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American Civil War
The War at Home
The War at Home

The War at Home

Investigate the stories of the women, children, and men who experienced the Civil War as civilians. In both North and South, they supported war efforts through charity work and mourned the loss of loved ones. In the Confederacy, as the war progressed, they coped with poverty and food shortages, destruction of property as the Union Army moved south, and the economic and social aftermath of a war lost.

  • Tintype of an unidentified woman from Monroe County, Kentucky, whose family fought for the Confederate Army

    Tintype of an unidentified woman in antebellum dress with a white bow in her hair. The woman is from Monroe County, Kentucky. Her family members reportedly fought for the 4th Kentucky, USA.

    View Full Item  in Tennessee State Library and Archives
  • Receipts for services as a Confederate “home guard Minuteman”

    Five receipts for "services rendered as home guard minute man." Three of the receipts are dated September 5, 1861. The other two are dated October 11 and October 12. The men named on the receipts rece…

    View Full Item  in Tennessee State Library and Archives
  • Book titled History of the Soldiers’ Aid Society of Ann Arbor, Michigan

    View Full Item  in University of Michigan
  • Handwritten resolution of the Tennessee Hospital Association, September 18, 1861

    Tennessee Hospital Association

    Handwritten resolution of the Tennessee Hospital Association--alternately known as the Ladies' Hospital Association of Nashville, the Ladies' Tennessee Hospital Association, the Nashville Tennessee Ho…

    View Full Item  in Tennessee State Library and Archives
  • Illustration of Union loyalist Christopher Haun of Tennessee parting from his family before his 1861 execution for blowing up a Confederate railroad bridge

    William G. Brownlow, Sketches of the Rise, Progress, and Decline of Secession; with a Narrative of Personal Adventures Among the Rebels (Philadelphia: George W. Childs, Applegate & Co., 1862), p. 312

    View Full Item  in Digital Initiatives, James E. Walker Library, Middle Tennessee State University
  • Ambrotype portrait of a woman wearing a Union officer’s belt buckle

    Ambrotype of an unidentified woman in antebellum dress wearing a military belt buckle. The woman is from Monroe County, Kentucky. Her family members reportedly fought for the 4th Kentucky, USA.

    View Full Item  in Tennessee State Library and Archives
  • Letter from Maud Fentress to her son David about life at home in wartime, February 3, 1862

    Fentress, Maud C

    Transcript of a letter from Maud Fentress to her son, David Fentress telling him about day to day life. In her letter, she discusses the rising cost of goods and crops, and she also comments on the de…

    View Full Item  in UNT Libraries Special Collections
  • Illustration of a Soldiers’ Aid Society office during the Civil War

    Woodcut of an office of a Soldiers' Aid Office during the Civil War

    View Full Item  in Wisconsin Historical Society
  • Daguerreotype of an unknown Confederate soldier and his wife

    Cased, brass-matted daguerreotype of an unidentified Confederate soldier and a woman thought to be his wife. Both are seated, and pose with their hands in their laps. Young man wears a uniform jacket…

    View Full Item  in Tennessee State Library and Archives
  • A letter explaining that tax funds to finance aid to the families of soldiers will not be available before February, Madison, Wisconsin, 1862

    Hastings, Samuel D

    An open letter explaining that the tax funds to finance aid to the families of soldiers will not be available before February due to the actions of Democratic members of the Wisconsin Assembly.

    View Full Item  in Wisconsin Historical Society
  • Letter from Solomon Dubois to Johannes Lefevre about life in New Paltz, New York while many of its men are off fighting, February 17, 1863

    Dubois, Solomon

    Letter written from Solomon Dubois to Johannes discussing news from home. Sol is concerned that Johannes may be "hard up" for women and then goes on to write about his trip to Plattekill to see Fredri…

    View Full Item  in Historic Huguenot Street
  • Diary of Mary Boykin Chesnut, wife of southern politican James Chesnut, chronicling her experiences of the war from Columbia, South Carolina

    Chesnut, Mary Boykin Miller, 1823-1886

    BEIN Za C4255 905D: Autograph of Madeleine Forrest and bookseller's label of International Bookfinders.

    View Full Item  in Yale University
  • Tintype portrait of an unidentified African American woman

    Handcolored ambrotype of unidentified African-American female. She is shown with her hands folded and wears a wedding ring.

    View Full Item  in Tennessee State Library and Archives
  • Photograph of a hospital yard in Nashville, Tennessee, July 1863

    Scene in the yard of a military hospital in Nashville, showing numerous men and women, some African American, among lines of hanging laundry.

    View Full Item  in Tennessee State Library and Archives
  • Thank-you letter for donating to the Ladies’ Soldiers’ Aid Society, Curllsville, Pennsylvania, July 6, 1863

    Thorne, Charlotte

    Letter from Charlotte Thorne to Captain Bernard J. Reid. She thanks him for donated to the Ladies' Soldiers' Aid Society.

    View Full Item  in Santa Clara University
  • Issue of Forney’s War Press reporting on the war, September 12, 1863

    Original newspaper, Forney's War Press, published Philadelphia, September 12, 1863. Woodcut on front page shows guerrillas attacking a cattle train. John W. Forney served as secretary of the US Senate…

    View Full Item  in Tennessee State Library and Archives
  • Memoir of Confederate spy and Washington socialite Rose O’Neal Greehnow, 1863

    Grenhow, Rose O'Neal, Mrs. d. 1864

    Mrs. Greenhow was a secret agent of the Confederate goverrnment.

    View Full Item  in University of Michigan
  • Brady family wooden box, built to store valuables and hide them from marauding guerillas in the Cumberland Plateau region of Tennessee

    The Cumberland Plateau region of Tennessee experienced brutal guerrilla warfare throughout the Civil War. According to local and family lore the Thomas Majors and Samuel Brady families constructed thi…

    View Full Item  in Tennessee State Library and Archives
  • Photographs of the family of Confederate Sergeant Robert Frederick Johnson

    Sgt. Robert Frederick Johnson, Co. D, 7th Tenn. Cav., CSA, and his wife, Sarah Madison Taylor Johnson hold their daughter, Claudia. The baby died at the age of 15 months after a servant gave her cornb…

    View Full Item  in Tennessee State Library and Archives
  • Document planning a fundraising fair for the Chicago Sanitary Commission, 1863

    Chicago Sanitary Commission

    During the Civil War, the United States Sanitary Commission was the largest volunteer organization in national history, with chapters formed all around the northern states. In 1863, the Chicago Sanita…

    View Full Item  in Wisconsin Historical Society
  • Pamphlet titled “How Can We Best Help Our Camps and Hospitals?” published by the Women’s Central Association of Relief, New York, 1863

    Woman's Central Association of Relief

    Cover title Will digitize Condition reviewed

    View Full Item  in U.S. National Library of Medicine
  • Political cartoon titled “A Hint for the Sanitary Fair,” March 26, 1864

    Unknown, Harper's Weekly

    Gettysburg College - GettOpen Public Collection; Political cartoons

    View Full Item  in Gettysburg College
  • An appeal for donations to aid white southern refugees at Cairo, Illinois, 1864

    Johnson, John W

    An appeal for donations to aid white Southern refugees at Cairo

    View Full Item  in Wisconsin Historical Society
  • Memoir and letters from nurse Phoebe Pember who served at Confederate Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond, Virginia

    Pember, Phoebe Yates, 1823-1913

    View Full Item  in University of Michigan
  • Carte de visite portrait of Joseph Jefferson Dention, a member of the Home Guard in Cocke County, Tennessee, with his brothers

    Joseph Jefferson Denton was a member of the homeguard in Cocke County, Tenn. He was born March 8, 1810 died Sept. 9, 1887. He was a strong Union man during the war and joined the Union League in Cocke…

    View Full Item  in Tennessee State Library and Archives
  • Broadside from the Confederate Office of Chief Wool Agent restricting the private sale of wool in Georgia, 1864

    Confederate States of America. War Dept

    Signed: Wm. Hunter, Chief Wool Agent, District "A"; dated: Office of Chief Wool Agent of Confederate States, for District "A". Savannah, May 20, 1864. Caption title.

    View Full Item  in Duke University
  • Diary entries from Martha Canfield about the Memphis Colored Orphan Asylum, which she founded in November 1864

    Canfield, S.A. Martha

    Pages 15 through 24 of a pamphlet containing diary entries from Mrs. S. A. Martha Canfield with regard to the Memphis Colored Orphan Asylum that she founded. Mrs. Canfield observed the efforts of Rev…

    View Full Item  in Tennessee State Library and Archives
  • Letter from Rowena McMicken to her husband relating news about the war and life at home in Lake Mills, Wisconsin, April 27, 1865

    McMicken, Rowena Ostrander

    This letter, from Rowena Ostrander McMicken to her husband, Captain William McMicken of the 10th Minnesota Infantry Volunteers, relates news about the war and life at home in Lake Mills, Wisconsin. Sh…

    View Full Item  in University of Washington
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American Civil War
The War at Home

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