Women in the Civil War: Baskets and Brigades and a Book to Win

A footnote from history by Stephanie Grace Whitson

Last month I talked about the women of Decatur, Illinois, and the service project meeting a daily train carrying wounded warriors to hospitals in the north. The project earned the women the monniker the "Basket Brigade." Other kinds of baskets and brigades involved women, too. 

The woman at right

was photographed in camp (check out that basket!), and it appears her family is with her. Did you know that women were present in Civil War camps? Long encampments made that possible. In fact, those camps benefited from the presence of women to cook, mend, do laundry., etc.

Mary Kennerly of St. Louis followed her husband when he joined the Confederate Army. In fact, she gave birth to her third child in a military camp in 1862. She also endured the siege of Vicksburg, serving as a nurse for the wounded members of her husband's unit. When her husband died of dysentery, Mary stayed with the 1st Missouri. She even wore a Confederate uniform and joined the battle of Allatoona, where she was shot in the leg. Mrs. Kennerly returned to St. Louis after the war and lived there until her death in 1894. 

Scholars have compiled a list of 100 women who served as soldiers. One of the better known is pictured here.

Frances Clayton served in both artillery and cavalry regiments. Described as an accomplished swordsman, horse rider, and "all-around good soldier," Clayton was wounded at Fort Donelson, Tennessee. She was alongside her husband at the Battle of Stones River when he was killed just steps away from her. 





I once photographed the discharge papers of one John Williams on display at the Missouri History Museum. The reason for discharge? "Proved to be a woman." 

Kady Brownell of Rhode Island was so well respected by her regiment that at least one poem was written in praise of her service. 

Learning about women from the past can be inspiring. What woman from  history do you admire most? Why?

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Stephanie Grace Whitson celebrates the lives of women who served during the Civil War in both her recent novels. 

The newest, A Basket Brigade Christmas (http://bit.ly/1NFUgW8)
was #7 on the ECPA bestseller list for November. To be entered to win a copy, answer Stephanie's question about the woman from history you most admire. 

Learn more about Stephanie and her work at www.stephaniewhitson.com. 

Women in the Civil War: The Basket Brigade of Decatur, Illinois

--A footnote from history by Stephanie Grace Whitson

"My dear boy, I have knit these socks expressly for you.

How do you like them? How do you look, and where do you live when you are at home? I am nineteen years old, of medium height, of slight build, with blue eyes, fair complexion, light hair and a good deal of it. Write and tell me all about yourself, and how you get on in the hospitals ... P.S. If the recipient of these socks has a wife, will he please exchange socks with some poor fellow not so fortunate?" [Note accompanying an aid society shipment to the U.S. Sanitary Commission's Northwest Branch of Chicago.]

That quote was part of an exhibit I attended in Springfield, Illinois, illuminating Illinois women's efforts during the Civil War. Reading the quote, I smiled--and of course I wanted to know more about that young lady. Did a correspondence begin? Did her dream of romance (for surely that was the impetus for her note) come true? The exhibit didn't say. It did, however, introduce me to the Basket Brigade, an admirable fete whereby the women of Decatur, Illinois provided encouragement and a taste of home to the wounded warriors of their day.

Private Samuel K. Wilson of Illinois

  
By March of 1862, several battles had been fought on what was then the "western front" of the war. All available hospital beds around Cairo, Illinois, and into Kentucky and Tennessee were filled. The U.S. Army ordered that wounded men who could travel be relocated to hospitals farther north. 

The ladies of Decatur stepped up. Every day for nearly ten months, the northbound train stopped at the depot in Centralia, Illinois, where a count was taken and the number of wounded on the train telegraphed ahead. When the train stopped in Decatur at 5:00 p.m, the Basket Brigade ladies were waiting to provide the first home cooked food many of those men had eaten in months. 

In her memoir, Jane Martin Johns recounts the first time the ladies met the train (after a messenger boy brought her notice from the depot of wounded men on the expected train ... and a plea for help). "When five o'clock came, there were twenty or thirty women on the platform ... Baskets of hot buttered biscuits, cold meats, pies, cakes and pickles, with gallons of milk and cream were ready ..."

"Pale, emaciated, half starved and disheveled, the men met us with apologies for their appearance, smoothed down their hair with their fingers, and tried to hide the dirty rags that covered their wounds ... " She goes on to mention men moved to tears because a bit of bread reminded them of home; men with bandaged hands who had to be fed; passengers who donated funds because they'd heard of the work of the ladies of Decatur. 

Over 1,200 men were served during the nine months of the Basket Brigade's service.

"Fried chicken, by jove, boys!"
"Hurrah! pickled peaches! did you ever?"
"Hello boys, I've got a jam sandwich!"
"That's nothing, I've got a piece of genuine pound cake!"

Have you ever participated in a group effort intended to serve wounded warriors? If so, God bless you!

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Authors and friends Stephanie Whitson, Judith Miller, and Nancy Moser each wrote a novella inspired by the ladies of the Basket Brigade. A Basket Brigade Christmas (now available from your favorite bookseller) was #10 on the ECPA Bestseller list for October.

   Learn more here:

http://www.amazon.com/Basket-Brigade-Christmas-Stories-Country/dp/1630584509/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1444617722&sr=8-1&keywords=A+Basket+Brigade+Christmas

Civil War Women: Fundraisers and Fairs

A footnote from history by Stephanie Grace Whitson, author of Daughter of the Regiment.

When President Lincoln called for the formation of the United States Sanitary Commission, did he realize what would be required of the men and women charged with collecting and transporting goods to men in the field? Since both the North and the South seemed to think things would be settled quickly, it's safe to say he did not. 

By 1863, women had collected and distributed tens of thousands of quilts and comforters for the soldiers. They had wound miles of bandages and scraped barrels of lint. And still ... the need grew.

In Chicago, Mary Livermore and Jane Hoge, leaders of the Northwest Branch of the Sanitary Commission, came up with the idea of sponsoring a fair to raise money in support of "the cause." To drum up support for the idea, they sent letters to towns throughout the Midwest and and visited local aid societies, asking women to make or donate items to be sold at the Sanitary Fair. The fall, 1863 event raised $100,000.

The outstanding (and perhaps unexpected) success of the first Sanitary Fair spawned more events. In St. Louis, the Western Sanitary Commission sponsored the 1864 Mississippi Valley Fair and raised more than $550,000. Visitors could browse booths displaying the latest in plows, sewing machines, and all other manner of manufactured goods. 

The daily newspaper issued for the St. Louis event reported that "Grover and Baker donated three fine machines ... Wheeler and Wilson also three.Our attention was particularly drawn to one of Wilcox and Gibbs ... It is almost entirely noiseless. Singer donated two fine machines of his manufacture. Aiken's knitting machine next claimed our attention. By this a pair of socks can be knit in fifteen minutes!" How many women do you suppose wanted one of those knitting machines?

After browsing, fair attendees could have lunch at a cafe (courtesy of the ladies who baked goods and served them), participate in contests, and even go fishing!

Sanitary fairs drew large crowds, not only because visitors supported the Union army, but also because they brought together a variety of goods for sale in an era when department stores were uncommon. In most towns, stores carried raw materials (bolts of fabric) in lieu of finished products like aprons or ready-to-wear children's clothing. Imagine the fun of spending money on things a woman usually had to make ... and having the excuse that it was "for a good cause."

The quilt at left was displayed in the Bed Linen & Quilt Department (pictured above) at the St. Louis event in 1864. A Miss Lizzie Hausler won the quilt, which was valued at $125.  

The French shelf clock sitting in front of the quilt was donated by the state of New York, which had held it's own very successful Sanitary Far earlier in 1864. 

The "grandmother's flower garden" quilt at right was also raffled off at the St. Louis Fair. It bears various dignitary's signatures. General Grant's signature appears on the central hexagon. A Nebraska family won the quilt, and it now resides in the collection of the Nebraska State Museum in Lincoln.

Fundraising events are common in 2015. Our local Christian school sponsors an "auction" of donated items every year. Raffle quilts are often produced to raise funds in support of a variety of causes. 

Have you ever made an item to be donated to a fundraiser? If so, you are one of a long line of generous women. 

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http://amzn.to/1NN8RvX

Stephanie Grace Whitson's interest in the Civil War inspired her novel Daughter of the Regiment, set in Missouri during the Civil War. This fall, a novella inspired by the service of Illinois women during the war will appear in A Basket Brigade Christmas. 

To learn more about Stephanie's books, visit www.stephaniewhitson.com. 

Stephanie loves to chat with her readers. Join the conversation at www.Facebook.com/stephaniegracewhitson-official. 

Civil War Missouri Women

A footnote from history by Stephanie Grace Whitson
      When you travel, do you pay attention to highway signs intended to lure you to historic sites, or do you drive on by? After decades of traveling Interstate 70 in Missouri Missouri, I finally took time to follow signs that led me to the Oliver C. Anderson House and to a Confederate Cemetery

Photo taken near
Higginsville, MO

. I learned that in the years preceding the Civil War, slaves worked plantations along the Missouri River a short (to me) distance from Kansas City.  
      A slave state, Missouri never officially seceded from the Union, but many of its citizens wanted to do just that. The population included passionate abolitionists like Elijah Lovejoy of St. Louis and equally passionate slaveholders whose plantations dotted the countryside of what was then called "Little Dixie." Because of the citizens' divided loyalties, Missouri actually had two state governments for a brief time in 1861. 

Women working in a Missouri munitions factory.

      The more I learned, the more I wondered, "what about the women? How did all of this impact their daily lives? What was it like? How did they cope?" Missouri women worked in munitions factories. They took over farms when their husbands and brothers marched off to fight. They organized a fair that raised over half a million dollars "for the cause."

Adaline Couzins

Adaline Couzins became a nurse (one of few to receive a pension after the war). She collected supplies, searched for the wounded on battlefields, and nursed them on hospital ships. Highly regarded for both her skills as a nurse and her fearlessness in the face of danger, Couzins was shot in the knee during the Battle of Vicksburg.

Margaret McClure, loyal Confederate

Margaret McClure was just as fiercely loyal to the Confederacy as was Adaline Couzins to the "other side." Accused of several illegal (in officially Union St. Louis) acts, including helping to distribute Confederate mail to distributing contraband goods, Mrs. Couzins was confined to her St. Louis home, which was converted to the Chestnut Street Prison for women who had committed "acts of disloyalty." McClure was eventually banished to the south and spent the rest of the war in exile. After the war, Mrs. McClure returned to St. Louis where she became the first President of the St. Louis chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. 
      If I'd lived in Missouri in the 1860s, what would I have done? Would I have risked my home or my life for the cause? For which cause? Learning about the women of the past always makes me thankful that I am a woman of 2015. Thankful for many things. As I write this post, my smartphone tells me that the high today will be 5 degrees. Five. I think about Margaret McClure in the dead of winter, trying to keep warm in her home-turned-prison. Of Adaline Couzins walking a battlefield strewn with suffering men. I take a break to put on a pair of socks. My feet are cold. The thermostat is only keeping the house in the 60s. Oh, Margaret ... Oh, Adaline ... how did you bear it.
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Stephanie Grace Whitson celebrated her 20th year as a published novelist in 2014. Her spring 2015 book, Daughter of the Regiment, tells the story of two neighbors, Irish Maggie Malone (inspired by women like Adaline Couzins) and plantation mistress Elizabeth Blair, who are forced to face their differences when war comes to Lafayette County, Missouri. Learn more about the book at http://tinyurl.com/ourvswq and more about Steph at www.stephaniewhitson.com