author

Susan R. (Susan Ravenel) Jervey

b. 1840

Best known for a vivid Civil War diary, this South Carolina writer left behind a rare firsthand record of plantation life in 1865. Her journal still stands out for its immediacy, detail, and window into a collapsing world.

1 Audiobook

Two diaries From Middle St. John's, Berkeley, South Carolina, February-May, 1865

Two diaries From Middle St. John's, Berkeley, South Carolina, February-May, 1865

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

About the author

Born in 1840, Susan R. Jervey—also listed as Susan Ravenel Jervey—was an American diarist from South Carolina. She is chiefly known for Two Diaries from Middle St. John's, Berkeley, South Carolina, February-May, 1865, a volume built from journals she kept alongside Charlotte St. Julien Ravenel during the closing months of the Civil War.

Her writing captures everyday uncertainty as Union forces moved through the region, which is one reason the book continues to interest readers of Civil War history. Modern library and public-domain listings consistently identify her as the author of this work and date her life from July 3, 1840, to May 24, 1929.

Because reliable biographical material about her is limited online, many personal details are harder to confirm with confidence. What is clear is that her surviving diary has given later readers a direct, personal glimpse of South Carolina in 1865.