Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} A Woman's Civil War A Diary with Reminiscences of the War from March 1862 by Cornelia Peake Mcdonald A Woman's Civil War: A Diary with Reminiscences of the War from March 1862 by Cornelia Peake Mcdonald. A Quiet Corner of the War The Civil War Letters of Gilbert and Esther Claflin, Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, 1862–1863 Gilbert Claflin and Esther Claflin, Edited by Judy Cook. “Not many collections of wartime letters between spouses are in print, and this collection builds on other Civil War primary materials in an important way: the reader is able to get simultaneous reports on the scene at home, in the Army camp, and in the field.” —Suzanne Bunkers, editor of The Diary of Caroline Seabury, 1854–1863. Letters Home to Sarah The Civil War Letters of Guy C. Taylor, Thirty-Sixth Wisconsin Volunteers Guy C. Taylor, Edited by Kevin Alderson and Patsy Alderson. 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A Woman’s Civil War A Diary with Reminiscences of the War, from March 1862 Cornelia Peake McDonald, Edited with an Introduction by Minrose C. Gwin Spring 1992. The Diary of Caroline Seabury, 1854–1863 Caroline Seabury, Edited with an Introduction by Suzanne L. Bunkers Spring 1991. Different Time, Different Place Book Reviews. Back Cover Description: On the night of March 11, 1862, as the heavy tramp of marching Confederate troops died away in the distance--her husband's regiment among them--Cornelia Peake McDonald began her diary of events in war-torn Winchester, Virginia. McDonald's story of the American Civil War records a personal and distinctly female battle of her own--a southern woman's lonely struggle in the midst of chaos to provide safety and shelter for herself and her nine children. She relates the trauma that occurs when the safety of the home is disrupted and destroyed by the forces of war; when women and children are put out of their houses and have nowhere to go. Whether she is describing a Union soldier's theft of her Christmas cakes, the discovery of a human foot in her garden, or the heart-wrenching death of her baby daughter, McDonald's story of the Civil War at home is compelling and disturbing. Her tremendous determination and unyielding spirit in the face of the final collapse of her world is testimony to this woman's will to preserve her family. In the midst of the horror, she still conveys the delight of watching her children grow up, the joy and comfort of going to church, and even amusing moments. A Woman's Civil War is a captivating and moving story of a personal life lived through a great crossroads in history. Review: A Woman's Civil War was a fascinating view of the American Civil War through the eyes of a Confederate civilian. Cornelia lived in a town that was captured by the Union, then freed by the Confederates, then captured again by the Union, and then freed again. She described the events with vivid details that made me feel as if I were watching the events unfold. There was a lot of suspense due to the constant uncertainty of what would happen in the next day, or even in the next minute. Would the Union soldiers take all of her food? Her house? How would she get more supplies when she refused to swear a loyalty oath to the Union general making his headquarters in town? How would they get firewood when their trees and all of their out-buildings were demolished for Union fires? Would the battle rolling over their front yard end in tragedy for the family or freedom from occupation? Her diary showed what life was like near the battle fields and under occupation for a well-to-do gentlewoman with nine children and a husband who was a Confederate officer. Her expectations in how she would be treated by friend and foe alike showed the differences in manners back then. and how those manners changed over the course of the war. Her comments also showed how people at the time viewed the war and how the "why we're fighting" changed somewhat over time. Some of her remarks reminded me of things still being said today. In the Reminiscences section (which picks up were the diary ends), she lived for a time in an area relatively untouched by war. It was interesting to see the contrasts with what she'd become used to. Since she wrote this diary for her husband and later for her children, she sometimes didn't include information that they would have known. She also sometimes related news as she heard it that was incorrect. However, there were endnotes at the back that gave the correct or needed information on battles, events, who various people were, and information about them. Cornelia did refer to God and think over Christian theology as it related to her dead child and events around her. I think most readers--unless dead-set again Christianity--would find her thoughts as an interesting part of the overall book. I'd highly recommend this well-written and fascinating book to history buffs, those interested in the Civil War, and to anyone who thinks it sounds interesting. If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments. Excerpt March, 1862--On the night of March 11th, 1862, the pickets were in the town; part of the army had already gone, and there were hurried preparations and hasty farewells, and sorrowful faces turning away from those they loved best, and were leaving, perhaps, forever. At one o'clock the long roll beat, and soon the heavy tramp of the marching columns died away in the distance. The rest of the night was spent in violent fits of weeping at the thought of being left, and of what might happen to that army before we should see it again. I felt a terrible fear of the coming morning, for I knew that with it would come the much dreaded enemy. I laid down when the night was almost gone, to sleep, after securing all the doors, and seeing that the children were all asleep. I took care to have my dressing gown convenient in case of an alarm, but the night passed away quietly, and when the morning came and all was peaceful I felt reassured, dressed and went down. The servants were up and breakfast was ready. The children assembled and we had prayers. I felt so thankful that we were still free, and a hope dawned that our men would come back, as no enemy had appeared. We were all cheerfully dispatching our breakfasts, I feeling happy in proportion to my former depression; the children were chatting gaily, Harry and Allen rather sulky at not having been permitted to leave with the army, as they considered it degradation for men of their years and dimensions to be left behind with women and children. Suddenly a strain of music! Every knife and fork was laid down and every ear strained to catch the faint sounds. The boys clap their hands and jump up from the table shouting. "Our men have come back!" and rushed to the door; I stopped them, telling them it must be the Yankees. Every face looked blank and disappointed. I tried to be calm and quiet, but could not, and so got up and went outside the door. Sure enough that music could not be mistaken, it was the "Star Spangled Banner" that was played. A servant came in. "They are all marching the town, and some have come over the hill into our orchard." A Woman's Civil War: A Diary with Reminiscences of the War from March 1862 by Cornelia Peake Mcdonald. "Both riveting eyewitness testimony and a story of courage in the face of chaos. Cornelia McDonald's story is a well-written, compelling tale of the Virginia home front in wartime." —Lynda Lasswell Crist, The Virginia Magazine "My young sons Harry and Allan had begged me to let them go to the top of the hill early in the morning to see what was going on. I had given permission, thinking of no danger other than occurred every day; but now, how I repented having let them go, and sat all that fearful afternoon in terror for fear my boys had come to harm. I remained during all those miserable hours with my baby on my lap and the four little ones clustered around, listening to the dreadful storms of battle. Oh the anguish of those hours! My little boys! How could I have suffered them to go away from me so thoughtlessly when nearly every moment brought danger?" — Cornelia Peake McDonald, 1862 On the night of March 11, 1862, as the heavy tramp of Confederate marching troops died away in the distance —her husband's regiment among them—Cornelia Peake McDonald began her diary of events in war-torn Winchester, Virginia. McDonald's story of the Civil War records a personal and distinctly female battle of her own—a southern woman's lonely struggle in the midst of chaos to provide safety and shelter for herself and her children. For McDonald, history is what happens "inside the house." She relates the trauma that occurs when the safety of the home is disrupted and destroyed by the forces of war—when women and children are put out of their houses and have nowhere to go. Whether she is describing a Union soldier's theft of her Christmas cakes, the discovery of a human foot in her garden, or the death of her baby daughter, McDonald's story of the Civil War at home is compelling and disturbing. Her tremendous determination and unyielding spirit in the face of the final collapse of her world is testimony to a woman's will to preserve her family and her own sense of purpose as a "rebel" against all that she regarded as tyrannical and brutal in war itself. Born in 1822 in Alexandria, Virginia, Cornelia Peake McDonald lived in Winchester, Virginia, with her nine children during the Civil War. Her record of events was first published in a volume of family history in 1935 from one of the eight handwritten copies made for each of her surviving children before her death in 1909. Minrose C. Gwin is professor of English at the University of New Mexico . Winchester during the Civil War. Located in the Shenandoah Valley, Winchester was the most contested town in the Confederacy during the American Civil War (1861–1865), changing hands more than seventy times and earning its reputation (in the words of a British observer) as the shuttlecock of the Confederacy. Three major battles were fought within town limits and four others nearby. In 1862, Confederate general Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson won a victory there during the Shenandoah Valley Campaign that solidified his reputation as the Confederacy’s first hero. Following Jackson’s death in May 1863, Richard S. Ewell took over his corps and, on the way to Gettysburg , scooped up the Union garrison at Winchester, suggesting to many that he might have the stuff to replace the fallen Stonewall. The Third Battle of Winchester (1864) was a Union victory, part of Union general Philip H. Sheridan‘s successful Valley Campaign against Jubal A. Early . The war, meanwhile, brought huge changes for the town’s residents, including rampant inflation, often harsh measures imposed by occupiers, and the destruction of slavery. By 1865, the town was largely destroyed. Background. Chartered in 1752, Winchester served as the seat of Frederick County and was an important market center during the nineteenth century. Nine roads and turnpikes and the Winchester and Potomac Railroad tied the city to the North and a developing national economy, but the presence of slavery linked Winchester to the South. In 1860 Winchester’s population was about 4,400, including 706 enslaved and 665 free black people. When war broke out, Winchester’s location and function as a rural market center ensured that it would be coveted by both sides in the conflict. Possessing Winchester would be crucial to controlling the Shenandoah Valley’s abundant agricultural resources. Further, possession of Winchester had broad strategic implications. A Confederate army in Winchester would be north of Washington, D.C., and could threaten the capital or open the way to an invasion of Maryland or Pennsylvania. A Union army in Winchester, meanwhile, could jeopardize Confederate general Robert E. Lee’s extended left flank and his ability to protect the Confederate capital at Richmond . One historian aptly described Winchester as “the key that locked the door to Richmond.” As much as Winchester was a prized target, it proved especially difficult to keep. The town was surrounded by low hills that easily masked approaching armies, and neither side was successful in holding it against an approaching foe. Winchester was relevant to several significant military operations during the course of the war. The town was the site of an important Confederate victory on May 25, 1862. This First Battle of Winchester was part of Stonewall Jackson’s Shenandoah Valley Campaign, which served to distract Union troops from reinforcing George B. McClellan outside Richmond. The Second Battle of Winchester, on June 13–15, 1863, helped to secure the Shenandoah Valley for Lee’s army as it mounted its second invasion of the North. The Third Battle of Winchester, on September 19, 1864, was a defeat for Confederate forces under Jubal A. Early and part of Philip Sheridan’s notorious reclamation of the Shenandoah Valley. Military Occupation. While local historians boast that Winchester changed hands more than seventy times during the war, estimations of full-fledged occupations by either army range from eleven to thirteen. Wartime diaries suggest that Winchester was under Confederate authority for 39 percent of the war, occupied by Union armies for 41 percent of the war, and between the lines for 20 percent of the war. As a result of continued frustration in the Shenandoah Valley and evolving military policy, each successive Union occupation resulted in harsher measures toward civilians. Initially individuals were hassled and homesteads plundered. In the spring of 1862, Union general Nathaniel P. Banks attempted to placate Winchester’s population. Union general Robert H. Milroy, however, admitted he felt “a strong disposition to play the tyrent among these traitors,” embittering residents with his harsh policies throughout the first half of 1863. He required citizens to take oaths pledging their allegiance to the United States. If they refused, soldiers would quarter their homes. Milroy also permitted Union troops to obliterate Winchester, refusing to interfere when they razed every unoccupied house in town. Although Union general Philip H. Sheridan has an infamous reputation in the Shenandoah Valley, his occupation of Winchester in the autumn of 1864 brought some much-needed stability to the town. Winchester residents quickly learned that the presence of either army had unpleasant consequences. In the summer of 1861, as Confederate troops inundated the town, one resident characterized Winchester as “a smelly dirty place.” Another noted that “15,000 Troops are around and about us. Nothing but soldiers—soldiers.” Diseases ran rampant, with approximately 2,000 soldiers sick with measles and mumps being housed in private dwellings. Most periods of Confederate control resulted from major battles, and on such occasions wounded soldiers overwhelmed the town. Residents estimated that between 3,000 and 5,000 wounded soldiers recuperated in Winchester after the Battle of Antietam in the autumn of 1862. “Every house is a hospital,” a resident observed at the time. Inhabitants of occupied Winchester faced increasing economic hardship. By the end of 1861 inflation was rampant; salt that sold for $8 a sack in August cost $20 by December. The mid-October 1863 price of flour was $12 per barrel. By November 1864, flour was $50 for three barrels ($50 in greenbacks, rather than in hyper-inflated Confederate currency). One resident recalled, “People used to have a basket to carry their money to market in but it bought so little they could carry the provisions home in their pocketbooks.” Union occupations magnified this hardship by requiring buyers to take an oath of allegiance to the United States, which many residents refused to do. Winchester’s proximity to large armies quickly took its toll; in July 1863 Robert E. Lee wrote to his wife, “Poor Winchester has been terribly devastated, & the inhabitants plundered of all they possessed.” Union occupations also contributed to the destruction of slavery in Winchester. Many slaves took advantage of Union military occupation to escape bondage, and even those who remained enjoyed increased autonomy when Union forces were present. Refugee slaves from the countryside entered Winchester in droves after the entrance of the Union army. One month after the first Union occupation, diarist Mary G. Lee noted that “[t]he freedom of the servants is one of the most irritating circumstances” of the Union military presence. In April 1864 a black Union regiment came to Winchester on a recruiting mission; while some men joined, the mission was largely unsuccessful. When Confederates swiftly returned to Winchester in 1862, 1863, and 1864, they captured many local slaves and returned them to their owners. Winchester Civilians. During the war and after, Winchester enjoyed a reputation as a secessionist stronghold. After a visit to the town in the spring of 1862, U.S. secretary of state William H. Seward observed, “the men are all in the army, & the women are the devils.” As Seward’s comment suggests, much of the resistance to Union occupation came from the town’s women . One Shenandoah Valley historian asserted that discussing “Winchester” during the war really meant discussing the women of Winchester. Resident Mary G. Lee concurred with these assessments, boasting “This is surely the day of women’s power.” Women adopted tactics like wearing what became known as “Jeff Davis”—after Confederate president Jefferson Davis —or “secession” bonnets, which hid their eyes from the gaze of Union soldiers. Many refused to walk under the American flag, and some berated Union troops verbally. Jedediah Hotchkiss , a mapmaker from Staunton on Stonewall Jackson’s staff, heard that “our women there are not afraid of [Union troops] and tell them freely what they think of their conduct.” Their fury against the invaders reached its height during the First Battle of Winchester, when several Union units reported instances of women firing at them as they retreated through town. A member of the 7th Ohio Infantry concluded that “Charleston, South Carolina could not furnish a female and juvenile population imbued with more bitter sentiments towards the North and her soldiers than this city.” Despite Winchester’s secessionist reputation, the town was home to a significant minority of Unionists. Estimates of Unionist strength in Winchester vary from a dozen families to several hundred individuals. On the eve of the first Union occupation of the town, Hotchkiss declared that while the Confederate army had many supporters in Winchester, there were “hundreds who desired the yankies to come in.” The strength of Unionism varied according to the military situation in town—Unionism was stronger during Union occupation and more circumspect during times of Confederate control. Perhaps the most well-known Unionist was Rebecca Wright, who supplied Sheridan with information on Confederate strength and troop positions before his attack at the Third Battle of Winchester. While some residents remained staunch secessionists or Unionists throughout the war, many became more guarded as the conflict continued. One Union soldier observed, “So often had this portion of the Valley changed hands, that even the women had learned the policy of reticence, the most difficult task imaginable to a woman thoroughly imbued with the doctrine of ‘secession.'” Winchester and the Valley Army. One of the distinctive aspects of Winchester’s Civil War experience was the relationship between its residents and its defenders. Winchester and Frederick County contributed several companies to the regiments of the Stonewall Brigade . A reporter for the Baltimore American noted that “[s]carcely a family in the town but has one or more relatives in Jackson’s army.” One historian of the Shenandoah Valley observed that frequently soldiers of the Stonewall Brigade fought and died “almost within sight of their homes.” Another scholar asserts, “In few wars have the soldiers maintained as intimate contact with their homes and with the community from which they came as did the valley soldiers.” The brigade’s commander, Stonewall Jackson, enjoyed a stellar reputation among Winchester residents. Jackson and his wife Mary Anna spent the winter of 1861–1862 in town and endeared themselves to the townspeople. Many inhabitants perceived Jackson as their personal guardian; his stunning return to Winchester on May 25, 1862, solidified his status among the town’s residents. Jackson called his reception in Winchester on that day “one of the most stirring scenes of my life.” While Jackson’s death following the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863 was mourned throughout the Confederacy, it cast an especially strong pall over Winchester. After learning of Jackson’s death, Mary G. Lee despaired, “A gloom, still deeper, is over our whole town … we feel that no one cares for us now; while Jackson lived we were honoured by his especial regard & remembrance & we knew he loved Winchester & loved to drive off our invaders.” A few days later Lee observed that in Winchester, Jackson’s name was synonymous with “every thought of deliverance.” Aftermath. Like most of the lower Shenandoah Valley, Winchester was devastated by four years of active warfare. In the town and its immediate surroundings, more than 200 homes were missing at war’s end; a hundred more were used as stables and hospitals, suffering considerable damage. A postwar editorial reported that “every building that survived the torch, both in the city and county, was more or less out of repair.” Winchester gradually recovered from its wartime ordeal but never regained its prewar prominence in the region. As they had during the war, the secessionist women of Winchester toiled to make sure that the Confederate cause remained prominent among residents after the fighting ended. In May 1865, they organized the Ladies’ Memorial Association to collect and reinter the remains of Confederates scattered throughout the region. Their efforts resulted in the dedication of the Stonewall Cemetery in October 1866. The cemetery holds the remains of 2,489 Confederate soldiers, including Turner Ashby and his brother Richard. Entry by Cornelia Peake McDonald, October 13, 1862. [October] 13th - A little soldier from the Maryland camp came this evening – a mere boy, but with his black eyes full of fire, eagerness to join the flag. He had just come from Paris, France, where his family are living, to join the Maryland line. He said his father wished him to come; did not think it honourable to remain in a foreign land while Maryland struggled for her freedom. His mother was not so anxious. He spoke gaily and enthusiastically of the life in the camp, and the battles he expected to take part in; and I did not like to be a prophet of evil, and tell him about the dark side of war that I had seen. So he talked on about Maryland, and I asked him what he would do if, when the Confederacy was established, Maryland was left in the hands of his enemies. “They cannot keep her,” he said. “No peace will be made that leaves her with the North.”