Virginia women, many of whom “wished they were a man,” assisted the cause of rebellion. Manpower shortages forced them to take over plantations and assume jobs as nurses, government clerks, and factory workers. Women served as spies, knit socks and sewed clothing for soldiers, made soap, and sacrificed for the war effort by limiting entertainment and creating food substitutes for coffee, sugar, and flour. Richmond’s Constance Cary Harrison recalled, “Every crumb of food better than ordinary, every orange, apple or banana, every drop of wine or cordial procurable went straightaway to the hospitals . . . many of the residents had set aside at least one room of their stately old houses as hospitals, maintaining at their own expense as many sick or wounded soldiers as they could accommodate.” Years afterward, John Goode wrote: “The women of the Confederacy, although its greatest sufferers, were the truest of the true. . . . it was their unfailing constancy that nerved the arms and strengthened the hearts of their fathers, husbands, sons and brothers.” Not surprisingly, their bitter memories of the suffering and defeat endured long after the war was over.
Further Reading
George Rable, Civil Wars: Women in the Crisis of Southern Nationalism. University of Illinois Press, 1989.
Ed. Edward D.C.Campbell, Jr., and Kym S. Rice, A Woman’s War: Southern Women, Civil War, and the Confederate Legacy, The Museum of the Confederacy, 1996
This Vignette Provided By
Ronald Heinemann, Old Dominion, New Commonwealth: The History of Virginia, 1607-2007
On October 13 2009 jerome handler said: @ 9:21 am
Perhaps the author could have been more explicit and less ethnocentric in his title. Many \Virginia women\ were enslaved African Americans. Did they \serve the confederacy\? jerome handler(Quote)
On October 14 2009 Matt Jenkins said: @ 9:07 am
Poor lady, she can’t win. I complain she’s being too politically correct and this guy complains she’s being ethnocentric. I assure you that the posts have included African-American History in the past. Let’s give her a break.
[quote comment=""]Perhaps the author could have been more explicit and less ethnocentric in his title. Many \Virginia women\ were enslaved African Americans. Did they \serve the confederacy\?[/quote] Matt Jenkins(Quote)