The Women of the Confederacy

To the memory of Mrs. ELIZABETH THOMAS CURRY, whose remains rest under the live oaks at Bainbridge, Ga., who cheerfully gave every available member of her family to the Confederate Cause, and with her own hands made their gray jackets, and who gave to the author her Christian patriot daughter, who has been the companion, the joy and the crown of his long and happy life, this volume is most affectionately dedicated.

CONTENTS

PAGE I SYMPOSIUM OF TRIBUTES TO CONFEDERATE WOMEN 19 Mrs. Varina Jefferson Davis 19 Tribute of President Jefferson Davis 20 Tribute of a Wounded Soldier 21 Tribute of a Federal Private Soldier 21 Joseph E. Johnston's Tribute 22 Stonewall Jackson's Female Soldiers 23 Gen. J. B. Gordon's Tribute 23 General Forrest's Tribute 24 Tribute of Gen. M. C. Butler 24 Tribute of Gen. Marcus J. Wright 26 Tribute of Dr. J. L. M. Curry 26 Address of Col. W. R. Aylett Before Pickett Camp 28 Gen. Bradley T. Johnson's Speech at the Dedication of South's Museum 28 Governor C. T. O'Ferrall's Tribute 30 Tribute of Judge J. H. Reagan, of Texas, Postmaster-General of Confederate States 32 General Freemantle (of the British Army) 33 Sherman's "Tough Set" 33 Tribute of General Buell 34 Tribute of Judge Alton B. Parker, of New York 34 Heroic Men and Women (President Roosevelt) 35 The Women of the South 36 Eulogy on Confederate Women 41 II THEIR WORK 70 Introduction to Woman's Work 70 The Southern Woman's Song 71 The Ladies of Richmond 72 The Hospital After Seven Pines 73 Burial of Latane 73 Making Clothes for the Soldiers 74 The Ingenuity of Southern Women 75 Mrs. Lee and the Socks 77 Fitting Out a Soldier 77 The Thimble Brigade 79 Noble Women of Richmond 80 From Matoaca Gay's Articles in the Philadelphia Times 81 The Women of Richmond 82 Two Georgia Heroines 83 The Seven Days' Battle 83 Death of Mrs. Sarah K. Rowe, "The Soldiers' Friend" 92 "You Wait" 93 Annandale--Two Heroines of Mississippi 95 A Plantation Heroine 98 Lucy Ann Cox 100 "One of Them Lees" 101 Southern Women in the War Between the States 101 A Mother of the Confederacy 104 "The Great Eastern" 105 Cordial for the Brave 106 Hospital Work and Women's Delicacy 107 A Wayside Home at Millen 108 A Noble Girl 110 The Good Samaritan 110 Female Relatives Visit the Hospitals 111 Mania for Marriage 116 Government Clerkships 117 Schools in War Times 118 Humanity in the Hospitals 118 Mrs. Davis and the Federal Prisoner 119 Socks that Never Wore Out 120 Burial of Aunt Matilda 120 "Illegant Pair of Hands" 121 The Gun-boat "Richmond" 122 Captain Sally Tompkins 124 The Angel of the Hospital 125 III THEIR TRIALS 127 Old Maids 127 A Mother's Letter 129 Tom and his Young Master 130 "I Knew You Would Come" 131 Letters from the Poor at Home 132 Life in Richmond During the War 133 The Women of New Orleans 140 "Incorrigible Little Devil" 141 The Battle of the Handkerchiefs 142 The Women of New Orleans and Vicksburg Prisoners 144 "It Don't Trouble Me" 147 Savage War in the Valley 147 Mrs. Robert Turner, Woodstock, Va. 148 High Price of Needles And Thread 149 Despair at Home--Heroism at the Front 151 The Old Drake's Territory 152 The Refugee in Richmond 154 Desolations of War 155 Death of a Soldier 156 Mrs. Henrietta E. Lee's Letter To General Hunter 159 Sherman's Bummers 161 Reminiscences of the War Times--a Letter 163 Aunt Myra and the Hoe-cake 164 "The Corn Woman" 166 General Atkins at Chapel Hill 167 Two Specimen Cases of Desertion 167 Sherman in South Carolina 171 Old North State's Trials 173 Sherman in North Carolina 175 Mrs. Vance's Trunk--General Palmer's Gallantry 177 The Eventful Third of April 178 The Federals Enter Richmond 181 Somebody's Darling 183 IV THEIR PLUCK 185 Female Recruiting Officers 185 Mrs. Susan Roy Carter 186 J. L. M. Curry's Women Constituents 191 Nora McCarthy 192 Women in the Battle of Gainesville, Florida 194 "She Would Send Ten More" 195 Women at Vicksburg 196 "Mother, Tell Him Not To Come" 198 Brave Woman in Decatur, Georgia 201 Giving Warning To Mosby 204 "Ain't You Ashamed of You'uns?" 211 False Teeth 212 Emma Sansom 213 President Roosevelt's Mother and Grandmother 215 The Little Girl at Chancellorsville 217 Saved Her Hams 217 Heroism of a Widow 218 Winchester Women 219 Sparta in Mississippi 219 "Woman's Devotion"--A Winchester Heroine 220 Spoken Like Cornelia 222 A Specimen Mother 223 Mrs. Rooney 224 Warning by a Brave Girl 226 A Plucky Girl With a Pistol 227 Mosby's Men And Two Noble Girls 228 A Spartan Dame and her Young 230 Singing Under Fire 231 A Woman's Last Word 232 Two Mississippi Girls Hold Yankees at Pistol Point 233 "War Women" of Petersburg 234 John Allen's Cow 235 The Family That Had No Luck 235 Brave Women at Resaca, Georgia 237 A Woman's Hair 238 A Breach of Etiquette 240 Lola Sanchez's Ride 241 The Rebel Sock 244 V THEIR CAUSE 246 Introductory Note to Their Cause 246 "When This Cruel War Is Over" 246 Northern Men Leaders of Disunion 247 The Union vs. A Union 248 The Northern States Secede From the Union 253 Frenzied Finance and the War of 1861 255 The Right of Secession 260 The Cause Not Lost 262 Slavery as the South Saw It 262 Vindication of Southern Cause 263 Northern View of Secession 266 Major J. Scheibert on Confederate History 268 VI MATER REDIVIVA 271 Introductory Note 271 The Empty Sleeve 272 The Old Hoopskirt 273 The Political Crimes of the Nineteenth Century 276 Brave to the Last 280 Sallie Durham 281 The Negro and the Miracle 283 Georgia Refugees 284 The Negroes And New Freedom 286 The Confederate Museum in the Capital of the Confederacy 287 Federal Decoration Day--Adoption from Our Memorial 290 The Daughters and the United Daughters of the Confederacy 291 A Daughter's Plea 293 Home for Confederate Women 297 Jefferson Davis Monument 297 Reciprocal Slavery 299 Barbara Frietchie 302 Social Equality Between the Races 304 Dream of Race Superiority 308 Roosevelt at Lee's Monument 311

PREFACE

It is remarkable that after a lapse of forty years the people of this country, from the President down, are manifesting a more lively interest than ever in the history of the women of the Confederacy. Bodily affliction only has prevented the author from rendering at an earlier date the service to their memory and the cause of the South which he feels that he has done in preparing this volume. His friends, Dr. J. Wm. Jones, and the lamented Dr. J. L. M. Curry, of Richmond, Va., made the suggestion of this work several years ago. They both rendered material assistance in the preparation of the lecture which appears in this volume as the author's tribute in the Symposium, and to Doctor Jones the author is greatly indebted for the practical brotherly assistance he has continued to render.