The Civil War, Northern and Southern Women

The Civil War, Northern and Southern Women's Letters from the Homefront

Lot of 15 letters by women giving various views of the homefront, many with perceptive commentary on the root cause of the Civil War. Highlights include:

Unidentified young woman to her aunt in Maryland. Elizabeth City Co., Hampton, Va. May 17th, 1861. The war is just a month old and already the citizens are concerned. "The times are very distressing in this neighborhood the people are talking already of Starvation. Hampton is almost empty of groceries and there is no probability of getting any more soon. [mention of blockading the harbor] ...I don't like the idea of dissolving the Union but if the South can not get her rights without [it] she is very justifiable in going out... Brothers Benji belongs to the Hampton Grays, Isaac, to the W Artillary, James is first Lieutenant in the 15th, 5th brigade and 4th division of the Militia." She then talks about the grain crop, selling butter, the chickens, etc. "I am in my twenties and never have experienced [love].... I think I can be satisfied without being in a hurry to marry. I think a girl ought to think twice before she ties the knot with her tongue that can not be undone with her teeth....I am so perfect myself to be sure I ought to look for it in others. [If she finds it, she might be willing to 'wear the yoke, but not till then.']"

Ann E. Parker, Richmond, July 21st, 1862, to her brother Gabe. Begins by telling him she thought the Yankees got him in Vicksburg and was glad to know he wasn't there. "I heard the firing of the cannon very plain in the last three and four battles though the excitement is nothing now to what it was after the battles were fought. Until the sick and wounded were brought in, cars and wagons and everything that could be brought into use was used to bring in the wounded... Every place that can be used as a hospital is filled with the sick and wounded and a great many are taken in private houses. I wish you could come on here for the doctors have their hands full. There is so much to be done though I suppose that you cannot leave." She goes on to inform him who has been wounded and killed. "Billy [presume another brother] is a member of the President's Guard. He joined the latter part of February a company formed for local defense, of young men from sixteen to twenty one years old so he has not had to leave the city yet... But he does not stand the hardship of camp very well and he is in the city too. If he had to leave I don't know what would become of him. He was confined to his bed a week in March with the inflammatory rheumatism..."

Mattie Hemphill, Athens, Ga., July 28, 1862. To Mr. Jimmy Payne, Danielsville Guards, Richmond, Virginia, Care of Capt Montgomery, Colonel Bryan's Regiment. "If you were in Athens now a while now you would enjoy yourself so much for there are a great many more young ladys here now than there was when you was [here]. ...[another] thing to see the old Bachelors and Widderers flying a round the girls. Don't seem to fancy them much they are waiting for peace to be made and pick out a nice young man. I expect you and all the boys will fall in love with the Virginia girls and forget us Georgia girls."

"Sarah" to her cousin, Winthrop, Maine, Dec. 1st, 1862. To Eunice A.H. Alden, Turner, Maine. "We have stirring times now, and 'the days that tried men's souls' have come again to remain, how long we know not. There was great expectation and much gratulation when the Army of the Potomac of McClellan changed hands, but the murmuring of a dissatisfied people, a people who will plan a campaign but cannot execute, is heard again throughout the North. I ever clung to McClellan, Because the soldiery idolized him... But I have faith in Burnside as a good man and a brave officer... I did hope that his forward movement on Richmond would not be checked by the Rebels hearing what his plans were, but it is as it has always been since the breaking out of the Rebellion - a plan cannot be executed or fairly matured before the traitors have knowledge of it and can prevent its execution. Oh, if we could only ferret out these demons (I can't call them anything else) within our own Federal lines, who are spies and traitors of the blackest dye,...we could do something. The Capitol of Southern Despotism would not shelter the head of Jeff Davis and his cabinet many weeks longer." Later she mentions making slippers for the hospitals, and they had an "apple bee" in town, processing apples to dry and send to the soldiers.

Mattie Henry, Wells Co., Indiana, March 22nd, 1863. To her uncle. "I do wish all the Copperheads of Ohio, and Indiana too, were in prison or someplace else for I very much fear that we will have war right here before two months especially if there is another draft. And of course there will be for they all say they will resist and they are armed. Most every one of them ready to fight....I do think, if there were not so many traitors here in the north, there would not be so much war in the south for they help keep it up all the time. And the traitors in the army and at Washington, I have almost been led to wish Washington was destroyed for it is only a sink hole of inequity and so many of our brave soldiers are lost defending those rascals there."

Lannie J. Hope, Norfolk, Virginia, Jan. 1, 1864. To her sister Mattie A. Buchanan, Cambridge, Lancaster Co., Penna. Trying to find some reconciliation with her sister in the North. While living in Virginia, Lannie had become sympathetic to the Southern cause. Apparently an earlier letter caused a large rift between the sisters, and Lannie says she regrets writing it. After giving Mattie a lengthy view of the Southern view of the war, she concludes: "Tis useless, nay worse, neither will be convinced of the justness of the other's cause. Let us each adhere honestly to what we consider right & may heaven prosper the true cause & speedily bring this terrible suffering to an end." Lannie seems to have some socialization issues, however. "...I cannot help these singular aversions I take to people. I wish I was like people around me & could. I should be happier & have more friends."
Condition Report: Variable.