Odyssey in Gray: A Diary of Confederate Service, 1863-1865

Although hundreds of soldiers in the Civil War kept diaries, Douglas French Forrest’s diary, published in 1979, is unusual for it is a chronicle of naval service in Europe. A literate and perceptive observer, Forrest filled his diary with descriptions of people, scenes, and events discovered in a two-year odyssey from Charleston to Europe by way of the Caribbean; throughout England, Scotland, and the Continent; and home to Virginia via Cuba and Texas in 1865.