The diary was kept by Emma Edwards Holmes (1838-1910), who lived in Charleston, South Carolina, and its environs during the Civil War. While it mentions political events and battles, it is most useful for its description of social and family life as it deteriorated under the privations of war. For lack of money, Holmes was obliged to take a position as a governess and tutor, and she recorded her unhappiness with the job. She wrote of her work with the Ladies Charleston Volunteer Aid Society, and the plundering by Union troops near the close of the war.

The first part of the diary, while outlining war preparation and the early part of the war, also presents a fascinating picture of life in the antebellum South. In the second part of the diary, Holmes and her family find themselves squarely in the path of Sherman's armies and early Reconstruction.