The Women of the Confederacy

by J. L. Underwood

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.

Thanks are due to the Virginia State Librarian, Mr. C. D. Kennedy, and his assistants, for kind attentions. The author is under obligations to the lady members of the Confederate Memorial Literary Society of Richmond, especially to Mrs. Lizzie Carey Daniels, Corresponding Secretary, and Mrs. Katherine C. Stiles, Vice-Regent of the Georgia Department of the Confederate Museum. In many ways great and valuable service was kindly rendered by Miss Isabel Maury, the intelligent House Regent of the Museum. To his old Commander, Gen. S. D. Lee, now General Commander of Confederate Veterans, he is under obligation for his practical help; also to Gen. Marcus J. Wright. In making selections from the works of others, great pains have been taken to give proper credit for all matter quoted. The author’s home has been for more than thirty years his delightful Pearland Cottage, in the suburbs of Camilla, Ga. On account of his afflictions he has moved his family to Blakeley, Ga., while he himself may remain some time for medical treatment here in Richmond. The book is sent forth from an invalid’s room with a fervent prayer that it may do good in all sections of our beloved country. Much of the work has been done under severe pain and great weakness, and special indulgence is asked for any defects.

J. L. Underwood.

Kellam’s Hospital,
Richmond, Va.