"THE DISTAFF CIVIL WAR" is an accounting of but a few of the women who lived during the period of the American Civil War and contended with the many problems, North and South. Some of these problems would seem trivial in our day, but in the mid-19th Century, they were almost unsurmountable.
The book covers the lives of a diverse number of women who coped with major problems, both physical and emotional, and survived with dignity and bravery. The book provides a chronological narrative of letters and other documents created by these heroic women during the four years of the Civil War. Many of these women were unsung in their time and are little known today. With their accounts, a background is provided of the overall aspect of the war at that period of time which shows the influences of outside forces which affect their actions, be it battle, blockade, or material shortages.
The protagonists include a South Carolinian desperate to serve the Confederacy as a nurse; a young Georgian woman who spends the war as a tutor on a southern plantation coping with shortages caused by the blockade; a Maine woman with extensive experience in teaching who becomes a hospital matron in Virginia; a woman from Illinois who devotes nearly four years of her life to serve as nurse, surrogate Mother, and organizer in a grand style for the Union army; women who are driven from their homes in Missouri; former slaves who recall their experiences during slavery; prostitutes who are exiled from Nashville; women who take on the farm work after their men are gone to war; and a myriad of other characters.
The common thread throughout their stories is DUTY. Their common goal is to SERVE. The rewards fortheir service and dedication is the grateful THANKS of thousands of veterans who survived because of their efforts.