In my family is a collection of letters and diaries during the Civil War. My great-great grandparents are the mail focus, but there are also letters from eight other family members. Only one letter during the War between my great-great grandparents is missing. I transcribed the Civil War portion of the collection which was about 2000 pages. Fred Blakey, Winston Stephens, and myself edited this collection down to about 350 pages and it was published in 1998 as Rose Cottage Chronicles, Civil War Letters of the Bryant-Stephens Families of North Florida.

I have recently started a blog (winstonoctavia.blogspot.com). I am returning to my original transcription and each day I am posting the letters and diary entrys with that date 150 years ago.

The collection contains information on the War in Florida since Winston Stephens was the Captain of the St. Johns Rangers. One of Octavia's brothers, Willie Bryant, was with a Florida unit that went to the Tennessee theater. But it is also a wonderful love story between Winston Stephens and Octavia Bryant.

Ann S. Lainhart, annslane@aol.com