Born in Savannah, Georgia, young Ellen Renshaw House moved with her family to Knoxville, Tenn., shortly before the War Between the States (Civil War). Two of her brothers joined the Confederate army, but the family lived in a part of Tennessee deeply divided between Unionists and rebel sympathizers. Ellen started recording her experiences in a diary at age 19 in Sept. 1863. The longest section covers the family's experience in Knoxville under Federal occupation. There are almost daily descriptions of Federal troops, civilians' arrests, and suffering Confederate prisoners. She was forced by Union authorities to leave Knoxville in April 1864, but returned after the war, and while in exile she continued to chronicle her daily activities. She married James William Fletcher after the war and they both continued to live in Knoxville. Her diary has been published as "A Very Violent Rebel: The Civil War Diary of Ellen Renshaw House." The Ellen Renshaw House Chapter 2624, United Daughters of the Confederacy, Tennessee Division, was chartered in 2000 in the city where Ellen lived and wrote her diary, and is named in her honor and memory. She is buried with other members of her family.
Born in Savannah, Georgia, young Ellen Renshaw House moved with her family to Knoxville, Tenn., shortly before the War Between the States (Civil War). Two of her brothers joined the Confederate army, but the family lived in a part of Tennessee deeply divided between Unionists and rebel sympathizers. Ellen started recording her experiences in a diary at age 19 in Sept. 1863. The longest section covers the family's experience in Knoxville under Federal occupation. There are almost daily descriptions of Federal troops, civilians' arrests, and suffering Confederate prisoners. She was forced by Union authorities to leave Knoxville in April 1864, but returned after the war, and while in exile she continued to chronicle her daily activities. She married James William Fletcher after the war and they both continued to live in Knoxville. Her diary has been published as "A Very Violent Rebel: The Civil War Diary of Ellen Renshaw House." The Ellen Renshaw House Chapter 2624, United Daughters of the Confederacy, Tennessee Division, was chartered in 2000 in the city where Ellen lived and wrote her diary, and is named in her honor and memory. She is buried with other members of her family.
