author

Charlotte St. J. (Charlotte St. Julien) Ravenel

d. 1880

A young South Carolina diarist whose surviving journal offers a close-up view of civilian life in the final months of the Civil War. Her writing in Two Diaries from Middle St. John's, Berkeley, South Carolina, February-May, 1865 helps preserve the fear, disruption, and everyday endurance of that moment.

1 Audiobook

Two diaries From Middle St. John's, Berkeley, South Carolina, February-May, 1865 Journals kept by Miss Susan R. Jervey and Miss Charlotte St. J. Ravenel, at Northampton and Pooshee plantations, and reminiscences of Mrs. (Waring) Henagan; with two contemporary reports from federal officials.

Two diaries From Middle St. John's, Berkeley, South Carolina, February-May, 1865 Journals kept by Miss Susan R. Jervey and Miss Charlotte St. J. Ravenel, at Northampton and Pooshee plantations, and reminiscences of Mrs. (Waring) Henagan; with two contemporary reports from federal officials.

by Susan R. (Susan Ravenel) Jervey, Mary Rhodes Waring Henagan, Charlotte St. J. (Charlotte St. Julien) Ravenel

About the author

Charlotte St. Julien Ravenel is known chiefly through her contribution to Two Diaries from Middle St. John's, Berkeley, South Carolina, February-May, 1865, a volume published in 1921 from journals kept during the war. Library and catalog records identify her as Charlotte St. J. Ravenel, or Charlotte St. Julien Ravenel, and list her death year as 1880.

The diary associated with her was kept at Pooshee Plantation in Berkeley County, South Carolina, while a parallel journal in the same book was kept by Susan R. Jervey at nearby Northampton Plantation. Together, these firsthand writings record the closing months of the Civil War from the perspective of women living in the South, which is why Ravenel's name continues to appear in historical collections, reprints, and audiobook editions.

Very little confirmed biographical detail about her seems to be readily available in major open sources beyond the diary itself and catalog information. What can be said with confidence is that her surviving journal has become a valued primary source for readers interested in South Carolina history, Civil War home-front life, and personal writing from the nineteenth century.