Born: 1830, United States
Died: 18 December 1868
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Cyrena Ann Bailey
The following is shared from The New Georgia Encyclopedia, which allows the use of protected materials for noncommercial educational purposes.
An anonymous document, long known as “Miss Abby’s Diary,” proved to be a major source of information on a small, but fully engaged, Unionist community in Atlanta. Historian Thomas G. Dyer decoded the diary and discovered that its author, Vermont native Cyrena Stone, had moved to Fayetteville, Georgia, with her husband in 1850 and then to Atlanta around 1853. When the war broke out, they found themselves, along with other so-called secret Yankees, faced with constant surveillance, social ostracism, and persecution from local law enforcement.
This group of no more than 100 families found various means not only to survive but also to subvert Confederate war efforts. They helped Union prisoners of war and wounded soldiers brought into the city for either incarceration or treatment, and provided information to Union forces as they approached Atlanta. Once Sherman’s troops occupied the city, its Unionist residents were allowed to remain for several weeks after the rest of the populace was forced to evacuate. The Unionists eventually left the city as well, and many returned to the North.
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