Category: Civil War Women

Civil War Women
Civil War Women, Famous Firsts, Famous Wives

Varina Davis

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First Lady of the Confederate States of America Varina Davis was the wife of Confederate President Jefferson Davis during the Civil War, and she lived at the Confederate White House in Richmond, Virginia during his term. After the war she became a writer, completing her husband’s memoir, and writing articles and eventually a regular column for Joseph Pulitzer’s newspaper, the New York World. Image: Varina Davis in 1849 By John Wood Dodge Varina Howell was born on May 7, 1826, at The Briars near Natchez, Mississippi, where her parents, William Burr Howell and Margaret L. Kempe, were visiting relatives. Her father, who fought in the War of 1812, settled in Natchez and married Kempe, a Virginia native whose father was…

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Civil War Women, Generals Wives

Cornelia Armistead

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Wife of Confederate General Lewis Armistead Image: General Lewis Armistead Lewis Addison Armistead was born on February 18, 1817, at the home of his great-grandfather, John Wright Stanly, in New Bern, North Carolina, son of Walker Keith Armistead and Elizabeth Stanly Armistead. Lewis’ grandfather, John Stanly, was a U.S. Congressman and his uncle Edward Stanly served as military governor of eastern North Carolina during the Civil War. Lewis grew up near the mountains of Virginia on the family farm, Ben Lomond, near the town of Upperville, Virginia. Early Military Career Lewis Armistead was accepted to West Point on March 21, 1833, but resigned on January 29, 1836, after an incident in which he broke a plate over the head of…

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Civil War Women, Famous Wives

Eliza Chase

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Wife of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Salmon P. Chase Salmon P. Chase: Lincoln’s Treasury Secretary And husband of Eliza Chase Henry Ulke, Artist Salmon Portland Chase was born on January 13, 1808, in Cornish, New Hampshire. He was the ninth of eleven children born to Ithmar Chase and Janet Ralston Chase. His father died when Salmon was nine years old, leaving his widow a small amount of property and ten surviving children. Chase’s education began in 1816 in Keene, New Hampshire, than at a better school in Windsor, Vermont. His uncle, Philander Chase, an Episcopal Bishop, took Salmon to the woods of Ohio. Young Chase attended the bishop’s school at Worthington, near Columbus. Chase had no love for…

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Civil War Women, Generals Wives

Fanny Chamberlain

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Wife of Brigadier General Joshua Chamberlain Frances Caroline Adams was born on August 12, 1825, in a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts. Her parents were rather old at the time of her birth. Fanny, as she was called, was passed around to different family members, finally living with her cousin Reverend George Adams in Brunswick, Maine. Adams was the pastor of the First Parish Congregationalist Church, and he often ministered to the students of nearby Bowdoin College, where he was a member ofthe Board of Overseers. Image: Joshua and Fanny Dale Gallon, Artist Fanny grew up in this strictly religious home,and received a good education. She was an intelligent and artistic girl with a talent for music and singing. She made…

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Abolitionists, African Americans, Civil War Women

Harriet Tubman

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Conductor on the Underground Railroad Harriet Tubman was an African American abolitionist, humanitarian and Union spy during the Civil War. After escaping from slavery, she made thirteen missions back to the land of her servitude to rescue scores of slaves, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. Image: Painting by Paul Collins: Harriet Tubman’s Underground Railroad She was born Araminta Ross around 1820 the fifth of nine children born to slave parents, Harriet (“Rit”) Green and Benjamin Ross, in Dorchester County on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. As with many slaves in the United States, neither the exact year nor place of her birth was recorded, and historians differ as to the best…

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Civil War Women, Famous Firsts, Famous Wives, First Ladies

Mary Todd Lincoln

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First Lady of the United States 1861-1865 Mary Todd Lincoln supported her husband throughout his presidency, and witnessed his fatal shooting at nearly point blank range at Ford’s Theater on April 14, 1865. Mary’s life was difficult after her husband was assassinated; she suffered from depression and mental anguish, which led to her being hospitalized for a time. Image: Mary Todd Lincoln in 1846 Mary Todd was born on December 13, 1818, in Lexington, Kentucky, the fourth of seven children born to banker Robert Smith Todd and Elizabeth Parker Todd. Robert Todd provided his children from two marriages with social standing and material advantages. When Mary was seven, her mother died. Mary’s father remarried to Elizabeth Humphreys in 1826. This…

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Civil War Women, Female Soldiers

Sarah Rosetta Wakeman

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Woman Soldier in the Civil War Sarah Rosetta Wakeman disguised herself as a man in order to fight for the Union in the Civil War. The letters she wrote home were preserved by her family, but were not made public for nearly a century because they were stored in the attic of one of her relatives. Wakeman, most often referred to as Rosetta, was born on January 16, 1843, in Afton, New York, to Harvey Anable and Emily Wakeman. She worked hard on her father’s dairy farm to help support her family, and later worked as a domestic. Her father served as town constable, but was deeply in debt. At the age of 19, Rosetta left home and traveled to…

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Civil War Women, Famous Wives, Generals Wives

Narcissa Saunders Barksdale

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Wife of Confederate General William Barksdale William Barksdale was born on August 21, 1821, in Smyrna, Tennessee. He graduated from the University of Nashville and practiced law in Mississippi from the age of 21, but gave up his practice to become the editor of the Columbus [Mississippi] Democrat, a pro-slavery newspaper. He enlisted in the 2nd Mississippi Infantry Regiment and served in the Mexican-American War as a captain and quartermaster. William Barksdale married Narcissa Saunders of Louisiana in 1849. William Barksdale In 1853, Bardsdale entered the U.S. House of Representatives and achieved national prominence as a States’ Rights Democrat, serving from March 4, 1853, to January 12, 1861. He was considered to be one of the most ferocious of all…

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Civil War Women, Generals Wives

Clara Pope

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Wife of Union General John Pope John Pope was a career United States Army officer and Union general in the American Civil War with a reputation for outspokenness and arrogance. He had a brief but successful career in the Western Theater, but he is best known for his defeat at the Second Battle of Bull Run (Second Manassas) in the East. After decades of blaming General Fitz John Porter, an 1879 Board of Inquiry concluded that Pope himself bore most of the responsibility for the loss of that battle. Image: Major General John Pope Born on March 16, 1822, in Louisville, Kentucky, John Pope was raised in Kaskaskia, Illinois, located on the Mississippi River. His father, Nathaniel Pope was the…

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Civil War Women, Generals Wives

Henrietta Morgan Duke

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Wife of Confederate General Basil Duke Henrietta Hunt Morgan was born on April 2, 1840, to Calvin Cogswell Morgan and Henrietta Hunt Morgan of Lexington, Kentucky. Her brother, John Hunt Morgan, would become a celebrated Confederate cavalry commander. Basil Wilson Duke was born in Scott County, Kentucky, on May 28, 1838, the only child of Nathaniel Duke and his wife, the former Mary Pickett Currie. Duke’s parents died during his childhood: Mary when Basil was eight, and Nathaniel when he was 11. Image: General Basil Duke Basil Duke attended Georgetown College (1853-1854) and Centre College (1854-1855), before studying law at Lexington, Kentucky’s Transylvania University. After graduating in 1858, he went to St. Louis, Missouri, to practice law. His older cousin,…

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