A sentinel in the preservation of Barton’s--(Clara Barton)

A sentinel in the preservation of Barton’s--(Clara Barton)

By Linda Wheeler

Red Cross founder Clara Barton must have had a guardian angel when she followed the troops onto the battlefield and nursed the injured. As she cared for one young soldier, a bullet tore through her sleeve and killed him.

After the Civil War, she headed an office in Washington, initially using her own money to search for soldiers missing in action and reconnect them with their families.

Now that office space, carved out of an apartment where she lived, has a guardian angel.

He is Richard Lyons, a General Services Administration carpenter who stumbled on Barton’s living and working quarters when he discovered government files and clothing she’d stashed in a crawl space above her bedroom in 1869 before leaving for Europe. Barton returned to the area and in 1897 set up her home and headquarters, now the Clara Barton National Historic Site, in suburban Glen Echo, Md.

Nine years ago, the DC building at 437 Seventh St. NW was to be demolished. Lyons, checking the roof for leaks, noticed an envelope between a ceiling and the attic. That led him into the dark recesses of the crawl space, where he found files, a metal sign advertising the missing soldiers’ offices and a blouse with a bullet hole.

Lyons became an instant hero to the preservation community. The GSA, which had taken over the property from the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corp. after it went out of business, promptly reversed the corporation’s demolition order and announced plans to create a museum in the apartment dedicated to Barton’s Civil War work.

Since then, Lyons has protected the third-floor space. He does his job well. At 59, he has a deep knowledge of carpentry, which he first learned about from his grandfather in Tennessee, and the wisdom that comes from living in Washington for a long time.

The Barton building is part of a long row of Victorian commercial buildings on Seventh Street with restored facades and new interiors. The work was done by JPI Development following GSA preservation guidelines. Behind them is a new 10-story residential building named the Clara Barton Condominiums.

As the rest of the Barton building, once a shoe store, has been turned into office space, Lyons’ job has been to ensure that no one damages or alters the third floor. He has had to fend off the curious and the treasure seekers and admonish plumbers and electricians looking for an easy way to string wiring or place pipes.

For him, it’s personal.

“I remember it was the night before Thanksgiving, and I came here to check the roof,” he said as he stood in the soft light of the seven-foot windows that once lighted Barton’s office. “I was by myself. I heard something in the back, but when I checked, I didn’t find anything. There weren’t any lights here, and I was using my flashlight.”

“Then someone tapped me on my shoulder. I thought it was one of my co-workers come by to help me, but there was no one there. It was then that I saw the envelope stuck up by the ceiling.”

Lyons’ domain is a series of rooms whose condition many would find repulsive. The wallpaper has fallen away from the plaster, parts of the ceiling have collapsed and the place still has the dust and dirt of a century of disuse after the building’s owner closed off the third floor in 1900.

But there are hints of Barton’s presence. Her office was listed on the sign out front as No. 9, and a dark brown door is still in place with a numeral 9 painted on it. Lyons has become a student of Barton’s time in Washington, and he read in the records she kept for the government that there was so much mail from families looking for soldiers that she had a mail slot carved into the office door. There is a sliver of a mail slot at the bottom of door No. 9.

Three rooms still have striped wallpaper that Barton said she had put up to make the place more attractive, Lyons said. When the office got busy with visitors, workers and several boarders, Barton had a privacy wall built at the end of the long, narrow office. The space behind the wall became her bedroom.

Although nine years seems a long time to finish the museum, the GSA’s program manager for historic buildings, Caroline Alderson, said the museum is still very much in the works.

“We’ve stabilized the building, put in an elevator for the public, installed air conditioning and heating for climate control,” Alderson said. “We’ve brought the building up to code.” She said the first floor is envisioned as an orientation center where visitors will learn about Barton and buy tickets to see the museum. The elevator is right behind the office. JPI Construction is leasing the second floor for commercial use with restrictions to ensure its compatibility with the museum.

There are still decisions to be made about the large sections of missing wallpaper. The bald spots might be painted with a matching color, or perhaps the original paper will be matched and fabricated.

There are still concerns about the narrow doorways and low handrails. They must be safe for the public, but authenticity is also important.

“Corners should never be cut when dealing with a space like that,” Alderson said. Meanwhile, she knows the Barton apartment is safe. “We have Richard there,” she said. “He is our guardian angel.”

LATWP News ServiceA sentinel in the preservation of Barton’s

Belle Boyd

Maria Isabella Boyd, well-knwon as Belle Boyd (1843 – 1900), born in Martinsburg, Virginia, was a Confederate spy in the American Civil War.
She operated from her father's hotel in Front Royal, and provided valuable information to Generals Turner Ashby and Stonewall Jackson during the 1862 campaign in the Valley. She was arrested on July 29, 1862, and held for a month in the Old Capitol Prison in Washington. In 1864 she went to England where she met and married a Union naval officer.
She was awarded the Southern Cross of Honor. After the war Belle Boyd became an actress.

Clara Barton

Clara Barton

 Born:
Dec. 25, 1821

Died:
April 12, 1912

 Biography:

Clara Barton was born December 25, 1921 in Oxford, Massachusetts. She was the youngest of 5 children, and was educated at home. By the age of 15 years old she was teaching school. One of her most notable achievements was the establishment of a free public school in Bordentown, New Jersey. Another achievement of Barton's is the founding of the American Red cross.

In 1861 Clara Barton was living in Washington, D.C., working for the United States Patent Office. After the Baltimore riots, Barton organized a relief effort for the soldiers of the 6th Massachusetts Regiment, thus beginning a lifetime of philanthropy for Barton.

When Clara learned that the wounded soldiers from the First Bull Run had suffered from a lack of medical supplies, she advertised for donations in the Worcester, Spy and began an independent organization to deliver the goods. The relief operation was a success, and the following year the United States Surgeon General, William A. Hammond, granted her a pass to travel with Army ambulances "for the purpose of distributing comforts for the sick and wounded, and nursing them."

She followed the Army operations throughout the Virginia theater and into the Charleston, S.C. area. In the Fredricksburg, Va. area she nursed wounded men from the Battle of the Wilderness. This is when she served as a superintendent of nurses in Maj. Gen. Butler's command.

By the end of the war, Barton had performed most of the services that would later be associated with the American Red Cross, which she founded in 1881. She resigned as head of the Red Cross in 1904 and retired to her home in Glen Echo, outside Washington, D.C. She died here on April 12, 1912.

Dorothea Lynde Dix

Dorothea Lynde Dix

Biography:

Born April 4, 1802, Dorothea Lynde Dix was a noted social reformer, who from the early 1840's through the Civil War, lobbied states to create asylums for the insane. Dorothea spent over 20 years working for improved treatment of mentally ill patients, and for better prison conditions.

A week after the attack on Fort Sumter, Dorothea, at age 59, volunteered her services to the Union and received an appointment in June of 1861, placing her as the Superintendent of Union Army Nurses. She served in that position throughout the war without pay. She convinced skeptical military officials, unaccustomed to female nurses, that women could perform the work acceptably. Trying to battle the prevailing stereo-types, Dorothea Dix sought to ensure that her ranks of nurses were serious career minded women. For this reason, Dix only accepted women who were plain looking and older than 30 years old. She also instigated a dress code of modest black or brown skirts, and forbade hoops or jewelry of any kind. Even with these strict dress codes, a total of over 3,000 women served as Union Army nurses.

Known as "Dragon Dix" to some, the Superintendent was stern and brusque, frequently clashing with military bureaucracy and occasionally ignoring administrative details. However, Army nursing care was markedly improved under her leadership. Dorothea Dix looked after the welfare not only the nurses, who labored in an often brutal environment, but to the soldiers as well. Often times obtaining medical supplies from private sources when they were not forthcoming from the government.

At the end of the war, Dix resumed her work on behalf of the mentally ill. She spent the last years of her life living as a guest in the New Jersey State hospital in Trenton, N.J. She died July 17, 1887.

Elizabeth Van Lew

The first Union flag to wave over Richmond in four years was raised in 1865 by this famous and effective Union spy. Born into a prominent Richmond family, Elizabeth Van Lew returned from her schooling in Philadelphia as an adamant abolitionist determined to fight slavery in the bastion of the South. "Slave power," she wrote in her diary, "is arrogant, is jealous and intrusive, is cruel, is despotic." Outspoken and rebellious, she appeared to her neighbors to be more than a little eccentric and soon became known as "Crazy Bet."

After Virginia seceded and Fort Sumter fell, she used her reputation for innocuous idiosyncracy as a shield behind which her shrewd and resourceful mind devised schemes to abet the Union cause from within Richmond. Her first target was the Confederate Libby Prison, which imprisoned Union captives. Pretending to make a merely humanitarian gesture, Van Lew brought baskets of food, medicine, and books to the prisoners. What she brought out would have shocked the guards she learned to charm and deceive.

Not only did Van Lew help some prisoners escape, she also gleaned valuable information from various sources inside the prison. Newly arrived Union prisoners secretly recounted the strength and dispositions of Confederate troops they had seen on their way from the front to Richmond. Of even more use was information carelessly conveyed to the "harmless Crazy Bet" by Confederate guards and by the prison's Confederate commandant, Lieutenant David H.Todd (Mary Todd Lincoln's half-brother).

She even managed to penetrate the home of President Jefferson Davis by convincing one of her former servants to secure a position in the Davis household staff. At first, Van Lew simply mailed the information she retrieved in letters posted to Federal authorities. As her work continued, her methods grew more sophisticated. She devised a code involving words and letters that prisoners would underline in the books she lent them.
Van Lew also sent her household servants--though she had freed the family's slaves, many of them chose to stay with her--northward carrying baskets of farm produce. Each basket held some eggs, one of which contained encoded messages in place of its natural contents. She sent her information directly to Benjamin Butler as well as to Grant through an elaborate courier system. It was so fast and effective that General Grant often received flowers still fresh from his spy's large garden. Grant would later say of her efforts, "You have sent me the most valuable information received from Richmond during the war."

After the war, President Grant rewarded Van Lew with a job as postmistress of Richmond, which she held from 1869 to 1877. Although revered in the North, she was, needless to say, ostracized by her Richmond neighbors. "No one will walk with us on the street," she wrote, "no one will go with us anywhere; and it grows worse and worse as the years roll on." Failing to be reappointed postmistress under Rutherford B. Hayes, she lived on a annuity from the family of a Union soldier she bad helped in Libby Prison. She died in Richmond, probably in 1900.

Frances Louisa Clayton/Francis Clalin

Frances Louisa Clayton/Francis Clalin

Biography:

Frances Louisa Clayton enlisted in a Minnesota regiment as Francis Clalin. Presumably she enlisted to be with her husband. While in the Civil War, she served under General Rosecrans in Tennessee. Her husband was killed instantly during a charge on the enemy. She was 5 paces behind her husband, and she was wounded in the hip. Her true identify was found when she entered the hospital, and she was discharged Jan. 2, 1863.

She was on a train home to Nashville when the train was attacked by guerrillas, robbed of her papers she decided to try again. This time she learned to smoke, swear, and drink to better conceal her sex. Once back in the army she stood guard, went on picket duty, and fought in the field with the rest of her comrades. She was considered a good soldier. There doesn't seem to be any information about her after this time period.

Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman (born 1820 in Dorchester County, Maryland, died March 10, 1913 in Auburn, New York), also known as Black Moses, was an African-American freedom fighter. An escaped slave, she worked as a guerrilla, farmhand, lumberjack, laundress and cook, refugee organizer, raid leader and intelligence commander, nurse and healer, revival speaker, feminist and fundraiser, all as part of the struggle for liberation from slavery and racism.

She was born into slavery in Maryland. Usually it is thought that she was born in around 1820, but that data cannot be authenticated because there are no records of her birth. Harriet herself claimed she was born around 1825. Born Araminta Ross, she later took the name Harriet after her mother. Around 1844 she married John Tubman, a free man. She endured years of inhumane treatment from her various owners, including an incident where an overseer hurled a two-pound weight in her direction, striking her in the head. As a result of the blow, she suffered intermittent bouts of narcolepsy the rest of her life.

On hearing that the slaves of the plantation were to be sold, she took her emancipation into her own hands, and escaped northward, leaving behind her husband who did not want to follow. On her way she was assisted by sympathetic Quakers, members of the Abolitionist movement who were instrumental in maintaining the Underground Railroad. She herself was later to become famous as "Moses", one of the most successful guides of the Underground Railroad (Underground Railroad "conductor") ; she made many trips South to help other slaves escape. With 19 expeditions where she personally guided around 300 slaves to freedom, she was never captured and, in her own words, "never lost a passenger" despite the combined bounty for her which totalled $40,000, the highest amount for any conductor. During the American Civil War, in addition to working as a cook and a nurse, she served as a spy for the North, and again was never captured. And she guided hundreds of people trapped in slavery up to the free states, during the Civil War.

Mary Edwards Walker

Mary Edwards Walker, one of the nation's 1.8 million women veterans, was the only one to earn the Congressional Medal of Honor, for her service during the Civil War. She, along with thousands of other women, were honored in the newly-dedicated Women in Military Service for America Memorial in October 1997.

Controversy surrounded Mary Edwards Walker throughout her life. She was born on November 26, 1832 in the Town of Oswego, New York, into an abolitionist family. Her birthplace on the Bunker Hill Road is marked with a historical marker. Her father, a country doctor, was a free thinking participant in many of the reform movements that thrived in upstate New York in the mid 1800s. He believed strongly in education and equality for his five daughters Mary, Aurora, Luna, Vesta, and Cynthia (there was one son, Alvah). He also believed they were hampered by the tight-fitting women's clothing of the day.

His daughter, Mary, became an early enthusiast for Women's Rights, and passionately espoused the issue of dress reform. The most famous proponent of dress reform was Amelia Bloomer, a native of Homer, New York, whose defended a colleague's right to wear "Turkish pantaloons" in her Ladies' Temperance Newspaper, the Lily. "Bloomers," as they became known, did achieve some popular acceptance towards the end of the 19th century as women took up the new sport of bicycling. Mary Edwards Walker discarded the unusual restrictive women's clothing of the day. Later in her life she donned full men's evening dress to lecture on Women's Rights.

In June 1855 Mary, the only woman in her class, joined the tiny number of women doctors in the nation when she graduated from the eclectic Syracuse Medical College, the nation's first medical school and one which accepted women and men on an equal basis. She gratuated at age 21 after three 13-week semesters of medical training which she paid $55 each for.

In 1856 she married another physician, Albert Miller, wearing trousers and a man's coat and kept her own name. Together they set up a medical practice in Rome, NY, but the public was not ready to accept a woman physician, and their practice floundered. They were divorced 13 years later.

When war broke out, she came to Washington and tried to join the Union Army. Denied a commission as a medical officer, she volunteered anyway, serving as an acting assistant surgeon -- the first female surgeon in the US Army. As an unpaid volunteer, she worked in the US Patent Office Hospital in Washington. Later, she worked as a field surgeon near the Union front lines for almost two years (including Fredericksburg and in Chattanooga after the Battle of Chickamauga).

In September 1863, Walker was finally appointed assistant surgeon in the Army of the Cumberland for which she made herself a slightly modified officer's uniform to wear, in response to the demands of traveling with the soldiers and working in field hospitals. She was then appointed assistant surgeon of the 52nd Ohio Infantry. During this assignment it is generally accepted that she also served as a spy. She continually crossed Confederate lines to treat civilians. She was taken prisoner in 1864 by Confederate troops and imprisoned in Richmond for four months until she was exchanged, with two dozen other Union doctors, for 17 Confederate surgeons.

She was released back to the 52nd Ohio as a contract surgeon, but spent the rest of the war practicing at a Louisville female prison and an orphan's asylum in Tennessee. She was paid $766.16 for her wartime service. Afterward, she got a monthly pension of $8.50, later raised to $20, but still less than some widows' pensions.

On November 11, 1865, President Johnson signed a bill to present Dr. Mary Edwards Walker with the Congressional Medal of Honor for Meritorious Service, in order to recognize her contributions to the war effort without awarding her an army commission. She was the only woman ever to receive the Medal of Honor, her country's highest military award.

After the war, Mary Edwards Walker became a writer and lecturer, touring here and abroad on women's rights, dress reform, health and temperance issues. Tobacco, she said, resulted in paralysis and insanity. Women's clothing, she said, was immodest and inconvenient. She was elected president of the National Dress Reform Association in 1866. Walker prided herself by being arrested numerous times for wearing full male dress, including wing collar, bow tie, and top hat. She was also something of an inventor, coming up with the idea of using a return postcard for registered mail. She wrote extensively, including a combination biography and commentary called Hit and a second book, Unmasked, or the Science of Immortality. She died in the Town of Oswego on February 21, 1919 and is buried in the Rural Cemetery on the Cemetery Road.

Ms. Johnson's thoughts on Women and the Confederacy

Ms. Johnson's thoughts on Women and the Confederacy

by Julie A. Johnson

English Education major

Women in the Confederacy had a great impact on the Civil War. They were thrown into totally different lifestyles--ones that did not include men taking care of the land and other businesses. Women had more control of their lives than ever before. Some took it upon themselves to get involved directly with the war while others just kept the home fires burning. Whatever roles they played, women contributed a multitude of skills to the Civil War effort.

The life of a plantation mistress changed significantly once her husband left to join the Southern army. A majority of them stayed right on the land even if they were rich enough to move to a safer place. While there, the women and children would do a plethora of things: plant gardens, sew, knit, weave cloth, spin thread, process and cure meat, scour copper utensils, preserve and churn butter, and dip candles. Another important chore for a plantation mistress was caring for all the slaves. This included providing food, clothing, shelter, and medical care.1 Since money was scarce, "everything was made at home" according to one Southern woman. In a letter to her sister, she added that they "substituted rice for coffee . . . honey and homemade molasses for sugar . . . all we wore was made at home. Shoes also. You would be surprised to see how neat people looked."2 Even a ten-year-old girl wrote in her diary how she would have to go to work to help her mother: "Mama has been very busy to day and I have been trying to help her all I could." This same little girl cooked for her family and cared for her little sister while her mother was busy keeping the plantation alive. 3 Not only did the women stay busy trying to keep their home safe and prosperous, but they also kept up-to-date on news concerning the war.4

Many Southern women read the newspapers on a regular basis. Some, however, were much closer to the battlefield than they would have liked to have been. Lucy Breckinridge, a nineteen-year-old girl who lived in the Shenandoah Valley, wrote in her diary how she could hear the cannons over the mountains. Carrie Berry consistently wrote that her family spent a good part of two months in the cellar while her home was being bombarded by shells. Another nineteen-year-old, Sarah Morgan, from Baton Rouge, went to the levees to watch the battles, even though it was against her mother's wishes.5 But some women took it a step further: rather than just watching the men fight for the Southern states, a few women decided to pick up a gun and join the ranks.

It is not known how many women actually participated in battle; however, the number seems to be higher than anyone expected. These women played the role of the warrior and literally gave up their gender to fight. One such case is Amy Clark. She dressed like a man to serve in the Confederate army with her husband. After his death, she continued her service and was wounded and captured by the Union. Once the North discovered her true identity, they released her back into the Southern army and insisted that she wear a dress. Some say that Amy Clark may have worn lieutenant's bars on her uniform. Another women who dressed as a man to fight was Malenda Blalock, who posed as a brother to her husband. Another southern female warrior was Madame Loreta Janeta Velazquez, also known as Lieutenant Henry Buford. She raised her own cavalry and fought in the Battle of Bull Run. After being wounded twice, she joined in on another activity in which an elite group of southern women participated: espionage.6

Confederate women helped out their fellow men by being "covert operatives." Rose Greenhow passed vital information to Beauregard during the Battle of Bull Run. After she was sent to prison, Mary Chestnut said that Rose "was a great woman spoiled by education--or the want of it. She has left few less prudent women behind her--and many less devoted to our cause." Kate Beattie burned Union boats while Belle Edmondson smuggled goods to the Confederate soldiers under her petticoat. Belle Boyd, a nurse who eavesdropped on conversing Union soldiers, reported her learned information to General Stonewall Jackson. And Jennie Chew, whose nickname was "Rose of the Valley," tracked Sheridan's moves throughout the Shenandoah Valley. If these women spies and smugglers got caught by the Union, they were usually imprisoned briefly and then released back to the South. The Union had no idea how helpful Southern women could be, especially to the wounded Confederates.7

Southern women picked up nursing quickly. Some did not have much of a choice. Lucy Breckinridge "had" to practice medicine; after taking care of her younger family members, she said, "I can make or take a diagnosis now as quickly as any M.D." Sophia Gilmer Bibb headed the Ladies' Hospital Association and also had her own hospital. In fact, the surgeon general informed Jefferson Davis that it was the best managed and most comfortable hospital in the South. Ella King Newsom of Arkansas was called the "Florence Nightingale of the southern army" while Juliet Hopkins was called "Angel of the South" by Joseph Johnston because she helped the wounded soldiers out on the battlefield and was wounded twice while doing so. The most famous nurse, however, was Sally Tompkins. She was the only woman in the Civil War to be given a military rank. Mary Chestnut was a volunteer at the Tompkins' hospital and brought peaches and grapes to the wounded Confederates. But the Southern women's duties did not end there.8

Helping the Southern soldiers took up much of the women's time. "Everybody was so much taken up in providing for the soldiers that there was no time for frolicking." Many southern women served the Confederacy by sewing shirts, knitting socks and rolling bandages. "Half soldier heroines," also known as Daughters of the Regiment, marched with the armies and provided food and water during battles. Others helped clean up the battlefields once all combat was done. The women who stayed at home provided food and shelter and medical care to Confederates who stopped by. Sarah Morgan recalled taking care of her brother when he was injured at Antietam; she had to keep the flies off his grotesque wound. Other women took a more feminine approach to helping the South by cutting their hair and selling it to European wigmakers and giving that money to the government. Mary Chestnut had a very strong opinion about those women who refused to contribute to the South: "I'm shocked to hear that dear friends of mine refused to take work for the soldiers because their sempstresses had their winter clothes to make. I told them true patriotresses would be willing to wear the same clothes until our siege was raised."9

The women of the South helped the Confederate cause partly because of their feelings towards Yankees. Not only did they hate the Federals, but they also feared them. Rape was their greatest concern: it was a "dishonor infinitely worse than death." Physical harm was another horror. Cordelia Scales from Mississippi had her earrings ripped out and her hair pulled out, and she was knocked out by a Union officer. A sixty-five year old women was whipped to death for her alleged money. These cases were not as common as having homes burned and pillaged. Some Yankees would snoop through houses in search of Confederates while others would steal expensive items, even those with the family name engraved on them. One woman reported that a northern officer wrote obscenities on the walls and stole ladies' apparel. When confronted, the soldier replied, "Ain't I got a wife and four children in the north?" Even though most women commented on the drunken behavior of the Union soldiers, a few did notice the kindness of some. In one such case, a Union soldier helped a woman's sick baby. When the Yankees came to little Carrie Berry's home, she wrote that they were "orderly and very well. I think I shall like the Yankees very well." Her thoughts changed, however, when they took her family's last pig. "We will have to live on bread." Mary Chestnut summed it up nicely: "Only let us alone--we ask no more of gods or men."10

With the poor behavior of Union soldiers fresh in their minds, southern women were very opinionated about the Confederacy. Some were so against the Union that they would rather die than let the North have victory. One woman said, "'If the fortunes of war should threaten me with degradation I am not compelled to live." But the women tried to remain hopeful, especially at the beginning of the war. Every time a paper reported a Confederate victory, they believed that peace and Confederate success was in the near future. Mary Chestnut ignored the "silly advances" Lincoln and General Seward had made and concluded that there "may be a chance for peace after all." After much destruction, she firmly believed that even if the Yankees did murder the South and destroy the land, the Union would never conquer the Confederacy. Realistically enough, as these women's diaries continued throughout the war, they became extremely bitter and hopeless. As Lucy Breckinridge read books and listened to music, she thought "fondly of the past" but had no "bright thoughts for the future." She no longer thought that peace was in the near future and would be totally unprepared for such a state of America. As Sarah Morgan's hopes faded, she ridiculed the Northern newspapers for reporting such abusive articles towards the South. "There must be many humane, reasonable men in the North, can they not teach their Editors decency in this their hour of triumph." Not only did they recognize their own losses, but also the suffering of their own soldiers. The war was ruining the young men and was having an "immoral effect upon everyone." Many women prayed on a regular basis for the soldiers of the Confederacy.11

As the women were praying for the fighting men, they were also making great strides. With the men away at war, women were given much more responsibility. The Civil War was "a means of reconstructing political hierarchy, reconfiguring social constellations and claiming new states." Southern women also "celebrated [the] ethic of independence" by wearing different clothes, changing their habits, and beginning new customs. At the very least, the Civil War created a sense of forming one's own opinion on controversial matters, especially slavery.12

Mary Chestnut was appalled by slavery. She referred to it as a "monstrous system" and "wondered if it be a sin to think slavery a curse to any land." She blamed slavery on the North, however, writing that they "grew rich, we grew poor. . . . Yankees cause is noble in freeing the slaves ... we received these savages they stole from Africa and brought to use in their slave ships." She hypothesized that if slavery would have stayed in New England, the blacks would have shared the "Indians' fate." Lucy Breckinridge agreed with Mary Chestnut in believing that slavery "is a troublesome institution and I wish for the sake of the masters that it could be abolished in Virginia." She also wrote on their treatment of their slaves: "I am so thankful that all of us have been properly raised and never allowed to scold or strike a servant." Some women had such strong feelings against slavery because they felt like slaves themselves. Plantation mistresses were "the most complete slaves" on their land. But not all women thought that slavery was a horrible institution.13

Sarah Morgan did not think that slavery was wrong. In fact, when the northern soldiers pillaged her house, she wrote in her diary that she would rather have her stuff burned than have "some negro wear it." At the same time, she would commend the slaves on their behavior. Because all of them refused to fight for the Yankees, she wrote that the "conduct of all our servants is beyond praise." Although she favored slavery, once the war started, she helped the slaves do their work since everyone had to take on more responsibility. In her diary, Sarah mentions the affection the slaves showed towards her. She wrote, "Flattery from these humble creatures does not seem fulsome to me." There was a rare happenstance when the Southern women would have quilting parties with their black servants. However, most women did not have that relationship with their slaves. Regardless of her feelings about slavery, one woman said that the slaves would "only work as they please" and when one had a complaint about anything, "they would run and tell the Yankees." Some women felt guilty about having slaves. The plantation mistresses would give gifts to the servants in order to "define themselves as moral human beings." And still others ignored the whole issue of slavery, referring to the slaves as "house servants and field hands." Many feelings Southern women had about slavery were a reflection of what they thought about themselves.14

One of the roles Southern women had during the war was that of the victim. These women would simply wait at home for their "knights in shining armor" to return from battle. Some, however, did not want any part of that role. These women knew what skills they possessed and had the desire to help the men in battle, if that was at all possible. The lives of women were not more precious than the men's; if it was allowed, some would "gladly shoulder pistols and shoot some Yankees" or trade their corsets and petticoats for boots. According to Sarah Morgan, women of the South were just as brave as the men fighting. The women would have never allowed the North to put an American Flag in Baton Rouge as the men had. Mary Chestnut believed if she would have been a man she "would have either been killed at once or made a name and done some good for my country." Instead, the most some Southern women could do was start a United Daughters of the Confederacy for the purpose of "commemorating the courage and virtue of the short-lived southern republic."15

As women struggled with the roles they had to assume during the war, they thought about other roles as well, such as love and marriage. A nineteen-year-old girl wrote in her diary that she would rather be an old maid and prove to the world that life can be wonderful without a man taking care of a woman. Women make fools of themselves for their men so without the men, women would act less foolish. Sarah Morgan saw her own "shocking ignorance and pitiful inferiority" and became upset because she was not given the same opportunities as men, especially in education. However, even though women suffered from feelings of inferiority, they knew how important it was for them to stand by their men, especially during times of war.16

Women definitely supported the men as they went off to fight for the Confederacy. Southern women were incredibly patriotic, if not in their own feelings, then at least for their men's sakes. Women literally had to play the role of the cheerleader. They encouraged the men to enlist and even snubbed those who refused to do so. Women started to adore and admire "personal bravery in a man above and beyond all else." The women of the South knew that if they could appear to be courageous and take care of the home themselves, then that would enable the men to "emerge victorious." That was one of the "sacred duties" that Southern women had to fulfill. Standing by their men was one of the most difficult things a women had to do in the 1860s, not only to see their husbands go to war, but also their fathers, their brothers, and especially their sons. Sarah Morgan wrote that a "Woman's mission" during the war was to stand by a dying soldier and "bid him God speed as he closes his dying eyes."17

Although it is true that women did much for the Confederacy, some sources actually blame the Southern women for losing the war. One author wrote that the Confederacy "did not endure longer because so many women did not want it to." Some women did write damaging letters to their Southern soldiers which leads to the assumption that their letters were the cause of so much desertion throughout the war. One wife wrote to her husband, "I want you to come home as soon as you can after you get this letter." Another wife wrote to her sister, "Lee surrendering was rather unexpected and very mortifying to all but I was willing to give up all our rights to have a home and get Robert (husband) back safe." Maybe those are selfish feelings, but one cannot put too much of the blame on the Southern women because they contributed much more than complaining letters to the war effort.18

Southern women are not given enough recognition for what they had accomplished during the Civil War. They seem to get much more attention for supposedly prostituting themselves than for actually fighting in battles or for nursing the Confederate soldiers back to health. The myth of the South is that women were like those from Gone With the Wind, but they were not in dress and attitude. However, most Southern women did possess the passion, the drive, and the desire to commit themselves to the Confederacy and supported their loved ones any way they knew how.19

Pauline Cushman

Pauline Cushman

Born:
June 10, 1833

Died:
Dec. 7, 1893

Biography:

Pauline Cushman was born June 10, 1833. Pauline was born in New Orleans, but her family later moved to the frontier town of Grand Rapids, Michigan. When Pauline was 18 years old she left for New York, where she began her career as an actress.

In 1862, Pauline was working at a playhouse in Louisville, Ky. when two paroled Confederate officers offered her $300 to toast Jefferson Davis during her performance. She agreed. Perseived now as a Confederate sympathizer, Cushman was fired from her job, and evicted from the theater.

In 1863, a new job appeared. Pauline was offered a chance to spy for the Union. Claiming to be looking for her brother, Pauline began following the Confederate Army. She became the darling of the Confederate troops, and soon she was gathering information of great value for the Union. However, she was eventually captured with incriminating papers, and sentenced to be hung within 10 days. Before the execution could be carried out, Union troops invaded the Shelbyville area where she was being held. She was rescued by Union troops at Shelbyville, Tenn. She then traveled North to much acclaim. President Lincoln made her an honorary major.

Too well known to continue to be a spy, Pauline, wearing her new uniform, (pictured above) lectured about her adventures behind enemy lines. After the war her popularity ebbed, she tried acting, and she married two other times, her last marriage ending in a separation. In her later years she became ill and began taking opium. In time she became addicted to the opium and on December 7, 1893 she took an overdose, which ended her life. The San Francisco Grand Army of the Republic buried her in their cemetery with full honors

Pauline Cushman

Pauline Cushman

Born:
June 10, 1833

Died:
Dec. 7, 1893

Biography:

Pauline Cushman was born June 10, 1833. Pauline was born in New Orleans, but her family later moved to the frontier town of Grand Rapids, Michigan. When Pauline was 18 years old she left for New York, where she began her career as an actress.

In 1862, Pauline was working at a playhouse in Louisville, Ky. when two paroled Confederate officers offered her $300 to toast Jefferson Davis during her performance. She agreed. Perseived now as a Confederate sympathizer, Cushman was fired from her job, and evicted from the theater.

In 1863, a new job appeared. Pauline was offered a chance to spy for the Union. Claiming to be looking for her brother, Pauline began following the Confederate Army. She became the darling of the Confederate troops, and soon she was gathering information of great value for the Union. However, she was eventually captured with incriminating papers, and sentenced to be hung within 10 days. Before the execution could be carried out, Union troops invaded the Shelbyville area where she was being held. She was rescued by Union troops at Shelbyville, Tenn. She then traveled North to much acclaim. President Lincoln made her an honorary major.

Too well known to continue to be a spy, Pauline, wearing her new uniform, (pictured above) lectured about her adventures behind enemy lines. After the war her popularity ebbed, she tried acting, and she married two other times, her last marriage ending in a separation. In her later years she became ill and began taking opium. In time she became addicted to the opium and on December 7, 1893 she took an overdose, which ended her life. The San Francisco Grand Army of the Republic buried her in their cemetery with full honors

Sarah Emma Edmonds

Sarah Emma Edmonds "Spy Disguised As A Slave" December 1841 - September 5, 1898

Emma Edmonds disguised herself as a man at the outbreak of the Civil War and enlisted in the Union army under the name Frank Thompson. While stationed in Virginia at the beginning of the Peninsular campaign, Edmonds volunteered for a mission inside Rebel lines at Yorktown. A phrenological exam by physicians (an examination of the conformation of the skull, believed to indicate mental faculties and character) determined her fitness for duty as a spy- but not her sex- and she was enlisted for the mission. Edmonds decided to infiltrate Rebel lines disguised as a black man. She bought clothing from a fugitive slave, obtained a wig "of real negro wool", and colored her head, hands, and arms with silver nitrate. She slipped past Rebel pickets at night and the next morning joined slaves who were returning to Yorktown after taking breakfast to the pickets. At Yorktown Edmonds and the slaves were put to work with picks and shovels on fortifications. After a day of hard labor, Edmonds recorded that her hands were "blistered from my wrists to the finger ends." That evening, Edmonds talked one of the slaves into exchanging duties with her. For the next two days she carried buckets of water around the camp, a job that enabled her to gather intelligence about the fortification and its armament. She recorded that she even caught a glimpse of Gens.. Robert E.. Lee and Joseph E. Johnston. The evening of her third day inside Rebel lines, Edmonds was sent with her group of slaves to carry supper to the picket lines, where she was surprised to find that some of the pickets were black men. Edmonds reported that as she was talking to one of the black pickets, an officer came up, gave her a gun, and ordered her to take the place of a picket who had recently been shot. Taking advantage of her position, she slipped away during the night and returned to the Yankee lines with the captured weapon and information about Confederate fortifications. Fascinating Fact: "I'm darned if that feller ain't turning white", one slave said to another as he pointed to Edmonds. The hot, sweaty work had caused the silver nitrate to fade. Edmonds explained to the slaves: "I've always expected to come white at some time, my mother's a white woman."

Sarah Grimke

Sarah and Angelina Grimke eloquently fought the injustices of slavery, racism and sexism during the mid-19th century. As daughters of a prominent South Carolina judge and plantation owner, the Grimke sisters witnessed the suffering of slaves. Determined to speak out, they were eventually forced to move to the North, where they continued to appeal to northerners and southerners to work toward abolition. They also urged white northerners to end racial discrimination.

The Grimke sisters were pioneering women. Among the first female abolitionists, they were the first women to speak publicly against slavery, an important political topic. Faced with criticism from clergy and others that they were threatening "the female character," they continued their crusade. In 1838, Angelina became the first woman to address a legislative body when she spoke to the Massachusetts State Legislature on women's rights and abolition.

Active in the women's movement, they helped set the agenda later followed by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott and others, calling for equal educational opportunities and the vote. One historian said of Sarah's writings: "[They were] a milestone on the road to the Woman's Rights Convention at Seneca Falls" and "central to the feminist writings in the decades that followed." Sarah was one of the first to compare the restrictions on women and slaves, writing that "woman has no political existence . . . . She is only counted like the slaves of the south, to swell the number of lawmakers." After the Civil War, they continued to champion the causes of equality and women's rights.

Through their examples and their words, the Grimke sisters proved that women could affect the course of political events and have a far-reaching influence on society.

Birth: 1792
Death: 1873