TAGS:
United States History - Civil War, 1861-1865 - Women
Women -- United States History
ADDRESS.
In the writings of Count Montholon there is the following passage: "On great occasions, it is almost always women who have given the strongest proofs of virtue and devotion. The reason is that, with men, good and bad qualities are, in general, the result of calculation, whilst in women they are impulses springing from the heart."
Macaulay, in one of his essays, speaks of "that perfect disinterestedness and self-devotion of which man seems incapable, but which is sometimes found in woman."
This virtue, this perfect disinterestedness and self-devotion, was manifested on every side, and on all occasions, by Southern women during the Confederate war. Their constancy and fidelity, their tenderness and courage, their unfailing cheerfulness and patience, have no parallel in the history of human achievement and human suffering.
Think for a moment of the peculiar circumstances. The soldiers on the Northern side fought as the Confederates fought, and were equally exposed to the fatigue of the march and the hazard of battle. But the Northern soldier was well-clad, well-fed, well-armed. Naught that science and wealth could furnish to make him an effective combatant was allowed to remain wanting. The Confederate, on the other hand, was stinted in his food, and, besides, was poorly equipped in arms and munitions. In a campaign, he was more often bare-backed and bare-footed than warmly clothed and well-shod.
Apply the same test to the women. The mothers and wives, sisters and daughters, of the Northern soldiers were worn with anxiety as the Southern women were. The sword of affliction pierced every heart alike. But there was a striking difference, nevertheless. The bereavement of the Southern maid and matron was more agonizing than that of the Northern matron and maid, because the South risked more of its own flesh and blood than the North risked, family by family. This is not all. Apart from the fear of ill tidings of those in service, apart from the anguish that wounds, disease and death could bring, the Northern women had no special care or discomfort. They were in no danger themselves. There was no Milroy, no Butler, no Hunter, no Sheridan, no Sherman, to taunt and upbraid them, to strip them of their most precious mementoes, to steal or scatter their scanty store of provisions and burn their homes over their head.
The Southern women, dwelling in a land which was hedged about with armies and fleets, and cut off from all regular and expeditious communication with the rest of the world, encountered every form of hardship and privation. Living almost alone on their plantations, they were at the mercy of their slaves. It is true that the slaves were, as a rule, faithful and submissive, but the peril existed all the same. There was difficulty, from the beginning, in obtaining such necessaries or luxuries as could not be home-made. As the years went by the privations became more and more intense. There was actual lack of meat and bread in many parts of the South. And, behind the black spectre, there was the threat of rapine and revenge whenever a raiding party should come within reach.
Therefore, it is that the lives of "Our Women in the War" are beyond the reach of comparison, and stand nobly, supremely alone, without peer or rival. Physical suffering, the torment of the body, was added to "crucifixion of the soul."
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