Women of the Confederacy by Augustus Lukeman, located on the grounds of
the North Carolina State Capitol, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA. Monument
dedicated on June 10, 1914.
Of
the war and its end in the submission and occupation of the American
South, those enduring the degradation vowed that “These things will not
stay forgotten . . . daughters and Veterans can not afford to be silent
about the painful past. Let our descendants have a truthful account of
that awful time as far as written words can give it.” The fine source
below can be obtained from Orders@Xlibris.com.
Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
"Unsurpassed Valor, Courage and Devotion to Liberty"
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
Better to Die in the Last Ditch
“Defeated,
oppressed, humiliated, poverty-stricken, disenfranchised, taxed to pay
the war debt, while too poor to support ourselves, deprived of
opportunity politically, and handicapped by pride and the bitterness of
rebellion against our condition, the South was a pitiable spectacle –
and her rise from that condition to the splendid attainments of today is
a crown of honor she deserves because she has won it by overcoming
obstacles which at first seemed insurmountable.”
Dr. Henry Bahnson, in his speech to Confederate veterans, had this to say about Confederate women:
“We
can speak in unstilted praise of the best and greatest glory of the
South – the women of the war. Their soft voices inspired us, their
prayers followed us and shielded us from temptation and harm. We
witnessed their Spartan courage and self-sacrifice in every stage of the
war. We saw them send their husbands and their fathers, their brothers
and their sons and their sweethearts, to the front, tempering their joy
in the hour of triumph, cheering and comforting them in the days of
despair and disaster.
Freely
they gave of their abundance, and gladly endured privation and direct
poverty that the men in the field might be clothed and fed. Their days
of unaccustomed toil were saddened with anxious suspense, and the
lonely, prayerful vigils of the night afforded no rest.
They
nursed the sick and wounded; they soothed the dying; and in the last
stages of the war when all was lost but honor, were made to marvel at
their saintly spirit of martyrdom standing as it were almost neck deep
in the desolation around tem, bravely facing their fate, while the light
of heaven illuminated their divinely beautiful countenances.”
Catherine
DeRosset Meares [of Wilmington] remarked: “The sense of captivity, of
subjugation . . .
[was] so galling that I cannot see how a manly spirit
could submit to it . . . Oh, it is such degradation to see [our] young
men yield voluntary submission to these rascally Yankees. Better to
stand on the last plank and die in the last ditch.”
(Blood
and War at My Doorstep, North Carolina Civilians in the War Between the
States, Brenda Chambers McKean, Volume II, Xlibris, 2011, pp.
1082-1083)
