The papers of diarist Betty Herndon Maury Maury (1835-1903) consist of a diary kept by Maury from June 3, 1861, to February 18, 1863. The two-volume diary was scanned from one reel of microfilm. Maury wrote the diary primarily in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and it contains detailed comments on the progress of the American Civil War, especially in the local area; contributions by women to the Confederate war effort; hardships suffered by Confederate soldiers; and military activities of Betty Maury's father, naval officer and oceanographer Matthew Fontaine Maury (1806-1873), her cousin, Dabney Herndon Maury (1822-1900), and other members of the Maury family. Betty Maury also discusses the professional impact of the war on her husband (and second cousin), lawyer William A. Maury (1832-1918), the emotional impact of the conflict on her young daughter Nannie Belle Maury (1858-1939), and Maury's concerns about finding accommodations while a refugee in Fredericksburg and Richmond, Virginia.

Maury's diary was donated to the Library of Congress in 1928 by her daughter, Alice Maury Parmelee (1863-1940), the child with whom Betty Maury was pregnant when the diary ends in February 1863.