Alpha Graphics (June 1, 2025)

Paperback. Signed.

New.

During the first two years of the Civil War, Jackson Mississippi remained largely unmolested. That changed during the Spring and Summer of 1863 when Union forces began their campaign to take Vicksburg. The Battle of Jackson took place on May 14, 1863, and the Siege of the city took place over a week during the following July. Jackson suffered terrible losses and its destruction by fire earned it the name “Chimneyville”.

Susan Arabella “Belle” Daniel lived on the Clinton Road west of Jackson during the invasions by the dreaded “Yankees”. She turned eighteen between the two events and left a written record of flights for safety and of her encounters with union soldiers in a small notebook. Seventy-five years later one of her sons transcribed the diary and presented a ten-page, single spaced document which he aptly titled “The Civil War Diary of Belle Daniel”.

When Belle’s memoir was brought to Vince Venturini’s attention more than two years ago, it inspired him to add her story to the Civil War record in Jackson. Belle’s account of events gives insight into the horrors faced by civilians, particularly young women, during the attacks on Jackson. It shows how a teenaged girl sought safety for herself and family members and how the losses took its toll upon her. It is said that history is a dialogue with the past. Those who read this book will be able to hear the words of a young girl and learn how she responded during Jackson’s darkest hours, and how she recovered and built a family life in the decades that followed.

Vince Venturini, a native of Jackson Mississippi, grew up in the southern section of the city. His early life witnessed the increasing suburbanization of rural communities which was later chronicled in his first book, One Direction Home: A History of South Jackson. His co-author was the former city commissioner Douglas Shanks.

That volume was followed by Once we Crowned Royalty: Tales of Downtown and West Jackson. Here he continued to present the history of a section of Jackson, including biographical sketches of its noted citizens. Venturini adopted this approach as an alternative to earlier histories of the city that focused upon the civic, institutional, business and residential activities that emerged along North State Street, and west on Capitol Street.

His third book, Blackened Chimneys stand monument of Yankee Glory: Arabelle Daniel’s Memoir of Jackson,1863 uses the chronicles left by a teenaged girl of her experiences during the late Spring and Summer of 1863 when Jackson was twice occupied by Union forces. Venturini uses a technique known as “history from below” in his works that allows the stories of past events to be told by the citizens who lived through and were affected by them, rather than relying exclusively upon official records.

Vince Venturini is a graduate of St. Joseph High School in Jackson. He earned the Bachelor of Arts in Sociology at Mississippi State University, the Master of Social Work Degree at the University of Southern Mississippi and the Ph.D. in Social Work at the University of Alabama. His concentration in the Doctoral Program at Alabama was Social Welfare History, in which he honed his skills in the use of the “history from below” approach to telling stories. In his retirement, he travels and spends time with his grandchildren. He also spends much time in the kitchen preparing Italian cuisine.