Tag: generals wives

generals wives

Matilda (Tillie) Pierce
Civil War Women, Gettysburg

Tillie Pierce

• Maggie

  Teenage Girl’s View of the Battle of Gettysburg Matilda (Tillie) Pierce was born in Gettysburg in 1848. She was 15 at the time of the battle, and had lived her entire life in Gettysburg, a village of 2400 persons. Her father made a good living as a butcher, and the family lived a comfortable life above his shop at the corner of South Baltimore and Breckinridge Streets in the heart of town. In the summer of 1863, Tillie was attending the Young Ladies Seminary, a finishing school near her home. Tillie had two brothers, James and William, and one sister, Margaret. At the time of the Battle of Gettysburg, her brother James was serving with the 1st Pennsylvania Reserves,…

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African Americans, Civil War Women

Lost Colony of Roanoke

• Maggie

Roanoke Island Freedmen’s Colony Roanoke Island is located between the Outer Banks and the mainland coast of North Carolina. It is well known as the site of the Lost Colony, where the first settlement of British colonists disappeared in 1587. It is not so well known for another colony that was established during the Civil War. The island was important militarily because it is located near the opening of two major sounds and is protected somewhat from the harsh weather in the Atlantic Ocean. Image: Roanoke Island Freedmen’s Colony Monument Fort Raleigh National Historic Site In 2001, the Dare County Heritage Trail committee erected a marble monument to commemorate the Freedmen’s Colony of Roanoke Island. In 2004, the monument was…

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Authors, Civil War Women

Kate Chopin

• Maggie

Novelist and Short Story Writer Kate Chopin (1851-1904) was an American author of short stories and novels. Though her writing career began more than two decades after the Civil War ended, her writing was greatly influenced by the aftermath of the war and the time she spent living in Louisiana. Chopin wrote two novels: At Fault (1890) and The Awakening (1899), which are set in New Orleans and Grand Isle, respectively. Most of her fiction focuses on the lives of sensitive, intelligent women. Childhood and Early Years Katherine O’Flaherty was born in St. Louis, Missouri on February 8, 1850 to Irish immigrant and successful businessman Thomas O’Flaherty and Creole Eliza Faris, a well-connected member of the French community in St….

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Mary Todd Lincoln's dressmaker and confidante, Elizabeth Keckley
African Americans, Authors, Civil War Women

Elizabeth Keckley

• Maggie

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….

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African Americans, Civil War Women, Educators

Fannie Jackson Coppin

• Maggie

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…

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Civil War Nurses, Civil War Women, Generals Wives

Arabella Griffith Barlow

• Maggie

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…

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Civil War Women, Women in Business

Martha Coston

• Maggie

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…

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Civil War Spies, Civil War Women

Antonia Ford

• Maggie

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…

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Abolitionists, African Americans, Civil War Women

Sarah Parker Remond

• Maggie

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…

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Civil War Women

Civil War Thanksgiving

• Maggie

National Day of Thanksgiving The first Thanksgiving dinner was held by the Pilgrims in October 1621, as a harvest festival in Plymouth Colony. President George Washington declared a day of Thanksgiving for the new nation in 1789, and another in 1795. Image: Thanksgiving in Camp Drawing by Alfred R. Waud Thursday November 28, 1861 However, our national day of Thanksgiving came not from the Pilgrims, but from President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, and from Sarah Josepha Hale, the editor of a popular women’s magazine, Godey’s Lady’s Book. For 40 years Hale had written editorials and letters to governors and presidents, trying to have Thanksgiving declared a holiday. Sarah Josepha Hale, born in 1788, was also known for her…

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