Concerning Ladies of the Era

[hoosier]

Do I understand this correctly? Is it saying that the Van Buren/Fort Smith area was a hotbed of Union sympathizers within the Confederate state of Arkansas?

[thea_447]

I thought about this one too, George, but I saw it listed as coming from this newspaper and thought it interesting enough to list here.

[bill_torrens]

It is evident that the Fort Smith New Era was a pro-Union newspaper, and, from what I have quickly gleaned from the internet, the issue of the 8th October appears to have been its very first one. It was, in other words, the mouthpiece of the occupying military force. It would describe Union-sympathising Arkansans [is that the right collective noun?] regardless of whether they really existed.

[johan_steele]

Bill, there were parts of Arkansas that were quite pro-union, in particular the Ft Smith area. It was not likely a voice for the Union occupiers... THe 3rd MN was garrisoned in Little Rock and elsewhere in the state and there are numerous diaries & letters showing suprise from some of the Union men about how Pro Union many in Arkansas were. East TN, North Alabama, major parts of NC etc were area of Union sympathy and frequently outright anti CSA sentiment.

THere is among some scholars the automatic assumption that any Regiment raised in a stsat of the CSA was or would become a USCT Regiment... quite wrong. "Loyal" Union men would often fill these regiments. Alabama is the first example that comes to mind.

The sympathies of the day were certainly not split strictly along North vs South lines...

Some of the more intriguing stories are of the men of the family choosing one side and the ladies another... gives a whole new meaning to a house divided...

[unionblue]

George and Bill,

As Shane has pointed out above, there were many in the South that did not agree with secession. 400,000 men of the South left their states and enlisted in the Union Army for the duration of the war. Thousands more made their feelings known and were arrested and placed in confinement or silenced by Southern authorities. The phrase 'the Solid South' did not always apply to many in throughout the many regions of the South.

On the flip side, 5,000 men from the Northern State of Ohio went South and joined in on the Confederate side. I do not have figures for the rest of the Northern states, but I am sure you would find men from all over the North serving under Confederate arms.

The idea that both sides had the complete support of both their regional populations is another myth that should be examined in more depth.

Sincerely,
Unionblue

[bill_torrens]

Shane & Neil,

Thank you both. I'm well aware of Unionist support amongst white Southerners, but my point was that the newspaper - newly founded and expressing the views of the occupying military force - would describe loyal Unionists celebrating in the streets regardless of whether they existed. Just as a news sheet produced in Philadelphia after its occupation by the Army of Northern Virginia (if only, if only...) would have been bound to describe jubilant citizens singing Dixie.

My own research into the junior officers of the A.N.V. (22,000 individuals, and rising) has uncovered hundreds of Northerners who were commissioned. The two most common causes were (a) as a result of locating in the South for work purposes - even if only a year or so before the outbreak of hostilities or (b) as a result of having a Southern wife. The latter motivation/influence was particularly common amongst regular army officers of Northern birth who later wore the gray, and seems particularly appropriate to this thread. And I'm sure the same influences worked on some Southerners who fought for the Union.

Bill

[unionblue]

Bill,

General George Thomas comes to mind and my favorite Union Admiral seem to be in that catagory.

Unionblue

[thea_447]

Someone sent me this item but unfortunately I cannot pass along the picture that accompanied it. It's called oledata.mso (113 KB) and Windows won't accept it or something.

Belle Boyd Grave Caretaker receives award - please note that her grave is in Wisconsin!


Reese receives Confederate medal.

Minutes after the rain stopped on Memorial Day morning, a small group of people gathered at the grave of Confederate spy Belle Boyd where Ollie Reese oversaw his last flag raising for the woman called the "Cleopatra of the Succession."

A small group of women from the United Daughters of the Confederacy attended the ceremony and surprised Reese by awarding him the Jackson Service Medal for his 51 years of maintaining and looking after the Southern war heroine's gravesite in Spring Grove Cemetery.

Named after Stonewall Jackson, the round gold medal carries the general's profile and was awarded to Reese during the 108th UDC convention held in Columbia, S.C.

Then the local Richmond, Va. UDC division presented Reese with a Certificate of Merit as well as a letter from Virginia Gov. Warner commending the Dells native for his work to preserve Boyd's final resting place.

The awards are "greatly appreciated," a surprised Reese said.

He was quick to point out that he accepted the commendations on behalf of Legion Post 187, the official caretakers of the Boyd grave.

"Not many Wisconsin cemeteries have a Confederate spy," Reese said.

He also gave credit to wife Jean, who "helped a lot" over the past few years as Reese is well into his 80s.

"I'm not quite as spry as I used to be," he quipped.

Reese turned over the flag raising duties to his daughter and son-in-law. He recounted how Boyd came to be in Kilbourn at the turn of the century and died nearly penniless. The local Civil War veterans bought the grave plot and in the 1950s, the Legion Post built a mausoleum.

Anyone who fights "and believes should be honored," Reese said.

Representing the UDC was Ruth Snead, who reported that her group has recently landscaped the monument near Richmond honoring those Confederate soldiers of the Wisconsin 36th Infantry that died in a battle in the early summer of 1864.

She said that she had been wanting to meet Reese since hearing about how he has raised flags over Boyd's grave for the past half century.

Coming to Wisconsin Dells Monday for Memorial Day was "a dream come true," Snead said.

[thea_447]

MOBILE REGISTER AND ADVERTISER, July 6, 1861, p. 1, c. 4
What the Arkansas Women are Doing.--The Little Rock Gazette hopes it will not be considered boastful when it states that the ladies of that city, since the war began, have performed an extraordinary amount of patriotic labor. They have made nearly or quite three thousand military suits, upwards of fifteen hundred haversacks, and probably five thousand shirts, and have also covered over twelve hundred canteens.

[thea_447]

MOBILE REGISTER AND ADVERTISER, July 9, 1861, p. 1, c. 7
The Virginia Ladies.--A South Carolina soldier in Virginia says:
I have seen ladies and children manifest the most surprising anxiety to have pieces of our cherished emblem. Ladies often engage in conversation with the humblest of our soldiers, and gladly receive from them pieces of palmetto as tokens of soldierly esteem.
A Mississippian at Richmond writes:
The ladies are very kind and liberal, and treat us as kindly as we could wish. The camp is full of them every evening hunting up sick, and a rat might as well try to escape a terrier as for a sick man to escape the ladies, and when they find him he is either carried to a private house or else overcrowded with nice "nick nacks" to eat.