Question about white Southern refugees

For a manageable case study, you may want to consider Jacksonville, which was repeatedly occupied and abandoned by Union troops. The town was destroyed over the course of the war. I haven't read the book, but Daniel Shaefer's "Thunder on the River" is supposed to be a good study of this area and has chapters on life for black and white residents under Union occupation.
 
The Shenandoah Valley should be a subject of interest, General David Hunter ripped through the valley turning out families and burning their farms. Many went to live with relatives; Hunter had an army of 18,000 and was fighting much smaller numbers who were fighting a delaying action until Lee could spare troops to send to the valley. Early was dispatched with 8,000 men of the 2nd Corps and defeated Hunter's larger army at Lynchburg. Hunter soon resigned from the command of his troops and never again commanded troops in the field.

“The scenes on Hunter’s route from Lynchburg had been truly heart-rending. Houses had been burned, and women and children left without shelter. The country had been stripped of provisions and many families left without a morsel to eat. Furniture and bedding had been cut to pieces, and old men and women and children robbed of all clothing except what they were wearing. We now had renewed evidences of outrages committed by the commanding general’s orders in burning and plundering private houses. The time consumed in the perpetration of those deeds was the salvation of Lynchburg, with its stores, foundries and factories, which were so necessary to our army at Richmond.”-Jubal Early
 
Their was of course as you mentioned quite a few white Unionist refugees as well. When you do your article on them the following books come to mind . "The Uncivil war Irregular warfare in the Upper South, 1861-1865 by Robert Mackey University of Oklahoma Press. See his chapters on Ark. T.J. Stiles "Jesse James the last rebel of the Civil War. "The Inside War" Michael Fellman Univ of Oxford Press. The "Freemantle Diaries " mention pro Confederate white refugees quite a bit. T.J. Stiles mentions both pro CSA and pro Union refugees in Mo. "A Savage Conflict the decisive role of guerrillas in the American Civil war Daniel Sutherland Univ of North Carolina Press has a lot of information he might still be teaching at Univ of Ark.
Based on my readings the CW is like any other war if one is pro side A you try to go further into side A's territory. Same if your on Side"B". Their was no national welfare system as we know it today until FDR helped establish it in the 1930's. I would hazard a guess that plenty of Southern women who's husbands where dead, wounded in captivity and even if they did receive $ 11 dollars in CSA currency so what. How much good would it do in terms of buying food let lone shelter? These women had to do what they had to do to feed their kids. If they stayed on their small farms they where at great risk from( take your pick) Unionist guerrillas, CSA guerrillas, Freelance bandits. Armed hungry men are hungry men and men without women well not good for the single women
Leftyhunter
I would also look at Winchester, VA, according to whichever source you might choose, changed hands at least 72 times........it really wasn't until '64 that things became truly uncivil and after Hunter's raid in the Valley, the Confederates burned Chambersburg, PA and ransomed Frederick, MD
 
When Forts Donelson and Henry fell in February 1862 the Great Panic ensued in Nashville and people fled with just the clothes on their backs or carrying whatever they could grab. The banks opened on Sunday so people could get what they had stored there. It was really crazy. There is a little book from an eyewitness that covers the two weeks until the Yankees actually came. (Rumors abounded they would be there any minute and would torch and torture the town but it was very anti-climactic.) I have often wondered about the people that fled and what became of them.
 
I am starting some research on white refugees in the South who fled areas being occupied by the Union army. I am developing some questions about this and if anyone wants to chime in with answers and sources, please do.

1. Why did some whites flee Union armies and others remain?
2. Did Confederate leaders encourage white refugees to leave their homes when the Union army was nearby?
3. Apart from Missouri, were there instances of white Southerners being expelled en mass from an area by Union officers?
4. How many white refugees fleeing Union troops were there during the war?
5. Did most white refugees stay away from home for the duration of the war or did they return home soon after leaving?
Richmond, Va had quite a few refugees. I would think the local historians there would have diaries and letters. Also of course keep in mind that perhaps several thousand after the CW fled the USA. Some returned such as Jo Shelpy and some of his men who fled to Mexico and fought for the French but that did not work out real well. We have some old threads about a colony of CSA refugees in Santa Barbara,Brazil. Some also went to Cuba and various West European countries. one of our posters mentioned some sort of society that keeps track of their descendants
Leftyhunter
 
West Virginia refugees who fled Union occupation tended to concentrate in the Shenandoah valley, from Staunton up to Winchester, people in those areas had to find housing and clothing for them.
 
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