Kate described the hatred many of the Unionist Texans had toward the refugees and how it affected her younger brothers’ education, when native boys at the school attacked him. Kate continued to miss the social aspects of Louisiana even more than the luxurious life she enjoyed prior to the onset of the Civil War.

The economic hardships continued for Kate and her family while in Texas. Kate was unprepared for losing her books, clothes and other fundamental ornaments of her life. Kate saw living without books as an insult on her sensibilities, she lamented about the rereading of borrowed books and the limits of her library. With the loss of newspapers and regular magazine publications, the unknown aspects of the War caused apprehension for Kate. She often referred to the waiting as a form of cruel suspense. The lack of knowledge of the status of her loved ones convinced her that no letters from them meant they were either dead or injured. She clearly had a difficult time dealing with the insufficient communications available to her. Months would pass before letters informing the family of news caused Kate to worry incessantly about her family and friends. The rumors often brought more dismay to Kate than anything else, other than death, as it brought a continued sense of ignorance that she was unable to tolerate.

During the period of 1862-1865, Kate attempted to keep track of her brothers and uncle in the War, but ultimately did not because there were confiscation of mailings as well as loss of letters and communications between towns. The lack of knowledge of what was transpiring with the War effort, as well as with her loved ones, perpetuated her fears and anxieties about the status of the South. When governmental reports of casualties did come to Texas, alterations to length made it easier for the South to appear to be losing fewer soldiers. Kate’s neighbors and native Texans often turned to the Northern generals and Unionists to help provide them with the assistance and necessities that they needed. Kate detailed the progress she made during this period by the items she made through knitting and needlework, as well as sewing garments for her family and suitors. Kate and her mother knitted a large variety of items for the soldiers and went to great lengths to get items that soldiers needed. Kate iterated the numerous items, which soldiers needed and were most often doing without, such as gloves, and socks, which she and her mother knitted for hours trying to help the Cause. Kate acknowledged the need for these everyday items especially as the winter months came and record cold weather hit the South. The need for blankets and other warm items brought conflict to the women of Kate’s neighborhood because due to the economic downward spiral of the South, people were hoarding their possessions and refused to give any to the soldiers. Kate and her family refused to give into the depression and defeatist feelings of many of the Southern citizens and provided a mirror of hope to all who came to them for shelter and food.

Kate unwittingly pointed toward many of the probable rationales for the failure of the South to triumph over the North in the Civil War. In her writings, she identified many of the difficulties of the South to acquire supplies and medicines, these problems were not limited to the citizenry, but also the Confederate Army. Many of her acquaintances, soldiers and slaves, died because of the insufficient provisions and medicines, which ultimately led to improper care of the sick and injured. Kate further thought that the lack of recognition from European countries weakened the Cause because without the acknowledgement of countries such as Spain or France, the South could not obtain aid in breaking through the Union blockade. Another indicator Kate gave as to additional problems within the Confederate Army was the furloughs taken by Kate’s friends and relatives. In many cases, the soldier extended the duration of the furlough with or without permission by the soldier’s commanding officer, because of traveling great distances to visit with their families, which often was equal to the actual furlough time. In one instance, Kate described that a particular soldier she knew came to visit on a twenty-day furlough. Unfortunately, it took twenty days to travel to his family in Texas. He eventually stayed in Texas for over a month before returning to duty. This clearly would be problematic when commanding officers were attempting to outfit battalions and prepare for battles against the Union Army.

When the War was over Kate ironically sees the Confederacy as slaves, she illustrated this by her statement that "Another month and our Confederacy will be a Nation no longer, but we will be slaves, yes slaves, of the Yankee Government". Kate did not see the irony in her statement; she compared the loss as a step toward slavery of the Confederates. She depicted the loss as degradation to the South that the glorious sacrifices and hardships were all in vain. Kate saw the end of the War as a loss of everything. As 1865 ended, Kate’s family returned to their plantation to find that the Union Army because of the abandonment of the owners had confiscated many of the neighboring plantations. The blatant insubordination of their former slaves shocked Kate when the family returned to Brokenburn. She was heartbroken at the changes that had taken place on the plantation in her absence. She finally began to mourn the losses of those who died in battle and of illness during the war.

The aftermath of the Civil War was also very difficult for Kate due to the lack of workers on the plantation and the failed attempts at reconstructing the plantation system. Her complaints about the freedmen demanding high wages, from $20 to $25 per man, plus subsistence, and demands that they continue to receive their rations as before, put even more economic pressure on Kate and her family. Due to the continued economic burdens on the family, Kate’s mother could only provide the absolute necessities of living therefore, most of the extravagances, which Kate desired were out of her reach. Kate complained that after returning to Louisiana the family was worse off for luxuries and furnishings than they had been in Texas.

The wartime events had reshaped the lives of all that Kate knew, including herself. In 1900, when Kate looked back at the pages of her journal, she described herself as "an unthankful, wicked girl". It was not until she had reached adulthood and had children of her own did she realize all that she had taken for granted, her youthfulness, close family, and her health The war had changed not only a major faction of her life, owning slaves, but it also changed all of the things that had held great importance to her. No more was she worried that she would not have silk for her dresses or shoes to wear. She learned to adjust and to make due with what was available. She may have missed the luxuries of her childhood but she missed her brothers and friends much more than balls and socials. Kate also learned that emancipation was the just cause for the slaves, "I have never regretted the freeing of the Negroes. The great load of accountability was lifted, and we could save our souls alive… Everyone would give account of himself to God…"