Tag: Gettysburg

Gettysburg
Civil War Women, Generals Wives

Martha Head Price

• Maggie

Wife of Confederate General Sterling Price During the Civil War, Martha Head Price left Missouri and settled in Washington, Texas. In the spring of 1866, she joined her husband in Mexico, and returned with him to Missouri the following year. Early Years Born May 2, 1810 in Orange County, Virginia, Martha Head was the daughter of Judge Walter Head, a wealthy planter who emigrated to Missouri in 1830 from Orange County, Virginia. Sterling Price was born on September 11, 1809, in Prince Edward County, Virginia, into a wealthy planting family. He received his education at Hampden-Sidney College. At the age of 22 went to Missouri with his father in 1831, first settling in Fayette, where Sterling worked in the tobacco…

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African Americans, Civil War Women

Wives of U.S. Colored Troops

• Maggie

Wives Fought to Keep Families Together Image: Unidentified African American soldier in Union Uniform with his wife in dress and hat and two daughters in matching coats and hats. As the news of the attack on Fort Sumter spread, free black men hurried to enlist in the Union Army, but a 1792 Federal law barred African Americans from bearing arms for the United States. However, by the summer of 1862 the escalating number of former slaves and the pressing need of men to fill the ranks for the Union Army caused the government to reconsider. Backstory African Americans have volunteered to serve their country in time of war since the American Revolution. The National Archives and Record Administration (NARA) in…

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Abolitionists, Civil War Women, Educators, Philanthropists

Emily Howland

• Maggie

Pioneer in Education for African Americans and Children Emily Howland and the Civil War Abolitionist, educator, philanthropist and suffragist from the village of Sherwood in Cayuga County, New York, Emily Howland was an avid supporter of education for women and African American children. She founded and financially supported fifty schools for emancipated blacks and taught in several of them. She donated the land and financial backing to build a school for black children in her hometown, which later became Emily Howland School. Early Years Emily Howland was born in 1827 on a farm near Sherwood, New York to Quakers and wealthy landowners Slocum and Hannah Howland. Slocum Howland was an anti-slavery advocate, banker, entrepreneur, and a leader in his community….

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Civil War Women, Uncategorized

Sallie Holley

• Maggie

She Found Her Place Among the Lowly Image: Sallie Holley (left) and her lifetime companion Caroline Putnam Sallie Howland and the Civil War Sallie Holley, abolitionist and educator, spent her entire adult life working to free African Americans from bondage, and then teaching the former slaves how to improve their lives. Early Years Sarah Holley was born February 17, 1818 in Canandaigua, New York. Sallie, as she was called, was one of twelve children born to Myron and Sally House Holley. Her father was a minister and a Canal Commissioner, who worked to create the Erie Canal. His antislavery beliefs greatly influenced Sallie. After her father’s death in 1841, Holley taught school in Rochester for a short time. While visiting…

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Antietam, Civil War Women

Mumma Farm at Antietam

• Maggie

The Mumma Family Lost Their Home at Antietam Image: Mumma Farm today No one in the community around Sharpsburg, Maryland suffered more during the Battle of Antietam than the Mumma family. They escaped the battle, only to return to find their farm totally destroyed by a fire set by Confederate soldiers. Backstory Straddling the opposing sides both politically and geographically was the border state of Maryland. Despite the legislative efforts of the powerful slave holding minority, the majority of Maryland’s population was less committed to the institution of slavery. The farms around Sharpsburg were typical of the region where the primary crop was wheat, supplemented with corn, oats, and rye. Seasonal crops like wheat and corn did not require the…

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Civil War Women, Generals Wives

Annie Adams McFadden Hays

• Maggie

Wife of Union General Alexander Hays Annie Hays suffered the long separations from her husband that all wives of Civil War generals endured. However, letters from the front inspired these women to continue raising children, caring for homes, running farms, and operating businesses. Unfortunately, Annie’s husband never made it home. He was killed at the Battle of the Wilderness on May 6, 1864. Image: Into the Wilderness by Keith Rocco Annie Adams Farrelly was born March 15, 1826 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Two months earlier, her father, U. S. Representative Patrick Farrelly, died while en route to Washington to attend Congress. In 1835 her mother married John Birch McFadden, a Market Street jeweler in Pittsburgh. Alexander Hays was born July 8,…

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Civil War Spies, Civil War Women

Charlotte Sprowles Webster

• Maggie

Wife of Union Spy Timothy Webster Charlotte’s husband Timothy Webster was an agent of the famous Pinkerton Detective Agency and a spy for the Union during the Civil War. Timothy Webster was Allan Pinkerton’s most trusted agent during the Civil War, and he was partially responsible for stopping an assassination attempt on president-elect Abraham Lincoln. Webster was later captured by Confederate forces and sentenced to death. Marriage and Family Timothy Webster was born in England in 1822, and his family immigrated to Princeton, New Jersey in the 1830s. Charlotte Sprowles married Webster on October 23, 1841 in Princeton, New Jersey. They had four children. As a young man, Webster learned the machinist trade. Sometime in the 1840s the Websters moved…

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Civil War Women, Uncategorized

December Hiatus

• Maggie

Since the month of December is taken up with holidays and travel, I have decided to go on hiatus for the rest of this month. I won’t be slacking off, however; I will be doing some much needed cleanup and updating on my blogs. Unfortunately, I will also be doing that dreaded activity that constantly tries to lure me away from my writing: HOUSEWORK. I wish you the happiest of holidays, and I hope the gifts you receive are exactly what you wanted. I will be praying for peace on earth for all people – from my fingers to God’s ear. Thank you for reading my blogs, Maggie
Civil War Women, Women Artists

Lilla Cabot Perry

• Maggie

Portrait Artist and American Impressionist Lilla Cabot Perry is best-known as an American Impressionist painter, creating landscapes and portraits in a free form manner. Impressionism is characterized by loose brushwork and vivid colors. She was greatly influenced by Ralph Waldo Emerson‘s philosophies, and her friendships with Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro greatly influenced her work. Pissarro acted as a father figure to all four major Post-Impressionists: Vincent van Gogh, Georges Seurat, Paul Gaugin, and Paul Cezanne. Image: Self Portrait (1890s) By Lilla Cabot Perry Early Years Lydia (Lilla) Cabot was born January 13, 1848 in Boston, Massachusetts, the eldest of eight children of Hannah Lowell Jackson Cabot and distinguished surgeon Dr. Samuel Cabot III. The Cabots prominent in Boston society,…

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Activists, Civil War Women

Richmond Bread Riot

• Maggie

Civil Unrest and Activism in the Confederate Capital Image: North Carolina Emigrants: Poor White Folk, by James Henry Beard During the Civil War, refugees like these traveled to Richmond hoping for a better life, but they only added to the overcrowding and lack of provisions that already existed there. A group of working-class women gathered in Belvidere Hill Baptist Church in the Oregon Hill section of Richmond, Virginia on the evening of April 1, 1863. A few had traveled from the outskirts of the city to attend this meeting of working class women. One of the leaders, Mary Jackson, was a peddler and another woman sewed tents to support her family. The women decided to meet the following morning and…

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