A Lost Heroine of the Confederacy
A Lost Heroine of the Confederacy

Author: William Galbraith

Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi

Published: 2009-08

Total Pages: 239

ISBN-13: 9781604733938

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In an era that glorified Southern womanhood, especially the women who contributed significantly to the Confederate cause, the of this fascinating book, until now, somehow has been largely forgotten. These are the papers that survived her, and they detail the life and deeds of Belle Edmondson (1840-1873), a heroine of the Confederacy. This collection consists of her diaries for 1863 and 1864 and the letters she received between 1861 and 1864. They document her active role behind the scenes in the Civil War and reveal her to have been a courier, a gatherer of intelligence, and a smuggler of contraband in behalf of Southern troops in West Tennessee. Of all the correspondence, the most valuable letters are those from one "Captain Henderson." These request copies of Northern newspapers, as well as Belle's reports on enemy activities in Memphis, details about local skirmishes and conditions in the camps, and her reports of activities on nearby battle fronts. These are letters of a very literate writer with a flair for recording immediate detail. Though Belle Edmondson was praised for her valuable services as a Florence Nightingale of the war and was told that her good deeds would last "while our country stands," with the end of the war she was forgotten. She dies in 1873, shortly after announcing her engagement to a Colonel H., who perhaps was a Yankee. A Lost Heroine of the Confederacy brings Belle Edmondson back to life and points to the deeds of a Southern woman who chose an active role in the cause she served.

Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All
Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All

Author: Allan Gurganus

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2010-09-08

Total Pages: 737

ISBN-13: 0307764117

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Allan Gurganus's Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All became an instant classic upon its publication. Critics and readers alike fell in love with the voice of ninety-nine-year-old Confederate widow Lucy Marsden, one of the most entertaining and loquacious heroines in American literature. Lucy married at the turn of the twentieth century, when she was fifteen and her husband was fifty. If Colonel William Marsden was a veteran of the "War for Southern Independence," Lucy became a "veteran of the veteran" with a unique perspective on Southern history and Southern manhood. Lucy’s story encompasses everything from the tragic death of a Confederate boy soldier to the feisty narrator's daily battles in the Home--complete with visits from a mohawk-coiffed candy striper. Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All is a marvel of narrative showmanship and proof that brilliant, emotional storytelling remains at the heart of great fiction.

First Lady of the Confederacy
First Lady of the Confederacy

Author: Joan E. Cashin

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2009-07-01

Total Pages: 416

ISBN-13: 0674029267

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When Jefferson Davis became president of the Confederacy, his wife, Varina Howell Davis, reluctantly became the First Lady. For this highly intelligent, acutely observant woman, loyalty did not come easily: she spent long years struggling to reconcile her societal duties to her personal beliefs. Raised in Mississippi but educated in Philadelphia, and a long-time resident of Washington, D.C., Mrs. Davis never felt at ease in Richmond. During the war she nursed Union prisoners and secretly corresponded with friends in the North. Though she publicly supported the South, her term as First Lady was plagued by rumors of her disaffection. After the war, Varina Davis endured financial woes and the loss of several children, but following her husband's death in 1889, she moved to New York and began a career in journalism. Here she advocated reconciliation between the North and South and became friends with Julia Grant, the widow of Ulysses S. Grant. She shocked many by declaring in a newspaper that it was God's will that the North won the war. A century after Varina Davis's death in 1906, Joan E. Cashin has written a masterly work, the first definitive biography of this truly modern, but deeply conflicted, woman. Pro-slavery but also pro-Union, Varina Davis was inhibited by her role as Confederate First Lady and unable to reveal her true convictions. In this pathbreaking book, Cashin offers a splendid portrait of a fascinating woman who struggled with the constraints of her time and place.

Southern Lady, Yankee Spy
Southern Lady, Yankee Spy

Author: Elizabeth R. Varon

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2005-04-21

Total Pages: 332

ISBN-13: 0195179897

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A gripping account of the Civil War era story of Elizabeth Van Lew: high-society Southern lady, risk-taking Union spy, and postwar politician.

Women in the United States Military
Women in the United States Military

Author: Judith Bellafaire

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2011-01-26

Total Pages: 161

ISBN-13: 1136854061

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Women's participation in the U.S. Armed Forces has grown over time in response to the national need for their services. Throughout each era of American history, patriotic women volunteered to serve their country in a wide variety of official and unofficially sanctioned capacities. When there was a call to duty, the United States Armed Forces always relied upon women to be a part of the effort. This book provides information to enable students and scholars to understand the effect women have had on wars that have shaped the United States.

Southern Communities
Southern Communities

Author: Steven E. Nash

Publisher: University of Georgia Press

Published: 2019-07-15

Total Pages: 295

ISBN-13: 0820355127

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Community is an evolving and complex concept that historians have applied to localities, counties, and the South as a whole in order to ground larger issues in the day-to-day lives of all segments of society. These social networks sometimes unite and sometimes divide people, they can mirror or transcend political boundaries, and they may exist solely within the cultures of like-minded people. This volume explores the nature of southern communities during the long nineteenth century. The contributors build on the work of scholars who have allowed us to see community not simply as a place but instead as an idea in a constant state of definition and redefinition. They reaffirm that there never has been a singular southern community. As editors Steven E. Nash and Bruce E. Stewart reveal, southerners have constructed an array of communities across the region and beyond. Nor do the contributors idealize these communities. Far from being places of cooperation and harmony, southern communities were often rife with competition and discord. Indeed, conflict has constituted a vital part of southern communal development. Taken together, the essays in this volume remind us how community-focused studies can bring us closer to answering those questions posed to Quentin Compson in Absalom, Absalom!: "Tell [us] about the South. What's it like there. What do they do there. Why do they live there. Why do they live at all."

God's Almost Chosen Peoples
God's Almost Chosen Peoples

Author: George C. Rable

Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press

Published: 2010-11-29

Total Pages: 599

ISBN-13: 0807899313

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Throughout the Civil War, soldiers and civilians on both sides of the conflict saw the hand of God in the terrible events of the day, but the standard narratives of the period pay scant attention to religion. Now, in God's Almost Chosen Peoples, Lincoln Prize-winning historian George C. Rable offers a groundbreaking account of how Americans of all political and religious persuasions used faith to interpret the course of the war. Examining a wide range of published and unpublished documents--including sermons, official statements from various churches, denominational papers and periodicals, and letters, diaries, and newspaper articles--Rable illuminates the broad role of religion during the Civil War, giving attention to often-neglected groups such as Mormons, Catholics, blacks, and people from the Trans-Mississippi region. The book underscores religion's presence in the everyday lives of Americans north and south struggling to understand the meaning of the conflict, from the tragedy of individual death to victory and defeat in battle and even the ultimate outcome of the war. Rable shows that themes of providence, sin, and judgment pervaded both public and private writings about the conflict. Perhaps most important, this volume--the only comprehensive religious history of the war--highlights the resilience of religious faith in the face of political and military storms the likes of which Americans had never before endured.