Civil War Quilts

A Footnote from History by Stephanie Grace Whitson

The wind is beginning to blow and I think we going to have failing weather. . . O, dear, where are you tonight? … and how are you doing laying on the cold ground with only two blankets to cover with. How it makes me shudder.” [Nancy Higgins of Illinois, writing to her soldier husband in 1862]

Artists, stitchers, textile experts, history lovers, and storytellers alike all share the same curiosity when it comes to antique quilts. Who made it? Why? Did the stitching help its maker cope with sorrow? Was it quilted by a group a friends? Did children play beneath the quilting frame? 

More often than not, the years have separated antique quilts from their makers. More often than not, the maker's name is unknown, the stories long forgotten. But not always.

Many quilts connected with the Civil War were made long before the war itself. Mothers and sisters, grandmothers and fiances sometimes sent their men off to war with a quilt from home. In many communities, ladies went door to door collecting quilts and blankets to be shipped to men in the field where they provided literal and emotional comfort during long separations. It's impossible to know how many quilts were reduced to little more than rags during the long years of the war. When you picture a Civil War army encampment, imagine quilts in those tents or on the ground. I remember seeing a patchwork quilt draped over a tent in one period photograph of a war camp.  

This quilt bears the United States Sanitary Commission's stamp on the back. What does that mean? It means it was made in response to the call for quilts for soldiers during the Civil War. Sometimes called "pot-holder quilts," this style of quilt consists of individual blocks, their raw edges bound before the blocks were stitched together to form a long, narrow quilt that was just the right size for a hospital cot (approximately 48 x 84 inches). It's estimated that women made at least 150,000 Sanitary Commission quilts after the call went out in 1863. Read more about these quilts here: http://worldquilts.quiltstudy.org/americanstory/engagement/sanitary. 

My favorite "after the war" quilt story is about this gem housed at the Tennessee history museum in Nashville. The quilt was sent to Martha Jane Edwards and her daughter, Mary Lavenia, of Fosterville, Tennessee, to say thank you for their having hidden a wounded Union soldier during the Battle of Stones River.

Another post-war quilt story is represented by this Log Cabin quilt, made in Lexington, MO for a Methodist Episcopal church bazaar to raise money to benefit the families of ex-Confederate soldiers. The woman who first proposed making the quilt donated a swatch from a silk dress embroidered with a winged insect to be the center of each log cabin block. The quilt brought $206 at auction.

Untold quilt stories continue to inspire today. 

Does your family history include a quilt story?

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Stephanie Grace Whitson celebrated her 20th year as a published novelist in 2014. The first book in her 3-book Quilt Chronicles series, The Key on the Quilt, was inspired by a quilt in a museum collection in Tucson, Arizona. Learn more here: http://www.amazon.com/Key-Quilt-Chronicles-Book-ebook/dp/B006GIXVAG/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1441895141&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Key+on+the+Quilt

  

Civil War Women--the United States Sanitary Commission

United States Sanitary Commission Seal

A footnote from history by Stephanie Grace Whitson


At the outset of the Civil War, women collected quilts and other supplies--at first for local regiments--but then, as the war continued and needs grew, it became obvious that an organized national effort was needed. After all, collecting and creating didn't mean getting supplies to the front. 

In October of 1861, President Lincoln announced the formation of the United States Sanitary Commission. Regional commissions soon formed and worked with the Union Army to prioritize needs and to streamline the flow of supplies.

Although President Lincoln named men to lead these sanitary commissions, women oversaw their day-to-day operations. The back of the stereoscopic card at left lauds the efforts of the commission: "it saved thousands of lives ... it relieved untold suffering."

Why that word SANITARY? In the middle 1800s, scientists and doctors understood for the first time that germs spread disease. Before the American Civil War, European doctors had discovered that thoroughly cleaning operating rooms and hospitals greatly reduced the spread of illness and death. Through the “Sanitary Commissions” citizens helped medical workers provide the cleanest possible conditions for Army hospitals.

Sanitary Commissions received bedding, clothing, and food from hundreds of local aid societies, then sorted, repacked, and systematically shipped them to the front. They also staffed hospitals and encouraged their cleanliness to halt the spread of disease.

Jessie Benton Fremont

Jessie Benton Fremont was instrumental in the formation of the Western Sanitary Commission headquartered in St. Louis, which provided supplies and services to Union armies west of the Allegheny Mountains. The WSC established hospitals (among those more than a dozen hospital ships), trained nurses, kept records of the sick and the dead, conducted inspections of medical facilities, and even provided care for Confederate prisoners of war.

Camp Nelson, pictured at right, was established by the Sanitary Commission in Kentucky. 

During one month, the Western Sanitary Commission sent General Grant's Army over 3,000 hospital shirts and sets of "drawers," 80 pincushions, over 6,000 items of "reading matter," and 60 bottles of blackberry syrup. (Blackberry syrup was prized for its medicinal qualities--it was believed effective in the treatment of dysentery, an illness that proved fatal to thousand of soldiers during the war.) 

That word "sanitary" may seem strange to us today, but women in every era have organized to meet the needs of the loved ones facing the challenges of the battlefield. Have you participated in an organization that supports the military? God bless you. 

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Best-selling, award-winning author and speaker Stephanie Grace Whitson celebrated her 20th year as a published novelist in 2014. When she isn't writing or reading about American history, she enjoys riding the Honda Magna motorcycle she named Kitty. Her most recent novel is set in Missouri during the Civil War. Learn more at www.stephaniewhitson.com.

Civil War Stitches

A footnote from history by Stephanie Grace Whitson

Neither the Union nor the Confederate governments were prepared to field armies when the Civil War first began. The most obvious need was for uniforms for the tens of thousands of volunteers. President Lincoln's first call was for 75,000 volunteers. An estimated 4.5 yards of fabric were needed per uniform. that's 337,500 yards (or 191.76 miles) of fabric just for trousers and jackets. Who made those uniforms? Well, at the outset of the war, governments contracted with factories, but they couldn't work fast enough. Women stepped up, and they did made a lot more than just uniforms.

Women made the regimental flags carried into battle. The photo below

shows a detail of one such flag presented by the ladies of St. Louis to a regiment serving with the Missouri Guard. Those bears are created with silk thread, one stitch at a time. The flag flew outside the regimental commander's tent. Other regimental flags made by women were carried into battle. 

Once war broke out, sewing circles that already existed to benefit the destitute immediately added filling soldiers' needs to their cause, providing shirts and socks, blankets and quilts, for the boys and men volunteering from their town or region.

"My dear friend, you are not my husband nor son; but you are the husband or son of some woman who undoubtedly loves you as I love mine. I have made these garments for you with a heart that aches for your sufferings ..." [note included in a Sanitary Commission shipment] 

As the war went on and hospitals began to fill with the wounded, women produced hospital shirts and bandages. One impressive statistic: by war's end, the Northwestern Sanitary Commission headquartered in Chicago had supplied 267,936 pounds of bandages, compresses, and lint (lint was used for packing wounds and created by unraveling linen towels or "scraping" other household textiles to break down the fibers). 

"My dear boy, I have knit these socks expressly for you. How do you like them? ... Write and tell me all about yourself, and how you get on in the hospitals ..." [note included in a Sanitary Commission shipment]

Women knitted socks and mittens, the latter created from a pattern developed to incorporate a trigger finger. The Western Sanitary Commission headquartered in St. Louis had, by war's end, provided 78,656 pairs of socks.

In the early stages of the war, women collected quilts and blankets. When the supply ran out, they began to make cot-sized quilts and tied comforters (15,131 comforts from the Northwestern Sanitary Commission and 40,574 blankets and comforts from the Western Sanitary Commission), along with 100,000 pillow cases. 

The numbers are a bit staggering, aren't they? In an era when we buy the textiles we need for our families, it's difficult to imagine having to make literally everything a soldier might need in the field. 

"She'd sat up half the night making Seamus his own mending kit--a replica of the one a teary-eyed Bridget Feeny had presented to Jack yesterday afternoon. The soldiers called them housewives, Bridget said. Making one for Seamus had given Maggie something productive to do last night, when sleep simply would not come." From Daughter of the Regiment

Housewife (soldier's mending kit)

Soldiers had to do their own mending in camp, and so women made mending kits referred to as "housewives." Many different examples survive in museum collections. I photographed the one at left when I visited a museum exhibit about Illinois women's efforts during the war.

"Feed the Hungry" quilt

Civil War women were very well aware of the importance of what they were doing. Some referred to their sewing groups as "needle regiments." With the conclusion of the war, they didn't stop stitching for the benefit of soldiers and their families. Raffle quilts raised funds to benefit destitute families of wounded warriors. The one at left was created and raffled by a Methodist Episcopal ladies group in Lexington, Missouri. Across the surface of the quilt, the words "feed the hungry" reminded survivors that the war might be over, but the need for women's stitches had not ended. 

The tradition of sewing for soldiers continues today. One example is Quilts of Valor, created to "cover service members and veterans touched by war with comforting and healing Quilts of Valor." 

Have you ever sent a care package to a modern-day warrior? Are you part of a contemporary "needle regiment" making Quilts of Valor? God bless you.

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Stephanie learned about "Civil War stitches" while researching her book Daughter of the Regiment. This fall, you'll be able to read about Civil War stitchers in her novella appearing in A Basket Brigade Christmas, a Civil War collection written with Nancy Moser and Judith Miller. Stay tuned!

http://www.amazon.com/Daughter-Regiment-Stephanie-Grace-Whitson/dp/1455529036

An inspiring story of discovering courage and friendship through tremendous adversity. Drawing on the actual histories of women who found ways to work on the battlefront during the Civil War, this outstanding historical will attract fans of Janette Oke, Lisa Wingate, and Tamera Alexander. *Starred review* Library Journal

Based on true events, this story will capture the hearts of historical fiction fans. Publishers Weekly