Maxcy Gregg's Sporting Journals 1842-1858

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SOUTH CAROLINIAN MAXCY GREGG was a lawyer, a classically educated scholar with mastery of many languages, a politician, and a volunteer soldier. But his primary interest was the natural world, especially birds, more than 50 varieties of which he must have identified. Gregg was a self-instructed genuine expert and avid investigator of birdlife and wild plants and he had an astronomical observatory built into his house. His "sporting journals, " long neglected sources of antebellum Southern history, were meticulous and are meticulously edited by Suzanne Parfitt Johnson. Gregg's recorded trips cover most of South Carolina, portions of neighboring States, and a sojourn in Mexico-mountains, rivers, Upcountry, Lowcountry. In addition to the wildlife and his hunting prowess or lack thereof, he describes topography, weather, and natural phenomenon (a comet, a hurricane, immense flights of passenger pigeons). The record also provides insight into city, country, and wilderness life. His hunting companions play a prominent part-dogs, horses, and men. Here is a realistic and unusual sample of antebellum Southern life as it was lived day by day.