My Diary: North and South is a two-volume memoir of Sir William Howard Russell, Irish reporter and war correspondent, in which he recounts his days spent in America during the Civil War. In 1861 Russell went to Washington and returned to England in 1863 when he wrote of his experiences before and during the conflict fought between the Union («the North») and the Confederacy («the South»), which was formed by Secessionists declaring U.S. state Ordinances of Secession.