"The Civil War and the Southern Belle" Topic
17 Posts
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Nashville | 19 Aug 2014 5:28 a.m. PST |
In the beginning of the war, Southern women wanted their men to leave — in droves, and as quickly as possible. They were the Confederate Army's most persuasive and effective recruitment officers, shaming anyone who shirked his duty to fight. A young English immigrant in Arkansas enlisted after being accosted at a recruitment meeting. "If every man did not hasten to battle, they vowed they would themselves rush out and meet the Yankee vandals," he wrote of Southern women. "In a land where women are worshiped by men, such language made them war-mad." link
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John the Greater | 19 Aug 2014 6:08 a.m. PST |
Union soldiers frequently wrote of the ferocity of the southern women's support for the War. For example, William McCarter writes in his book that as the 116th PA marched through Warrenton VA the men had to be restrained from shooting the women who were pelting them with various items from the second floor windows. There are plenty of other examples. |
ironicon | 19 Aug 2014 8:12 a.m. PST |
As a former re-enacter ;"Thats what we're fight'en for boys". |
SJDonovan | 19 Aug 2014 8:23 a.m. PST |
Benjamin Butler, when confronted with the actions of angry Southern Belles in New Orleans, infamously ordered that they should be treated as 'women of the town' (prostitutes). Not the most chivalrous order ever made but I guess it is hard to remain a preux chevalier when someone is dumping the contents of a chamber pot on your head. |
donlowry | 19 Aug 2014 9:16 a.m. PST |
So it was a woman's war and a man's fight? |
svsavory | 19 Aug 2014 11:38 a.m. PST |
Of course, many of these southern belles would later wear black while mourning the loss of their men. Northern women, too. |
darthfozzywig | 19 Aug 2014 12:13 p.m. PST |
"Fiddle dee dee. War, war, war. This war talk is spoiling the fun at every party this spring. I get so bored I could scream."
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Jeigheff | 19 Aug 2014 6:24 p.m. PST |
I recently read about a southern woman who got a scolding from a Yankee soldier on Sherman's march in 1864. She was told that southern men were sick of the war, but their women had shamed them into fighting on. |
McLaddie | 19 Aug 2014 6:44 p.m. PST |
I think part of the issue is what those men would be defending home and hearth [and the women who lived there] and of course, when and if the Yankees did come a callin', there wouldn't be any men to defend those women. So, They were pretty motivated to see their men out stopping any such invasion. |
Repiqueone | 19 Aug 2014 7:51 p.m. PST |
It might be noted that when their husbands were killed , the wealthier land owning planters left their estate to their wives. Widowhood freed women to set their own course and to select the next husband, if any. Widowhood placed women in the power role in the American South as a very high percentage of their men were lost in the war. If for no other reason than sheer surviving numbers, women had a larger role in post-bellum society. Iron Magnolias were the object of indirect criticism, but began the tradition of strong women running the family while the Ashley Wilkes, of whom there were many, did what they were told. As long as the women made no public show of their power, and were VERY religious in their public expressions, they could wield great power in the Jim Crow world. There was a lot of social pressure on women to enforce support for the war, and, as it turned out, they considerably improved their situation economically and socially during, and after, the war. Their power had to be expressed indirectly, and they had to cement it with strong support for Jim Crow and religious orthodoxy, but they were very sensitive to their power to manipulate the sexual fears of white men, and encourage their exaggerated expressions of masculinity. They were a formidable force in the South for many years. |
JCBJCB | 19 Aug 2014 8:33 p.m. PST |
How her bibliography doesn't include "The Vacant Chair" is beyond me. Poor article overall. I appreciate your bringing it up, though. |
doc mcb | 20 Aug 2014 7:02 a.m. PST |
A chemist named Jonathan Harrolson in 1863 figured out how to create more potassium nitrate or nitre by extracting it from urine. The men were all away fighting. But women could collect their urine out of bedpans and pour it into a huge truck pulled by a horse around town and they would make potassium nitrate out of it. A request as placed in the Selma Alabama newspaper and apparently it worked. So various people on both sides wrote limericks about the phenomenon. From the Confederates: "An appeal to Jonathan Harrolson" John Harrelson, John Harrelson, you are a wretched creature, You've added to this war a new and awful feature, You'd have us think while every man is bound to be a fighter, The ladies, bless their pretty dears, should save their p** for nitre, John Harrelson, John Harrelson, where did you get this notion, To send your barrel around the town to gather up this lotion, We thought the girls had work enough in making shirts and kissing, But you have put the pretty dears to patriotic ing, John Harrelson, John Harrelson, do pray invent a neater And somewhat less immodest mode of making your saltpeter, For "tis an awful idea, John, gunpowdery and cranky, That when a lady lifts her skirt, she's killing off a Yankee. They say there is a subtle smell That lingers in the powder; That when the smoke grows thicker, And the din of the battle louder That there is found to this compound One serious objection; A soldier can not sniff it Without having an erection. From the Union John Harrelson, John Harrelson, we've read in song and story How a women's tears through all the years have moistened fields of glory, But never was it told before, how, ‘mid such scenes of slaughter, Your Southern beauties dried their tears and went to making water, No wonder that your boys are brave, who couldn't be a fighter, If every time he shot a gun he used his sweethearts nitre ? And, vice-versa, what could make a Yankee soldier sadder, Than dodging bullets fired by a pretty woman's bladder. |
Murphy | 20 Aug 2014 8:33 a.m. PST |
Wow….*smh* Why am I not surprised? |
Inkpaduta | 20 Aug 2014 11:39 a.m. PST |
There is one historian that stated her research showed the as the war went on the lack of female support for the war, causing men to desert ect., was a chief cause for the South losing. |
EJNashIII | 20 Aug 2014 10:15 p.m. PST |
All summed up. The beginning of the war the southern women go into hysterics that they might lose their house slaves and have to actually earn their keep by doing some work like cooking and cleaning. The men better do something about it. Mid war it finally occurs to them their men might lose and/or not come back. Who will run the farm? More work. Late war they plead for the men to come home as the slaves start to run off and the money runs out. End of the war, the slaves are gone and the men are all used up. All the work needs to be done by the women. In my CW collection I have an interesting book that touches the subject. "Mrs Hill's New Cook Book", 1867. It is basically a manual written for southern women to learn how to take care of their house and family. "The days for romance have passed…A life of A crisis is upon us which demands the will and energy of Southern Character. As women have been queen in the parlor, so, if need be, she will be queen in the kitchen; as she has performed so gracefully the duties of mistress, so she will, with lovelier grace, perform whatever labor duty demands." |
McLaddie | 20 Aug 2014 11:17 p.m. PST |
"The days for romance have passed…A life of A crisis is upon us which demands the will and energy of Southern Character. As women have been queen in the parlor, so, if need be, she will be queen in the kitchen; as she has performed so gracefully the duties of mistress, so she will, with lovelier grace, perform whatever labor duty demands." Tara will survive, by Heaven I swear it! The actual numbers of Southern woman that faced that change in circumstances [and actually owned slaves] was pretty small from what I have read. And speaking of reading, how many would feel the need or have the money to buy the book if they were faced with such dire conditions? I bet Scarlett wouldn't have bought it. |
ironicon | 21 Aug 2014 9:30 a.m. PST |
This discusion brings to mind the book and movie "Cold Mountain". |
OSchmidt | 02 Sep 2014 12:06 p.m. PST |
ZI am puzzled. I Went to the link and found an article bout opposition to the war in New York City. Nothing about Southern woman's attitudes toward the war. There's nothing new here. The book "The New York City Draft Riots" dealt with all this years ago. But the whole thing is problematic. One must always ask the question "Who was doing this" and the circumstances. I really find it hard to believe that any southern women who lived in middling or poor circumstances desired extravagantly the departure of their men for the war. Certainly upper class women could indulge in such things, the labor in the household being done by slaves. This was not the case with the vast majority of soldiers who packed off to the front. it was bearable I think up the point when everyone realized no one was "coming home before the leaves fall, and if they were coming home they were on crutches or in a box. Significantly from the mid-war on it was the Southern women who were the most resourceful and active in hiding deserters and avoiders from the draft officers in the Confederacy. At the same time one has to admire Southern Womanhood simply because if it weren't for the private philanthropy and war work of women (already tending farm and shop) the Southern Armies would have starved and frozen to death. So much was made by women for their men, and for any soldiers that the largely non-existant Southern logistical services were supplemented to the point where the soldiers could keep body and soul together. |
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