The Women of the ConfederacyUnderwood, J. L. (John Levi)
History
The Women of the Confederacy
Underwood, J. L. (John Levi)
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Anecdotes; Women -- Confederate States of America
In a diary kept at the time by an official in the War Department I
find this entry:
_May 10, 1861._--The ladies are sewing everywhere, and are full of
ardor. Love affairs are plentiful, but the ladies are postponing all
engagements till their lovers have fought the Yankees. Their influence
is very great. Day after day they go in crowds to the fair grounds,
where the First South Carolina Volunteers are encamped, showering upon
them smiles and every delicacy which the city can afford. They wine
them and dine them, and they deserve it, for they are just from the
taking of Sumter, and have won historic distinction. I was presented
to several very distinguished looking young men, all of them privates,
and was told by their captain that many of them were worth from a
hundred thousand to half a million. These are the men the _Tribune_
thought would all of them want to be captains; but that is only one of
the hallucinations under which the North is now laboring.
THE WOMEN OF RICHMOND
[By Phoebe Y. Pember, in Hospital Life.]
But of what importance was the fact that I was homeless, houseless and
moneyless, in Richmond, the heart of Virginia? Who ever wanted for
aught that kind hearts, generous hands or noble hospitality could
supply, that it was not here offered without even the shadow of a
patronage that could have made it distasteful? What women were ever so
refined in feeling and so unaffected in manner; so willing to share
all that wealth gives, and so little infected with the pride of purse
which bestows that power? It was difficult to hide one's needs from
them; they found them out and ministered to them with their quiet
simplicity and the innate nobility which gave to their generosity the
coloring of a favor received, not conferred.
Would that I could do more than thank the dear friends who made my
life for four years so happy and contented; who never made me feel by
word or act that my self-imposed occupation was otherwise than one
which would ennoble any woman. If ever any aid was given through my
own exertions, or any labor rendered effective by me for the good of
the South--if any sick soldier ever benefited by my happy face or
pleasant smiles at his bedside, or death was ever soothed by gentle
words of hope and tender care--such results were only owing to the
cheering encouragement I received from them.
TWO GEORGIA HEROINES
[Mary L. Jewett, Corresponding Secretary Clement Evans Chapter, U. D.
C.]
"To such women as these should a shaft of precious stone be erected."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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