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"Bealtifui., Daughter of the Stars7':Women of the Valley

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"BEALTIFUI., DAUGHTER OF THE STARS7':WOMEN OF THE VALLEY DURING THE CIVIL WAR A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of Graduate Studies of The University of Guelph by ELIZABETH CHRISTINA THOMSON In partial fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Master of Arts April, 1999 O Elizabeth Christina Thomson, 1999 National Library Bibliothèque nationale du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographic Services sewices bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395, nie Wellington Ottawa ON K1A ON4 OttawaON K1AON4 canada Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distri'bute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis ui microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la fome de rnicrofiche/fïlm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. ABSTRACT "BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER OF THE STARS": WOMEN OF THE VALLEY DURING THE CIVIL WAR Elizabeth Christina Thomson Advisor: University of Guelph, 1999 Professor Richard R. Reid This thesis is an investigation of white middie and upper ciass women from the Shenandoah Valley during the Arnerican Civil War. Utilizing the theoretical tool of the "fernale consciousness" the present work explores the wartime experiences, activities, and politicization of women in the Valley. Chapter One explains the methodology of the present work and includes a treatment of the current historiography on Southem women's role in the Civil War and a historicai background of the Shenandoah Valley. Chapter Two investigates the individual experiences of women in the region discussing their efforts to aid soldiers and to protect their families. The third chapter analyzes women's collective activities during the war, focusing on local Soldier's Aid Societies and wornen's care of sick and wounded soldiers by the wayside and in nearby hospitals. The final chapter expands the area of study to the state of Virginia, and explores the content and discourse styles of women's letters to the Governor during the war. Table of Contents htroduction Chapter 1 "Beautiful Daughter of the Stars during the Civil War" Chapter 2 "Valley Ladies on the Homefront: The Compelling Records Left Behind" Chapter 3 "The Valley's Daughters Shining Brightly in the Public Arena" Chapter 4 "Excuse an anxious Mother for tresspassing upon your 98 time.. .: Virginia Women's Letters to the Governor" Conclusion Appendix A Bibliography Introduction Cornmencing with the firing on Fort Sumter on April 12~1861, the Civil War created an important arena for the increased political involvement and public activities of Southem women. Using the Shenandoah Valley, in Virginia, as a specific locale, this study will assess the impact of war on middle and upper class white wornen. Women dl over Arnerica contnbuted to the war effort, but in the South, and especially in Virginia, and more drarnatically in the Valley, women were confronted with dl the hardships of a war fought in their own comrnunities. When discussing any culture, it is necessary to realize that it has many layers, some aspects that extend nationally, and other characteristics that are regional. Through the analysis of a locale, employing the techniques of micro-history, this study will explore some of the shared cultural values in the Shenandoah Valley and emphasize the unique experiences of women in this region during the Civil War. It will be argued that women's service to the 'Cause' was motivated by a distinct female consciousness that served to propel them into many new and active roles. Politicization occurred on several Ievels, as the home and traditional domestic tasks took on a new magnitude, and as women became more politically aware of the important events around them1. Moreover, women increasingly pressed into the public sphere, through organizing Soldier's Aid Societies, through helping the sick and wounded as nurses, and by petitioning state officiais for aid. Gender roles were blurred I Lois W. Banner notes "that power not only is centered in the public realm of politics and the professions but that it can also permeate the domestic realm to structure gender relations in ways U.S women's historians have not really explored," "A Repty to "Culture et Pouvoir" from the Perspective of United States' Women's History," Journal of Women's Hisrory, Vol, 1, 1, (1989), p. 102. The phrase 'politicalIy aware' in this study, rneans that women of the ValIey, read and wrote about, and discussed the political crisis of independence. Moreover it wiiI be shown that these women also became cnticai poIitica1 thinkers, and renegotiated to serve the needs of war, demonstrated not only by the above activities, but also by the few women who secretly participated in purchasing contraband supplies for the Confederate amies, while under federal occupation, and by women who became spies. Moreover, some women took assertive and aggressive actions to defend their homes against Yankee invaders, and thereby, for a bnef time, took on the male role of protector '. After the war, however, women retumed to the home and resumed their traditiond roles and du ties. Southeni newspapers and books celebrated their 'ladies' loyalty and patriotic 'sacrifice' in serving the Confederate cause. But in rnany ways this celebration served as post-war 'propaganda', couched in a language of domesticity, to deny the threat of women's wartime public activities, and to encourage women to return to pre-war roles. This study will chart Southem wornen's lives in the Shenandoah Valley from 1858 to 1865 and follow the fluctuations of women's participation in their communities before, and dunng the Civil War. In order to understand this study's theoretical analysis, severai key operational definitions need to be explained. The concept of female consciousness as an analytical tool in women's history is borrowed from the work of Ternrna Kaplan, who has applied this type of malysis to grass roots women's movements. Kaplan states that Fernale consciousness centers upon the rights of gender, on social concerns, on survival. Those with female consciousness accept the gender system of their society: indeed, such consciousness emerges from the division of labour by sex, which assessing political situations occurring in their midst, and drawing their own concIusions as to what kinds of implications these events had for the South. Richard Hall's work. Parriors in Disguise, is dedicated to celebrating and recognizing the women who fought in the Civil War, for both the Federal and Confederate Causes. Several women were found in this book to have come from Virginia, and two women soldiers were caught right in the Shenandoah Valley, in General Juba1 Eariy's arrny. Hall, Patriors in Disguise: Women Warriors of the Civil War, (New York, 1994), p. 103, 104. assigns women the responsibility of preserving life3. The main premises of female consciousness fit ont0 women's Civil Wuexperience in the South. By no means were women under the period of study consciously challenging Southern society in hope for ferninist reforms. In fact, most middle and upper class Southem wornen deplored Northem women's politicai activities and demands for equality which they felt tamished and perverted the image of the 'lady'. But this does not mean that women did not ovemde or alter some prescrÏptions of Southem society in order to meet the demands of war. Moreover, Southern women7s duties before and during the war were, in many ways, confined to the task of 'preserving life'. Whether in reproduction, childcare, household management and distribution of social resources, or in war-time efforts of nursing, Soldiers Aid Societies, or fighting for the cause, Southern women were preserving life and seeking to preserve their way of life. Kaplan also notes that women with female consciousness demand the rights that their obligations necessitate. The collective drive, and 1 would add the individual's drive, to ascertain those rights "that result from the division of labour, sometimes has revolutionary consequences, insofar as it politicizes the networks of everyday lifeV4. Ln the Civil War context, the collective drive was contained within the war effort, and both the Confederate govemment and Southem women insisted on upholding their responsibilities on the home front. The Natchez Weekly Courier assured women of the South that "the destinies of the Southem Confederacy" rested "in your contr01"~. And one woman wrote into a newspaper: "...do irnpress upon the soldiers that they are Temma Kaplan. '.Fernale Consciousness and Collective Action: The Case of Barcelona. 19 10-19 18". Sigris. vol. 7, 3, (Spring, 1982), p.545. ' Ibid., p.545. constantly in our thoughts, that we are working for them, while they arefighting for us - and that their wants shall be supplied, as long as there is a woman or a dollar in the Southern ~onfederac~"~.It can be argued that the mere act of writing into a newspaper signified the politicization of the 'networks' of life. Southem women were highly discouraged from speaking or writinp in the public sphere before the conflict, and yet during the war numerous newspapers and state officids received women's letters. The concept of fernale consciousness has rnany advantages in its application to this topic. It will allow this study to analyze Southem women, without placing their 'conservative' nature alongside the 'radical' achievements of northern feminists. Mainly because female consciousness accepts that Southem women believed and participated in the predominant ideologies of the South and that their primary motivation for their activities during the war was to 'preserve life'.
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