Carried Into War
A Soldier's Life
Realities of War
The Home Front
Facing the Grim Reaper
Breaking the Blockade
The Last Campaigns
An Uncertain Future
Acknowledgments
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Hardships of War
Supporting the War Effort
Divided Loyalties
The absence of men resulting from army service or death created new hardships for wives, mothers, sisters, and children left at home. Women often became the sole caretakers of family farms and assumed new and unfamiliar responsibilities. Shortages of goods and inflation added to the struggles of daily life for all North Carolinians.
An Absence of Men
If I don't get home I want you to try and have as much corn planted as you can and if that ground is not broken up around the house you better have it done while it is wet for it will get dry after a while.
—Sergeant Isaac Lefevers, Company K (Catawba Braves), Forty-sixth Regiment North Carolina Troops, April 7, 1862
For North Carolina's women, the most dramatic and immediate effect of the war was a shortage of men. The wives of soldiers became the sole providers for families and caretakers of farms. As such, they labored daily with the help of children and extended-family members. Women plowed, planted and harvested crops, slaughtered livestock, and cured meat. The survival of their families depended on the success of their work. Husbands regularly wrote home advising wives when and what to plant, the best time for harvest, and prices to ask for surplus goods. The deaths of husbands and sons, crop failures, and the impressment of harvested crops by Confederate agents were constant threats to survival for those at home.
A Scarcity of Goods
Okra the Best Substitute for Coffee.
—Greensboro Patriot, April 30, 1863
By 1863, most North Carolinians felt the effects of the Union blockade. Goods such as leather shoes, coffee, salt, and factory-made cloth were no longer readily available. In response, people at home developed substitutes. They replaced store-bought hats with ones made from palmetto fronds or corn shucks. Women mailed letters to their husbands in envelopes fashioned from wallpaper. Spinning wheels and looms reappeared as women revived the art of cloth production. Acorns and nuts became sources for dyes, and people boiled okra as a substitute for coffee. Some chose to wear leather shoes only on special occasions, so that the shoes would not wear out. Although shortages created enormous hardships, many women expressed pride in their sacrifices.
We all make our homespun dresses and wear them to preaching regularly each one is as proud of her homespun dress at present as one ever could be of a silk one in time of peace.
—Sally Scarborough, May 10, 1863
Elizabeth Gash
Forty-four-year-old Elizabeth Gash lived in Buncombe County with her husband, B. S. Gash, and her children in 1861. A housekeeper according to the 1860 census, Elizabeth had seven children-two sons and five daughters. She made this shirt for her oldest son, Lucius W. Gash, who served in Company K, Eleventh Regiment North Carolina State Troops (First Regiment North Carolina Volunteers). Third Lieutenant Lucius W. Gash was mortally wounded at the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse and died May 14, 1864.
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Inflation and Speculation
If it is constitutional, and if your position as governor of N. Carolina gives you the power to do so, in the name of God, of suffering humanity, of the cries of widows and orphans, do put down the speculation and extortion in this portion of the state.
—A. R. L. Abernethy, Marion, McDowell County, to Governor Zebulon B. Vance, November 4, 1862
With increasing shortages and the growing worthlessness of Confederate moneys, inflation and speculation became serious problems in North Carolina and throughout the Confederacy. A barrel of flour that had sold in Raleigh for eighteen dollars in 1862 sold for five hundred dollars in 1865. In some cases, merchants and speculators hoarded supplies to make huge profits or to ensure that they had goods for their families. The state and county governments gave monetary vouchers to needy families of soldiers to help purchase provisions. But as conditions worsened, malnourishment became a reality. In response, some women turned to protest and violence, and bread riots broke out in cities such as Salisbury and Raleigh.
Raleigh Food Prices, 1862-1865
| Bacon (pound) |
$.33 |
$1.00 |
$5.50 |
$7.50 |
| Beef (pound) |
.12 |
.50 |
2.50 |
3.00 |
| Pork (pound) |
- |
1.60 |
4.00 |
5.50 |
| Sugar (pound) |
.75 |
1.00 |
12.00 |
30.00 |
| Corn (bushel) |
1.10 |
5.50 |
20.00 |
30.00 |
| Meal (bushel) |
1.25 |
5.50 |
20.00 |
30.00 |
| Potatoes (bushel) |
1.00 |
4.00 |
7.00 |
30.00 |
| Yams (bushel) |
1.50 |
5.00 |
6.00 |
35.00 |
| Wheat (bushel) |
3.00 |
8.00 |
25.00 |
50.00 |
| Flour (barrel) |
18.00 |
35.00 |
125.00 |
500.00 |
Salt
Salt, a staple of food preparation and preservation, became extremely scarce because of the effectiveness of the blockade. In response, North Carolina established saltworks along the coast to harvest salt from seawater. Despite these measures, salt remained one of the scarcest commodities in the Confederacy. Desperate farm wives scraped smokehouse floors in attempts to recover salt for food preservation.
Vance and the Burdens at Home
I hear with deep regret that a bill is certainly expected to pass the Congress suspending the writ of habeas corpus throughout the Confederacy, and that certain arrests will immediately be made in North Carolina.
—Governor Zebulon B. Vance to Confederate president Jefferson Davis, February 9, 1864
A popular politician before the war and colonel of the Twenty-sixth Regiment North Carolina Troops, Zebulon Baird Vance was elected chief executive of North Carolina in August 1862. He enjoyed tremendous grassroots support as the state's wartime governor. He also received a constant barrage of letters from citizens and soldiers seeking redress for real or imagined injustices. In addition, Vance and Confederate president Davis regularly clashed over the issues of individual and states' rights. But despite differences with Davis, Vance never wavered in his support of the Confederacy.
Continue to the next section: Supporting the War Effort >>
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