"Four Years in Rebel Capitals: An Inside View of Life in the Southern Confederacy from Birth to Death" by T. C. De Leon
DeLeon wrote this book almost immediately after the Civil War, revising and condensing notes and recollections gathered during its most trying times. The book is unique since DeLeon experienced many events that other writers of the times largely glossed over. As a civilian, he wrote of the politics of the Confederacy and described many of the tensions within the government. He omits the campaigns and battles, instead, he had the object of trying to paint honestly the inner life of the South and what was going on in its cities and towns as the war waged on. It covers the war throughout the South but with the largest emphasis on happenings in Alabama and Virginia.