‘THE STENCH OF ROTTEN YANKS’

Almost no one had ever heard of LeRoy Wiley Gresham until the Library of Congress featured his “little-known diary” in 2012. LeRoy was an invalid teenager from a wealthy slave-holding family in Macon, Ga., crippled when a chimney collapsed and crushed his left leg in 1856. In 1860, his mother, Mary, gave the 12-year-old a blank journal to record his experiences with his father, John Gresham, on their trip to Philadelphia to see a medical specialist. Sadly, the doctor could not help him. ¶ Once home he continued writing, putting pen to paper with a vim and often tongue-in-cheek vigor that impresses even now. LeRoy was a voracious reader who debated social and military topics with his parents, older brother Thomas, and friends. A slave his own age pulled him in a small custom-built wagon for brief trips out of his sickbed. ¶ He wrote nearly every day, and could be termed a “19th-century blogger” for the way he discusses and analyzes the Civil War. He handled major events concisely and crisply, and learned to temper his hopes because initial military reports were often wrong. The Gresham family had everything at stake when the war began. His grandmother had six sons fighting in the war. His father was a plantation owner. His older brother served in the Army of Northern Virginia. ¶ LeRoy also offers readers a horrifying account of his daily suffering. Surgeon Dennis Rasbach studied the diary and private letters and believes LeRoy suffered from pulmonary tuberculosis that spread to his spine. His condition worsened with each passing year. Unbeknownst to LeRoy, he was chronicling his own slow and painful descent toward death in tandem with the demise of the Confederacy. ¶ The last diary entry was June 8, 1865, when he wrote, “I have read nothing at all for the last ten days and consequently know little of the outside world….” LeRoy died eight days