civil war manuscripts - American Memory from the Library of Congress

Many documents in the collections of the Manuscript Division
highlight the early enthusiasm for war, North and South.
Both military and civilian observers commented on the flood of
volunteers, the growth of enlistment centers and musters, and
the establishment of new training camps. Some observers also
noted, albeit shamefacedly, the cooling effect on this war fever
of casualty reports and the sight of sick and wounded soldiers.
In addition, scholars can study the adoption of and reaction to
conscription and perhaps uncover fresh examples of the extreme
methods adopted by a few officers to fill their ranks. One Confederate
officer was not above immediately forcing into line
any eligible young man who strolled to the roadside to watch
his unit march past. Somewhat surprising are the large number
of letters from commissioned and noncommissioned Union
officers to northern Congressmen and officials soliciting higher
rank in a black regiment.
The contribution of Confederate women to the war effort
is another well-documented subject in the collections. Most references
of this type concern the traditional role women played
as seamstresses, nurses, and hostesses, but careful and imaginative
researchers will find numerous comments on the emotional
or psychological support Confederate women gave their
soldiers. Military and civilian observers described the women
of the South as the heart and soul of the Confederacy. One
Kentucky cavalryman, writing just after the war, was so
impressed with the determined spirit of his female acquaintances
that he was persuaded the South would have won the
war had there been a metamorphosis of the sexes. Paradoxically,
many plantation mistresses powdered two faces, so to speak,
one gray and the other blue, for they seemed unable to deny
enemy officers the hospitality of their homes and tables. Doubtless
in most instances their invitations were designed, at least
in part, to guarantee the protection of property, but all too
often the visits appear to have been mutually agreeable.
Although the parties debated the issues of secession and States
rights, they obviously enjoyed the argument. In any event, the
feigned friendliness of true Yankee haters was easily detected
by their already suspicious guests, who would not tarry long at
hostile tables or trouble themselves unduly about the depredations
of their troops. Similarly, quite a few southern belles
attended Federal military balls during the war, rationalizing
their blatant unfaithfulness to their own soldiers by dancing
only cotillions, firmly refusing the more intimate contact of the
waltz.
Other facets in the behavior of Confederate women puzzled
soldiers on both sides. For example, the gaiety of a group
of well dressed ladies who climbed Kennesaw Mountain during
the peak of the battle to enjoy the carnage between the armies
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