The Women's War in the South: Recollections and Reflections of the American Civil War

by Greenberg, Martin Harry

• ISBN13: 9781581820218
• ISBN10: 1581820216
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-03-01
• Publisher: Cumberland House

Summary

The Women's War in the South recounts the manner in which women experienced the war and the changes it brought about in their lives. Filled with excerpts from the letters, books, diaries, and post-war writings the women left behind, it reveals the other side of the war -- the women's war. Here are largely first-person accounts of women running farms, buying and selling goods, working outside the home, serving as spies, and even participating in combat in disguise. Women, particularly Southern women, who often had to confront invading Yankees face-to-face without weapons, had strong feelings about this war. The war meant shortages, sacrifices, and -- for many -- death by disease, starvation, and battle. Once the war was ended, the grieving did not end quickly, but from their sorrow emerged a legacy of independence and freedom. The Women's War in the South offers a sampling of these experiences.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Introduction: Southern Women and the Civil War	xiii
Catherine Clinton
RECOLLECTIONS
What a School-Girl Saw of John Brown's Raid	5	(10)
Jennie Chambers
When the States Seceded	15	(12)
Eugene McLean
A Contemporary Account of the Inauguration of Jefferson Davis	27	(4)
Virginia K. Jones
Mrs. Greenhow, Confederate Spy	31	(22)
William Gilmore Beymer
A Virginia Girl in the First Year of the War	53	(16)
Cary Harrison
Personal Recollections of the Battle of Chancellorsville	69	(8)
Sue M. Chancellor
Stonewall's Widow	77	(4)
Varina Davis
A Woman's Experiences During the Siege of Vicksburg	81	(12)
Lida Lord Reed
A Confederate Girl Visits Pennsylvania, July--September 1863	93	(26)
Ernest M. Lander Jr.
Emma Sansom: Heroine of Immortal Courage	119	(8)
Mary Bankhead Owen
Woman Saved Richmond City	127	(6)
William Preston Cabell
Letters of a Confederate Mother: Charleston in the Sixties	133	(18)
Caroline H. Gilman
A Northern Woman in the Confederacy	151	(16)
Eugene McLean
``Lieutenant Harry T. Buford,'' C.S.A.	167	(44)
Richard Hall
Memories of a Hospital Matron	211	(34)
Emily V. Mason
For Better or for Worse	245	(8)
Richard Addison Wood
Joan Faye Wood
Letters from the Heart	253	(14)
Chris Fordney
REFLECTIONS
The Siren of Bull Run	267	(4)
Michael Clune
The Rose of Mississippi	271	(22)
Joseph Hergesheimer
Queen of the Confederacy	293	(6)
Cynthia Myers
The Battling Belles	299	(4)
John Hunt
Bill McIlwain
Sally Tompkins, Captain, Confederate Army	303	(4)
Robert S. Holzman
The Bread Riot in Richmond, 1863	307	(6)
William J. Kimball
Coping in Confederate Appalachia: Portrait of a Mountain Woman and Her Community at War	313	(22)
John C. Inscoe
Emily Lyles Harris: A Piedmont Farmer During the Civil War	335	(14)
Philip N. Racine
A Civil War Experience of Some Arkansas Women in India Territory	349	(20)
Leroy H. Fischer
The Impact of the Civil War on a Southern Marriage: Clement and Virginia Tunstall Clay of Alabama	369	(20)
Carol K. Blesser
Frederick M. Heath
The Trial of Mrs. Surratt and the Lincoln Assassination Plot	389	(10)
Benjamin B. Williams
Notes	399	(22)
For Further Reading	421	(6)
Index	427