When the Civil War began, author Robert Garlick Hill Kean enlisted as a private. In 1862, his wife's uncle, George Wythe Randolph, took Kean on as his aide, and Kean followed him into the War Department at Richmond, where he became the head of the Confederate Bureau of War under John Archibald Campbell, the former U.S. Supreme Court justice. Kean's wartime diary, first published in 1957 and selected as Book-of-the-Month by the Civil War Book Club in May that same year, gives a vivid portrayal of every significant character, of both the military and civilian sectors, who comprised the highest levels of the Confederate government, and to this day is considered an indispensable resource for those seeking first-hand, in-depth discussion and analysis of the Richmond government.