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Written in the 1870s and originally published by the Tennessee Historical Commission in 1954, Ramsey's autobiography focuses mainly on the home front during the war years. Although Ramsey left Knoxville before Union troops arrived, his wife and daughters remained there for some time, reporting to him on life under the occupation. After the war, Ramsey remained largely unreconstructed politically. Still devoted to his state, he continued his work with the East Tennessee Historical Society, which he had founded in 1834, and served as president of the Tennessee Historical Society from 1874 until his death in 1884.The book includes selected letters from both before and after the Civil War. These shed light on several aspects of Tennessee history, including the coming of the railroad (a project in which Ramsey was instrumental), as well as on Ramsey's personal conviction that slavery was a beneficial institution that lay at the heart of the secession crisis.