Mary Hall, adjunct professor of political science and military history, has published a book, “From a Yankee to a Rebel Diary: The Collective Civil War Diaries of Private George Washington Hall (14th Georgia Infantry) and Private Jacob L. Elsesser (9th Pennsylvania Reserves). Published by Lot’s Wife Publishing of Staunton, Virginia (Oct. 2025), the book captures the voices of two privates in opposing armies who chronicled their wartime experiences in the same diary.
A blue-gray diary like this is a rarity among Civil War diaries. Private Jacob Elsesser of the 9th Pennsylvania Reserves logged entries in the diary for almost six months in 1862 before abandoning the book in the aftermath of fighting at Beaver Dam Creek near Richmond, Virginia. Private George Washington Hall of the 14th Georgia Infantry found the book as he marched with his regiment through Elsesser’s former campsite. Private Hall wrote in it continuously until late March 1865.
Mary Hall is George Washington Hall’s great-granddaughter. In her book, she provides context material that highlights the intertwined lives of the two men. In addition to hundreds of diary entries, she includes narratives, song lyrics and poems from a separate journal maintained by her great-grandfather and a never-before-published unit history by Elsesser.
