George Cary

George Cary Eggleston was born in 1839 in Vevay, Indiana. In 1856, he inherited his mother's family plantation in Amelia County, Virginia and spent nine years there. He attended Richmond College and practiced law until the outbreak of the Civil War. Although Eggleston argued against secession, once Virginia had voted to secede, he pledged his loyalty to the Confederacy. He served with the Army of Northern Virginia, first under General J.E.B. Stuart, and later under General Fitzhugh Lee. After the war, Eggleston moved to Illinois and worked for a banking and steam boating company. He married Marion Craggs in 1868. In 1870, he joined his brother in New York and began a new career as a reporter. Eggleston later served in several editorial positions and wrote freelance articles for many periodicals. In his later years, he turned his attention to writing fiction, history and memoirs. Eggleston's second book, A Rebel's Recollections (1874), offered a Southerner's perspective on the recently concluded Civil War. By the time he wrote this personal history, Eggleston was living in New York and had little interest in promoting further cultural conflict between Southerners and Northerners. Each chapter of the book treats one aspect of life during the war. He discusses the debate about secession in Virginia, the young men who made up the army, the role of Southern women during the conflict, the Confederate army generals, and the end of the war.