1861 October 2 TLB to AEB

The Broun Family U.S. Civil War papers provide genealogical and historical information on the Broun and Thruston families and also describe the Broun family's experiences during the U.S. Civil War. The collection includes a volume titled Family Events, as well as two volumes detailing the Broun and Thruston Family Trees.

The greater portion of Catherine Broun's diary, Family Events, covers the period of the Civil War. As the Broun home was in Middleburg, in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, Family Events records many of her observations of Confederate and Union activities. Mrs. Broun dined with officers of both the Union and Confederate forces, and many of the conversations at these dinners are recorded or alluded to. She also sheltered Southern soldiers and officers during the periodic Union occupations of Middleburg and Sunnyside. The most important of these officers sheltered was the ranger leader, John Singleton Mosby. Also covered in some detail are the problems which Union occupation generated in Southern society, especially involving control of servants and of property.