John Guilford Earnest
John Guilford Earnest came from Unionist East Tennessee, but he witnessed the outbreak of war from one of the most pro-Confederate universities in the South-Virginia's Emory and Henry. It is likely that Earnest developed his pro-Confederate views while studying at that institution, for many of his peers had repeatedly clashed with the pro-Unionist faculty after Lincoln was elected in the fall of 1860. When Earnest returned to his native Greene County in May of 1861, he found public opinion overwhelmingly against secession. Unlike most of the county's residents, Earnest came from a prestigious slave- owning family. His grandfather owned fifteen African Americans and had amassed a fortune of more than $97,000. Even a material stake in the institution of slavery and an education in the school of Southern rights did not inspire Earnest to enlist. Not until the fall of 1862, with the immediate threat of conscription, did this young man join some of the last Confederate troops raised in East Tennessee. Unfortunately, little is known regarding Earnest's decision to enlist, but one can only imagine that it must have been a torturous one. On October 24, 1862, not long after his enlistment, Earnest penned his first diary entry. He continued to chronicle his military activities until surrendered at Vicksburg on July 4, 1863. Earnest rarely explored ideological issues or commented on the politics of the day. Little is said about how the war brought bitter fighting and social turmoil to his divided East Tennessee. Nor did he use his journal for therapeutic purposes, to either liberate him-self of painful emotions or to relate a horrible event experienced in combat. Rather, Earnest used his diary to record the daily struggles of being a soldier in the field. To his credit, there is not a hint of romanticism in his writings. Earnest provides a gritty, realistic look inside the Confederate army. There are plenty of details involving guard duty, foraging, and drill, but he writes of these ordinary activities with a wonderful sense of humor. His account of being attacked by a mosquito is priceless. Earnest described the vicious insect as having "claws like a ground hog and a bill half as long as a sergeant's sword." Before the mosquito could "run his bill" through the young soldier's neck, he yelled "murder! murder!" which scared the "old skeeter" off. All Right Let Them Come offers one of the finest Confederate accounts from a participant in the siege of Vicksburg. Earnest con- veys the misery of those who languished in trenches, surviving on a sparse diet that apparently included rats, while surrounded by an unrelenting enemy that eventually squeezed the life out of the Con-federate army. He did not overly dramatize the heroics of either his fellow soldiers or Vicksburg's civilians. Earnest was defiant to the end, but without the highly charged rhetoric or the histrionics one might expect from a Confederate facing inevitable defeat. His daily entries capture the rhythm of the siege as soldiers moved in and out of the lines, finding peace and a degree of solitude for a few days, before returning to the earthworks and life under enemy fire. Charles S. Northen III worked closely with the late Dr. Frank Byrne in bringing John Guilford Earnest's diary to print. This fine manuscript is one of the last titles that Dr. Byrne shepherded to publication as part of the Voices of the Civil War Series that he inaugurated and so skillfully developed has maintained a lot of it's historic character. Taking a walking tour of this city is an excellent way to experience a step into the past.