Civil War Christmas

Merry Christmas General Lee By Mort Kunstler December 25, 1862 It was a passing moment of cheer amid the harsh realities of war. General Robert E. Lee has attended a holiday dinner hosted by General Stonewall Jackson at Moss Neck Plantation near Fredericksburg, Virginia. General Lee is leaving the festivities, heading back to his winter headquarters. During the Civil War, Christmas was celebrated in both the United States and the Confederate States of America although the day was not recognized until 1870, when President Ulysses S. Grant made Christmas an official Federal holiday in an attempt to unite north and south. The war continued to rage on Christmas Day and skirmishes occurred throughout the country. Christmas Feasts A pre-war Southern…

Read Article
Mary Todd Lincoln's dressmaker and confidante, Elizabeth Keckley

Elizabeth Keckley

Dressmaker and Confidante of Mary Todd Lincoln Elizabeth Keckley was a former slave who became a successful seamstress and author in Washington, DC, after buying her freedom in St. Louis. She created an independent business with clients who were the wives of the government elite: Varina Davis, wife of Jefferson Davis, Mary Randolph Custis Lee, wife of Robert E. Lee, and First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln. Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley was born in 1818 in Dinwiddie Court House, Virginia. Her biological father was a white plantation owner, Colonel A. Burwell. Her mother Agnes was married to George Hobbs, who lived 100 miles away on another plantation. I was my mother’s only child, which made her love for me all the stronger….

Read Article

Hettie Kersey Painter

Hettie Painter, a Civil War doctor, was born in 1821 in Philadelphia, the daughter of Joseph and Charity Kersey Cope. Her parents died when she was young, and she was adopted by her uncle and aunt, Mordecai and Esther Hayes of Chester County, Pennsylvania. They were widely known for their humanitarian work. She married Joseph Painter of West Chester, Pennsylvania. After their wedding, Hattie and Joseph moved to Ohio, where Hettie devoted her time to benevolent works. Hettie and Joseph were supporters of the anti-slavery movement, and their home was always open to fugitive slaves. In 1852, Hettie and Joseph returned east and lived in Philadelphia and later in Camden, New Jersey. During this time she studied medicine, “having had…

Read Article

Fannie Jackson Coppin

Teacher of African American Children For 37 years Fannie Jackson Coppin was teacher, then principal at the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, making her the first African American woman to receive the title of school principal. During her tenure, she made many improvements at the school, believing that a broader range of education would be necessary to enable African Americans to become self-supporting. Fannie Jackson was born a slave in Washington, DC, on October 15, 1837. Fannie’s grandfather bought his own freedom and that of four of his children, being one. But Fannie’s mother, Lucy, remained a slave. In 1849 her aunt Sarah Orr Clark bought Fannie’s freedom for $125. Fannie was sent to live with another aunt…

Read Article

Arabella Griffith Barlow

Civil War Nurse and Wife of General Francis Barlow Arabella Griffith Barlow became a Civil War nurse after her husband, Francis Barlow, joined the army in 1861. Barlow began the war as a private in the Twelfth Regiment of the New York Militia. Arabella became attached to the Sanitary Commission in 1862, but nursed her husband back to health after he was wounded several times. She cared for the wounded following several battles, including Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, but soon her own health began to suffer. Arabella Griffith was born in February 1824 in Somerville New Jersey. She was raised and educated by Miss Eliza Wallace of Burlington, New Jersey, a relative on her father’s side. Francis Channing Barlow was 27…

Read Article

Martha Coston

Inventor of Night Signal Flares for the U.S. Navy Martha Hunt Coston was born in 1826 in Baltimore, and moved to Philadelphia with her widowed mother, brothers, and sisters in the 1830s. At the age of 16, Martha eloped with Benjamin Franklin Coston, a promising young inventor. The young couple were living a charmed life. Benjamin was appointed Master in the Naval Service and placed in charge of the Naval Laboratory in the Washington, DC. During this time, he developed a cannon percussion primer. A dispute arose between Benjamin and the Navy, concerning compensation he was to receive for their use of his primer. This disagreement eventually led to his resignation in August 1847. Coston then accepted the position of…

Read Article

Kate Cumming

Civil War Nurse from Alabama Kate Cumming is best known for her dedicated service to sick and wounded Confederate soldiers. She spent much of the latter half of the Civil War as a nurse in field hospitals throughout Georgia. In 1866 she published A Journal of Hospital Life in the Confederate Army of Tennessee from the Battle of Shiloh to the End of the War, a record of her day-to-day nursing experiences on the battlefields of Tennessee and Georgia. Cumming was born in 1835 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Her family moved to Mobile, Alabama, when she was still a child. Kate quickly adapted to the Southern way of life. Her father was a wealthy Mobile merchant. She and her family were…

Read Article

Antonia Ford

Confederate Spy in the Civil War Antonia Ford was a Confederate spy credited with providing the military information during the First Battle of Manassas (1861), and during the two years following. In 1863 Ford was accused of spying for John Singleton Mosby after his partisan rangers captured Union general Edwin Stoughton in his headquarters. Mosby denied that Ford ever spied for him, but she was arrested and incarcerated at Old Capitol Prison. Antonia Ford was born in Fairfax, Virginia, in 1838, daughter of prominent merchant and secessionist, Edward R. Ford. Antonia was living a life of quiet comfort when the Civil War began. She was 23 years old and unmarried. Their home was located across the road from the Fairfax…

Read Article

Sarah Parker Remond

Lecturer for the American Anti-Slavery Society Sarah Parker Remond was an African American abolitionist, doctor and lecturer for the American Anti-Slavery Society. She delivered speeches throughout the United States on the horrors of slavery. Because of her eloquence, she was chosen to travel to England to gather support for the abolitionist cause in the United States. Sarah Parker Remond was born in 1826 in Salem, Massachusetts, one of eight children. Her mother Nancy was the daughter of a man who fought in the Continental Army. Her father John was a free black who arrived from the Dutch island of Curacao as a boy of ten. The Remonds built a successful catering and hairdressing business in Salem. Sarah received a limited…

Read Article
Susan Margaret Chancellor

Susan Margaret Chancellor

  Witness to the Battle of Chancellorsville From the viewpoint of 16-year-old Susan Margaret Chancellor, one of the inhabitants of the Chancellor House, the war brought some excitement to her quiet life in rural Virginia. During the winter of 1862–1863, Confederate soldiers on outpost duty supplied Susan and her family with welcome entertainment. From Susan Chancellor’s diary: Chancellorsville was not a village but a large country home. It was built for my grandmother, Ann Lyon Pound. My grandmother’s second husband was George Chancellor of Chancellorsville. It was after his death that the large Chancellorsville house was built to be used as an inn, for the Plank Road ran through the estate. My mother [Fanny Longworth Pound] married Sanford Chancellor, a…

Read Article