Description

Compiled in 1885 by the Charleston Weekly News and Carrier from the firsthand accounts of Southern women who lived through the War Between the States.

Women across the South often rejoiced as their state separated from what they saw as a tyrannical Federal hold over their land. Although the terrors of war would later dampen much of this opening fervor, many Southern women took an active role in the secession movement. As the war progressed, they formed sewing and knitting societies to provide soldiers with socks and clothing. They sent what food they could spare to the soldier and planned bazaars, raffles, and entertainments to raise money. women fulfilled roles once held generally by men, such as clerking and nursing. Nurses were called “angels of the battlefield,” enduring long and difficult hours to heal and comfort wounded and dying soldiers. Women also were often heads of households, and their most challenging task was protecting their homes and property from the invading and pillaging Union armies. After the war, the Charleston Weekly News and Carrier newspaper asked them to send in accounts of their war-time experiences and how they met those challenges. Their work is presented in this book, in first-person narrations.