of South Mountain. After a brief stay at Camp Curtin, near Harrisburg, I
was lodged at Fort Delaware. The first persons to be seen in the Fort,
excepting always the garrison, were citizens of Baltimore, who were
confined there because they ventured to avow their convictions—because
they dared to act and speak as freemen should. Among them was Mr.
Carpenter, the editor of one of your newspapers, which had been
suppressed with Muscovitish promptitude, because it had criticised and
condemned some of the minor deities of the Northern Government. What
grace and help it gave us to meet those men of yours. There was but the
exchange of a glance and hasty word in passing from one barrack-room to
another. But we felt that we were not alone, though captives we were.
Only a day or two afterwards bales of blankets and clothing came from
your city, from your women, to us in Delaware. They gave comfort and
even health to many a dilapidated Confederate, for we had not dreamed of
capture, and our supplies were meagre indeed. This was not all. Again
and again, your superb women, in the pride of their conscience and the
beauty of their budding years, came to the Fort and waited there hour
after hour, in the trust that there might be some opportunity to bestow
a word or a look on our poor boys in gray.
* * * * *
But time presses. Though I could speak of you for hours, you might not
care to listen. It must, however, be recorded, that when all else was
gone, when life was paralyzed, when hope was dead, you enlarged your
sphere of nobility. Because the cause was lost there was new scope and
verge for you. When all else failed—when the banner of the South was
furled forever—you came forward to alleviate our grief in showing us
that you were as true in defeat as in triumph, and that, for you,
failure abated not a jot the merit, or the justice of the freedom for
which we fought, nor lessened by a particle your interest in us, or your
care for us. It seemed, indeed, that in our poverty, in the ashes of our
homes and confronting a problem which was then insoluble and is not
solved yet, we were dearer to you than in the pomp and pride of a
struggle, which—if right were might—must have had the consummation we
wished.
* * * * *
Immediately after the surrender at Appomattox, the Baltimore
Agricultural Aid Society was formed by a number of your citizens,
irrespective of party, to supply a portion of the Southern States, more
particularly Virginia, with stock, farming-tools and seed. For this
purpose over $80,000 were subscribed and judiciously distributed by
local agents who understood the wants of their immediate neighborhoods.
This noble charity was for the assistance of the people of the South “in
their sorest need, without wounding their pride or insulting their
poverty.”
In the spring of 1866 the ladies of Maryland organized the “Southern
Relief Association,” with Mrs. B. C. Howard as president, and a strong
array of vice-presidents and managers. To facilitate the objects of the
association it was determined to hold a fair, which was opened on the 2d
of April, 1866, in the Maryland Institute. It was continued until the
13th of the month, and at its close the net receipts were found to be
$164,569.97, which was distributed through committees to the various
Southern States.
In 1867 the Legislature also appropriated $100,000 “for the relief of
the destitute people in the States wasted by civil war,” and appointed
commissioners for its distribution. To this sum was added over $21,000
in money and goods, contributed by private individuals. As in many
places the people were suffering for the want of food, the commissioners
shipped large stores of provisions to various points in North and South
Carolina, Georgia and Alabama, to be distributed by agents appointed by
the Governor of those States. The Secretary of the Navy of the United
States, the Hon. G. Welles, placed at their disposal the United States
storeship _Relief_, by which a full cargo of corn and bacon was shipped
to Mobile, Ala. The total amount distributed by the commissioners in
supplies and money reached $106,623.65.
The Ladies’ Depository, No. 56, North Charles Street, Baltimore, was
formed in 1867, for the purpose of uniting in organized effort those who
were endeavoring to obtain needle and fancy work for the destitute
ladies in the South, impoverished by the war. The first officers and
managers were: President, Mrs. Peyton Harrison; vice-president, Mrs. J.
H. B. Latrobe.
In addition to all this, there was a large number of contributions, of
which not even an approximate estimate can be formed, made by
individuals privately and sent through private channels. Nearly all
hearts were touched and purses opened, and it has been estimated that
the relief thus afforded fell but little short of that which was
publicly given. All the railroads of Baltimore and the Bay steamers
carried the contributions free of charge; no commission was charged for
purchase or storage, and liberal deductions were made by the merchants
from whom the supplies were obtained.
This is taken, in the main, from Scharf’s History of Baltimore City and
County, and the record is approximately correct, no doubt, but how faint
an idea it gives of the worth of your work in the cheer it gave, in the
incentive to the struggling Confederates to begin life anew, and from
the nettle defeat pluck the flower of safety.
Half a million dollars—cribbed and confined as you had been—was given to
the South, after the war, by your Monumental City!
It is no affectation to say that words fail me as I strive to tell you
what you were to us then, and what you will always be to every
Confederate who is true as you were true, and is faithful as you are
faithful. There is no page in the story of the war more brilliant, more
inspiring, than that on which is blazoned the undying record of your
incessant sacrifice, your patient endurance, your unselfish devotion.
* * * * *
Gen. Lee’s appreciation of the work of the women of Baltimore is well
expressed in a letter dated May 3, 1866, and published in the “Personal
Reminiscences of Gen. Robert E. Lee,” by Dr. J. W. Jones. After
acknowledging the receipt of a gown presented to him by the ladies of
the Northeastern branch, tables 40 and 42, at the late fair held in
Baltimore, he says:
“I beg that you will express to them my grateful thanks for this
mark of kindness, which I shall value most highly in remembrance of
their munificent bounty bestowed on thousands of destitute women and
children by the ‘Association for the Relief of Southern Sufferers,’
the fruits of which shall live long after those who have received it
have mouldered into dust.”
In an earlier letter, dated December 15, 1865, he says:
“I am fully aware of the many and repeated acts of sympathy and
relief bestowed by the generous citizens of Baltimore upon the
people of the South, acts which will always be remembered, _but
which can never be repaid, and which will forever stand as monuments
of their Christian charity and kindness_. I know, too, that by their
munificence they have brought loss and suffering on themselves, for
which I trust God will reward them.”
Bear with me yet a moment. The subject on which your association desired
I should speak to-night is beyond the measure of mortal tongue or pen.
Who will undertake to describe adequately the exploits of our men in the
war, and what was their mighty accomplishment in comparison with the
infinite emprise of our women! The men, the soldiers, were the strong
right arm, the mighty body of the Southern Confederacy, as with spirit
undaunted they trod, with bleeding feet, the way of the Southern Cross.
But as the men were the body, so the women were the soul. The men may
forget the uniform they wore—it is faded and moth-eaten to-day. But the
soul, the spirit in our women incarnate, cannot die. It is unchangeable,
indestructible and, under God’s providence, for our vindication and
justification, shall live always—forever!
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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
1. Silently corrected typographical errors.
2. Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed.
3. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.
End of Project Gutenberg's Our Women in the War, by Francis Warrington Dawson