Altars of Sacrifice: Confederate Women and the Narratives of War Author(s): Drew Gilpin Faust Reviewed work(s): Source: The Journal of American History, Vol. 76, No. 4 (Mar., 1990), pp. 1200-1228 Published by: Organization of American Historians Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2936595 . Accessed: 07/01/2013 12:51 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Organization of American Historians is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of American History. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded on Mon, 7 Jan 2013 12:51:04 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Altars of Sacrifice: Confederate Women and the Narratives of War Drew Gilpin Faust It is the men, Hector tells Andromache in the sixth book of the Iliad, who "must see to the fighting."F roma ncient history to our own time, warh as centered on men, for they have controlled and populated its battlefields. Even in our era of shifting gender definitions, perhaps the most assertive- and successful- defense of tradi- tional roles has been the effort to bar women from combat. Yet warh as often intro- duced women to unaccustomed responsibilities and unprecedented, even if tem- porary,e nhancements of power. Warh as been a preeminently "gendering"a ctivity, casting thought about sex differencesi nto sharpr elief as it has both underlined and realigned gender boundaries., Like every war before and since, the American Civil War served as an occasion for both reassertiona nd reconsiderationo f gender assumptions.E arlyi n the conflict, LouisianianJ ulia Le Grand observed that "we are leading the lives which women have led since Troyf ell."Y et because the Civil Warw as fundamentally differentf rom those that had preceded it, the place of women in that conflict stimulated especially significant examination and discussion of women's appropriate relationship to war- and thus to society in general. Often designated the first "modern"o r total war because of the involvement of entire populations in its terrible work of death, the Civil War required an extraordinaryl evel of female participation. This was a conflict in which the "home front" had a newly important role in generating mass armies and keeping them in the field. Particularlyin the South, where human and material resourcesw ere stretched to the utmost, the conflict demanded the mobili- zation of women, not for battle, but for civilian support services such as nursing, textile and clothing production, munitions and government office work, slave management, and even agriculture.Y et white Southern women, unlike their men, Drew Gilpin Faust is Stanley I. Sheerr Professoro f History at the University of Pennsylvania.S he would like to thank John Boles, Anne Boylan, Evelyn Brooks, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese,E ugene Genovese, Steven Hahn, Jac- quelyn Hall, LynnH unt, MichaelJohnson, Anne GoodwynJones, MaryK elley,L inda Kerber,S tephanie McCurry, James McPherson,R eid Mitchell, Sharon O'Brien, Philip Racine, Janice Radway,A rmstead Robinson, Charles Rosenberg, BarryS hank, and David Thelen for their acute criticismsa nd helpful suggestions, many of which she admits to having been foolhardy enough to ignore. 1 Homer, The Iliad of Homer, trans. Richmond Lattimore( Chicago, 1951), 166. MargaretR andolph Higonnet et al., eds., Behindthe Lines: Genderandthe TwoW orldW a'r(sN ew Haven, 1987), 4. See alsoJean Bethke Elshtain, Womena nd War( New York, 1987); and Eric Leed, No Man's Land. Combat and Identity in World WarI (New York, 1979). 1200 This content downloaded on Mon, 7 Jan 2013 12:51:04 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions ConfederatWe omena nd the Narrativeosf War 1201 were not conscripted by law. They had to be enlisted by persuasion. The resulting discoursea bout woman'sp lace in Confederates ociety representedt he rhetoricala t- tempt to create a hegemonic ideology of female patriotism and sacrifice.2 Articulate Southerners,m ale and female, crafted an exemplary narrativea bout the Confederatew oman'sC ivil War, a story designed to ensure her loyalty and ser- vice. As in the tales of ware nshrined in Westernl iteraturef rom Homer to SirW alter Scott, its plot recounted woman'sh eroic self-sacrifice,c asting it as indispensable to the moral, political, and militaryt riumph of her men and her country.T he historian John Keegan has compellingly described the way in which the "battle piece," the highly conventionalized and heroic account of combat, has shaped men's expecta- tions and experienceso f war. But women have been no less influenced by a genre of female "wars tories,"i ntended to socialize them through accounts of their fore- mothers' deeds. The conventional designation of all women as noncombatants in- evitably enhances the wartime significanceo f gender as a social category,a s well as a structureo f self-definition. The focus of Confederatep ublic discourseo n a "class- less" white woman reinforcedt he privileging of female identity. Usually cast in the homogeneous singular, the "woman"w ho sharedw ith her sistersr ich and poor the experience of sacrificingm en to battle represented a useful rhetoricalc onvention within a Confederatei deology struggling to minimize the classd ivisions that might threaten national survival.A t the same time that Confederate discourse appealed to a new and recognizablec ommonality widely shared by white Southern women - whose husbands or sons were nearly three times as likely to die as were their Northern counterparts- it promoted the notion of an archetypal "Confederate woman"a s a form of false consciousnesso bscuring social and economic differences among the new nation's female citizens. Ultimately, the focus of Confederate ideology on female self-abnegation and sacrificea s ends in themselves would alien- ate many women from that rendition of their interests, from the war, and in many cases, from the Confederacyi tself. Ideology and its failures played a criticalr ole in shaping the relationship of women to the Southern Cause and in defining Con- federatev iability.I n recent yearss cholarsh ave answeredt he historiographicalp eren- nial, "why the South lost the Civil War,"b y emphasizing deficiencies in Southern morale. Almost all such argumentss tresst he importance of class conflict, especially growing yeoman dissent, in undermining the Southern Cause. Yet with a white ci- vilian population that was overwhelminglyf emale and that bore an unprecedented 2Julia Ellen (Le Grand) Waitz, TheJ ournal ofjulia Le Grand, New Orleans, 1862-1863, ed. Kate Mason Rowland and Mrs. MorrisL . Croxall( Richmond, 1911), 52. The special experience of Confederate women arose both from the newness of the kind of combat the Civil Warp roduced and from the growing scarcityo f Southern resources.F or comparisons,s ee Claudia Koonz, Mothersi n the Fatherland. Women, the Family, and Nazi Politics (New York, 1987); Higonnet et al., eds., Behind the Lines;J oan Hoff Wilson, "The Illusion of Change: Women and the AmericanR evolution:'i n The American Revolution:E xplorationsi n the History ofAmerican Radicalism, ed. Alfred E Young (DeKalb, 1976), 383-446; Linda K. Kerber, Womeno f the Republic: Intellect and Ideology in Revolutionary America (Chapel Hill, 1980); Mary Beth Norton, Liberty's Daughters: The Revolutionary Experienceo fAmerican Women, 1750-1800 (Boston, 1980); and D'Ann Campbell, Womena t Warw ith America: Private Lives in a PatrioticE ra (Cambridge, Mass., 1984). On Northern women during the Civil War, see Philip Shaw Paludan, A People's Contest: The Union and the Civil Wa, 1861-1865 (New York, 1988), 156-60, 182-83, 327-30. This content downloaded on Mon, 7 Jan 2013 12:51:04 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 1202 The Journal of American History .. ...... :.:..... .. .. : ..... .. . ... ...... .... .: . ~~~:.:.:..: ~~~~~~~.. ~~~~.. . ......... F~~ .... : : . . . . : ... .. ~~~~~~..... .....~.. . . :~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~..~...... ......... .... ... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~. ~::....... . * * :.: :. :: ::. . ..:..:. ... . .:. . :.:: .. . . ... . ..... .. . . . . i,...... .. ... : .: ......... ~ ~ : * ~....:X :. 3...:.. :;4~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~. _l - _A ;.- ..J - ... .. .... This monument to the women of the Confederacyw as erected in front of the state capitol in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1904 by the United Confederate Veterans and the state of Mississippi at the cost of $20,000 and bears the inscription: "To Our Mothers, Our Wives, Our Daughters, Our Sisters Courtesy MfississippDi epartment of Archives & History, Special Collections Section. This content downloaded on Mon, 7 Jan 2013 12:51:04 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Confederate Women and the Narrativeso f War 1203 responsibility for the war'so utcome, we must not ignore gender as a factor in ex- plaining Confederate defeat.3 To.suggest that Southern women in any way subverted the Confederatee ffort is to challenge a more than century-old legend of female sacrifice.T he story of Con- federate women's unflinching loyalty originated during the war and first found official expressioni n legislative resolutions offered by Confederatel eaders to mark the contributions of female citizens. The Confederate Congress established the model in a declarationo f gratitude passed in April 1862; the gesture was replicated in proclamations like that of the Mississippi legislature in 1863 thanking the "mothers,w ives, sistersa nd daughters of this State"f or their "ardentd evotion ... unremitting labors and sacrifices."A4 fter Appomattox this hortatoryn arrativeo f fe- male dedication was physicallyr ealized in monuments to wives and mothers of the Confederacya nd incorporatedi nto scholarlyl iterature on women and the war as conventional historical truth. Even the titles of scholarly works, such as Mary Elizabeth Massey'sB onnet Brigardesp, ublished in 1966 as part of the Civil Warc en- tennial, or H. E. Sterkx'sm ore recent Partnersi n Rebellion: Alabama Women in the Civil Warc, ommunicate the image of Southern women fighting alongside their men. The same vision had a century earlieri nspired Henry Timrod, poet laureate of the Confederacy,t o entitle his wartime ode to Confederatel adies "TwoA rmies." Praising women's contributions in caring for the sick, plying the "needle and the loom," and "bya thousand peaceful deeds" supplying "as truggling nation'sn eeds," Timrod promised women equal glory with the war'sm ilitary heroes. When Heaven shall blow the trump of peace, And bid this weary warfarec ease, Their severalm issions nobly done, The triumph grasped, the freedom won, Both armies, from their toils at rest, Alike may claim the victor'sc rest.5 3John Keegan, The Face of Battle (New York,1 977). Fora similar ideological use of the "hegemonyo f gender," see Christine Stansell, City of Women:S ex and Classi n New York,1 789-1860 (New York, 1986). On yeoman dis- sent, see Paul D. Escott, After Secession:JeffersonD avis and the Failureo f ConfederateN ationalism (Baton Rouge, 1978); and Paul D. Escott, "TheC ry of the Sufferers:T he Problemo f Welfarei n the Confederacy,"C ivil WarHistory, 23 (Sept. 1977), 228-40. On the history and historiographyo f Confederatem orale, see RichardE . Beringere t al., Why the South Lost the Civil War( Athens, Ga., 1986); and Drew Gilpin Faust, The Creation of Confederate Nationalism: Ideology and Identity in the Civil WarS outh (Baton Rouge, 1988). On the greater vulnerability of Southern men, see MarisV inovskis, "Have Social HistoriansL ost the Civil War?S ome PreliminaryD emographic Speculations,"J ournal of American History, 76 (June 1989), 39. 4 "Resolutionso f Thanks,"i n The Messages and Papers ofjefferson Davis and the Confederacy, 1861-1865, comp. James D. Richardson( 2 vols., New York, 1981), I, 176; Laws of the State of Mississippi,p assed at a called andregularsession ofthe MississippiLegislatureH. eld inJacksona nd Columbus, Dec. 1862 andNov. 1863. (Selma, 1864), 226. 5 An important departure from the celebratory historiographicalt radition is George C. Rable, Civil Wars: Womena nd the Crisiso f Southern Nationalism (Urbana, 1989). Monuments to Confederatew omen were planned in Mississippi,N orth Carolina,S outh Carolina,A rkansas,T ennessee,a nd Florida.S ee also Gaines M. Foster,G hosts of the Confederacy:D efeat, the Lost Cause,a nd the Emergenceo f the New South, 1865 to 1913 (New York, 1987), 175-79; and J. L. Underwood, The Women of the Confederacy( n.p., 1906); Mary Elizabeth Massey,B onnet Brigades (New York, 1966); H. E. Sterkx, Partnersi n Rebellion: Alabama Women in the Civil War( Rutherford, 1970). For the poem by Henry Timrod, see H. M. Wharton, WarS ongs and Poems of the Southern Confederacy, 1861-1865 (Philadelphia, 1904), 215. For the notion of "two armies,"s ee CharlestonD aily Courier,N ov. 28, 1861. This content downloaded on Mon, 7 Jan 2013 12:51:04 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 1204 The Journalo f AmericanH istory The tenacity of such a rendition of Southern women'sw artime role- its survival from Confederatem yth into twentieth-centuryh istoriography- is less curious than at first it seems. Confederate versionso riginated so early in the conflict as to have been necessarilyp rescriptiver athert han descriptive.T his wasn ot simply a story,b ut an ideology intended to direct Southern women, to outline appropriateb ehavior in the abruptly altered wartime situation. The flattery,t he honorific nature of this discourse,w as central to its rhetoricalf orce. And the deference to women's impor- tance ensured the survivalo f the narrativea nd its evolution into historicali nterpre- tation. Ironically,i t fit neatly with an emergent twentieth-centuryf eminist histori- ographye ager to explore women'sc ontributions to past events previouslyp ortrayed from an exclusivelym ale point of view. Yet the passage of women's history beyond its earlier celebratory phase and the adoption of more critical and analytic ap- proaches to female experience may enable us at last to see the story as the fiction it largely is, to explore its development, political origins, and rhetoricalp urposes and thus to understand how it shaped Confederate women's wartime lives.6 With the outbreak of hostilities in early 1861, public discoursei n the Confederacy quicklya cknowledgedt hat warh ad a special meaning for white females. The earliest discussionso f the Confederatew oman in newspapersa nd periodicalss ought to en- gage her in the ware ffort by stressingt he relevanceo f her accustomeds piritualr ole. The defense of moral order, conventionally allocated to females by nineteenth- century bourgeoisi deology, took on increasedi mportancea s war'ss ocial disruptions threatened ethical and spiritual dislocations as well. "Can you imagine,"a sked the magazine Southern Field and Fireside, "whatw ould be the moral condition of the Confederate army in six months" without women's influence? What but a woman "makest he Confederate soldier a gentleman of honor, courage, virtue and truth, instead of a cut-throat and vagabond?" "Great indeed," confirmed the Augusta WeeklyC onstitutionalisti nJuly 1861, "is the task assigned to woman. Who can ele- vate its dignity? Not," the paper observed pointedly, "to make laws, not to lead ar- mies, not to governe mpires; but to form those by whom laws are made, armies led . . . to soften firmness into mercy, and chasten honor into refinement."7 But many Southern women, especially those from the slave-owningc lassesm ost instrumentali n bringing about secession,w ere to find that a meager and unsatisfac- tory allotment of responsibility.A s one woman remarkedw hile watching the men of her community marcho ff to battle, "Wew ho stay behind may find it hardert han 6 A popular work, dedicated by its author as a "monument" to female contributions to the Southern Cause, is Rita Mae Brown, High Hearts (New York, 1986). For a more scholarlyc onsideration, see Janet E. Kaufmann, "'Under the Petticoat Flag': Women Soldiers in the Confederate Army,"S outhern Studies, 23 (Winter 1984), 363-75. Fore xampleso f the new women'sh istoriographys, ee Nancy A. Hewitt, "Beyondt he Searchf or Sisterhood: AmericanW omen'sH istoryi n the 1980s,"S ocialHistory, 10 (Oct. 1985), 299-321; Elizabeth Fox-Genovese,W ithin the Plantation Household. Black and White Women of the Old South (Chapel Hill, 1988);J oan Wallach Scott, Gender and the Politics of History (New York, 1988); Koonz, Mothers in the Fatherland;a nd Nancy MacLean, "Behind the Masko f Chivalry:G ender, Race,a nd Classi n the Makingo f the Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s in Georgia" (Ph.D. diss., Universityo f Wisconsin, Madison, 1989). 7 "EducatedW oman-In Peace and War,"S outhern Field and Fireside, April 11, 1863; Augusta WeeklyC on- situtionalist, July 17, 1861. This content downloaded on Mon, 7 Jan 2013 12:51:04 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Confederate Women and the Narratives of War 1205 .......... [~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~. *~ ~~~~..~.~..~:~..~;~..~. ~~~~~~~~ ~ .~ ~. ~..~: .~...~.. ~~~...~...~.. ~ A...' :. . ; ...'. , '; ,, . . '', ' , ;' : ! ....... . : .: :. ',: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~. 9 ..:':. :}:...: .. .....:. . . . ..,j . : ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~: i . .k:.i. t.Z: A: . -. .:- ~ -3~~~-~ 8:: -.-...:. -...O..P....r .. . ...................................................... . . .... ......................... . . ...... . ~~~ ~~ ~~~~ ~~~~ t A*, , , , ,, , a , _ N g g . ........ ... .... .. ..... . . ... .......................................... . __1_ _, _ 5 "TheH ouse-Topisn Charlestond uringt he Bombardmenot f Sumter" -Harper'sW eekh/ Reproducedft om Harper'sW eek/yM ay4 , 1861. they who go. Theyw ill have new scenesa nd constante xcitementt o buoy them up and the consciousnesos f duty done."A notherf elt herself" likea pent-up volcano. I wish I had a field for my energies... now that there i... real tragedy, real ro- mance and historyw eavinge veryd ay, I suffer,s uffer,l eading the life I do'"E vents This content downloaded on Mon, 7 Jan 2013 12:51:04 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 1206 The Journalo f AmericanH istory once confined to books now seemed to be taking place all around them, and they were eager to act out their designated part. "The wari s certainlyo urs as well as that of the men," one woman jealously proclaimed.8 In the spring and summer of 1861, many articulate middle- and upper-class women sought active means of expressingt heir commitment, ones that placed less emphasis than had the Augusta Constitutionalisto n what they might not do but instead drew them into the frenzy of military preparation. As recruitsd rilled and bivouacked,w omen found outlet for their energies sewing countless flags, uniforms, and even underwearf or departing units; penning patriotics ongs and verse;s ubmit- ting dozens of designs for the national flag to the Confederate Congress; raising money as Ladies Gunboat Societies, forming more than a thousand relief associa- tions acrosst he new nation; and sponsoring dramaticp erformancest o benefit sol- diers, particularlyt ableaux representing historic and literary themes. "I feel quite important,"o ne lady observedw ith some amazement after an evening of such scenes raised a substantial amount of money for Virginia troops.9 That declarationo f importance was in markeda nd self-consciousc ontrastt o the feelings of purposelessnesst hat appeared frequently in letters and diaries written by women of the master class. "Useless"w as a dread epithet, repeatedly directed by Confederatew omen against themselves as they contemplated the very clear and honored role war offered men. "We young ladies are all so . . . useless," bewailed Sarah Wadley of Louisiana. "There are none so . . . useless as I," complained Amanda Chappelearo f Virginia. "Ifo nly I could be of some use to our poor stricken country,"w rote a young Louisianag irl to a friend in Tennessee,w hile Emma Holmes of Charleston sought escape from her "aimlesse xistence."" What is the use of all these worthlessw omen, in wart imes?"d emanded SarahD awson. "I don't know how to be useful," another Virginia woman worried-lo Some women translatedt hese feelings into a related, yet more strikinge xpression of discontent. Without directly challenging women's prescribedr oles, they never- theless longed for a magical personal deliverance from gender constraints by im- agining themselves men. Some few actually disguised themselves and fought in the 8 Sarah Katherine Stone, Brokenburn: TheJ ournal of Kate Stone, 1861-1868, ed. John Q. Anderson (Baton Rouge, 1955),17;Julia Le Grand to Mrs. ShepherdB rown,N ov. 17,1862, injournalofluliaLe Grand, ed. Rowland and Croxall, 52-53; Kate Cumming, Kate: TheJ ournal of a Confederate Nurse, ed. Richard BarksdaleH arwell (Baton Rouge, 1959), 38-39. See also C. W. Dabney to "MyD ear Brother,"M ay 1, 1861, CharlesW . Dabney Papers (Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill). 9 FrancisB utler Simkins andJames Welch Patton, The WVomeonf the Confederacy( Richmond, 1936), 22; Clara D. MacLeanD iary, Aug. 9, 1861 (ManuscriptD ivision, William R. Perkins Library,D uke University,D urham, N.C.); GreenvilleL adiesA ssociation Records( South CarolinianaL ibraryU, niversityo f South Carolina,C olumbia); Ladies Relief Association, Spartanburg, 1861, ibid. 10S arahL ois Wadley Diary, Aug. 20, 1863 (Southern HistoricalC ollection); Amanda ChappelearD iary, April 19, 1862 (Virginia Historical Society, Richmond); Clara to "My dear FriendJ esse,"M ay 4, 1863, WarrenO gden, Collector, Miscellaneous Civil War Letters. (Manuscripts Section, Special Collections Division, Howard-Tilton Memorial Library,T ulane University,N ew Orleans, La.); The Diary of Miss Emma Holmes, 1861-1866, ed. John F. Marsalek( Baton Rouge, 1979), 251, 323; Sarah Morgan Dawson, A Confederate Girl's Diary, ed. James I. Robertson,J r. (Bloomington, 1960), 119; Caroline Kean Hill Davis Diary, Feb. 13, 1865 (Virginia Historical So- ciety). See also MaryE liza Dulany Diary,J une 10, 1862, ibid.; Cornelia McDonald, quoted in Douglas Southall Freeman, The South to Posterity:A n Introduction to the W'ritingso f ConfederateH istory (New York, 1939), 152. This content downloaded on Mon, 7 Jan 2013 12:51:04 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions ConfederateW omena nd the Narrativeosf War 1207 Confederate army, but far more widespread was the wish that preceded such dra- matic and atypical action. "WouldG od I were a man,"e xclaimedE lizabeth Collier. "How I wish I was a man!" seconded Emma Walton. "I do sometimes long to be a man," confessed Sallie Munford. Such speculation represented a recognition of discontent new to most Confederate women. Directed into the world of fantasy rathert han towarda ny specificr eformp rogram,s uch desiresa ffirmedt he status quo, yet at the same time, they representeda potential threat to existing gender assump- tions."1 Without directlya cknowledgings uch frustrations,C onfederatep ublic discussion of women's roles sought to deal with this incipient dissatisfactionb y specifying ac- tive contributionsw omen might make to the Southern Causea nd by valorizingt heir passive waiting and sacrificea s highly purposeful. Confederatei deology construed women's suffering, not as an incidental by-product of men's wartime activities, but as an important and honored undertaking. In a popular Confederate novel aptly entitled The Trialso f a Soldier's Wzfe,t he heroine explained to her husband, "Womanc an only show her devotion by suffering,a nd though I cannot strugglew ith you on the battle-field, in suffering as I have done, I feel it has been for our holy cause."12 Public treatments of woman'sp atriotism soon broadened her accepted spiritual responsiblitiest o encompass wartime morale. "The time has come,"L eila W. wrote in the Southern Monthly of October 1861, "when woman should direct into the right channel the greaterp ower which she possessesi n giving tone to public senti- ment and morals, and shaping national charactera nd national destiny."M orals er- vice to God would now be paralleled by morale service to the state. Southern women, the Mobile Evening News concluded, held the "principal creation and direction" of Confederate public opinion "in their hands." The Natchez Weekly Couriera ssuredt he "Womeno f the South,"t hat "the destinies of the Southern Con- federacy"r ested "in your control.'13 Women thus became acknowledgedc reatorsa nd custodians of public as well as domestic culture in the wartime South, exercisingt heir powero verc ommunal senti- ment in a varietyo f ways. They filled the pages of newspapersa nd periodicalsw ith patriotic stories and verse and, perhaps even more important, composed many of the songs that served as the central medium of public wartime expressiona nd con- stituted the most substantial publishing effort of the war. With men preoccupied by military affairs, magazines such as the Southern Literary Messenger eagerly 11E lizabeth Collier Diary, April 11, 1862 (Southern HistoricalC ollection); Emma Walton toJ. B. Walton, May 12,J uly 15, 1863 (Historic New Orleans Collection, New Orleans, La.); Sallie Munford, quoted in Freeman,S outh to Posterity, 109; Dawson, Confederate Girl's Diary, ed. Robertson, 318. For an example of a Southern woman disguising herself as a man, seeJ. M. Fain to E. Fain, Dec. 10, 1861, Huldah Annie Briant Collection (Manuscript Division, William R. PerkinsL ibrary);a nd Annie Samuels et al. toJames Seddon, Dec. 2, 1864, LettersR eceived, ConfederateS ecretaryo f War,R G 109, microfilm4 37, reel 122, B692 (National Archives).F ora n extended fictional treatment, see Brown, High Hearts. 12 AlexanderS t. Clair Abrams, The Trialso f a Soldier's Wi:fe:A Taleo f the Second American Revolution (At- lanta, 1864), 165. 13 Leila W., "Womana Patriot,"S outhern Monthly, 1 (Oct. 1861), 115;M obile Evening News, Jan. 25, 1864; Natchez W/eeklyC ourier, March 12, 1862. See also Faust, Creation of ConfederateN ationalism. This content downloaded on Mon, 7 Jan 2013 12:51:04 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 1208 The Journal of American History *n: di: . E~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~....... *.._I*_||||,_||| _ Si Ie *~~~- - . - 4 . , *,... -_1 1; ii .^ A Southernw oman places a havelock- a linen cap popular during the early months of the war- on a Confederates oldier. Watercolore ntitled Equipment by Confederatev eteran William LudwellS heppard. CourtesyE leanorS . BrockenbmougLhi brary, The Museum of the ConfederacyR, ichmond, Virginia. This content downloaded on Mon, 7 Jan 2013 12:51:04 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions