It is remarkable that after a lapse of forty years the people of this
country, from the President down, are manifesting a more lively
interest than ever in the history of the women of the Confederacy.
Bodily affliction only has prevented the author from rendering at an
earlier date the service to their memory and the cause of the South
which he feels that he has done in preparing this volume. His friends,
Dr. J. Wm. Jones, and the lamented Dr. J. L. M. Curry, of Richmond,
Va., made the suggestion of this work several years ago.
They both
rendered material assistance in the preparation of the lecture which
appears in this volume as the author's tribute in the Symposium, and
to Doctor Jones the author is greatly indebted for the practical
brotherly assistance he has continued to render.
Thanks are due to the Virginia State Librarian, Mr. C.
D. Kennedy, and
his assistants, for kind attentions. The author is under obligations
to the lady members of the Confederate Memorial Literary Society of
Richmond, especially to Mrs. Lizzie Carey Daniels, Corresponding
Secretary, and Mrs. Katherine C. Stiles, Vice-Regent of the Georgia
Department of the Confederate Museum. In many ways great and valuable
service was kindly rendered by Miss Isabel Maury, the intelligent
House Regent of the Museum. To his old Commander, Gen.
S. D. Lee, now
General Commander of Confederate Veterans, he is under obligation for
his practical help; also to Gen. Marcus J. Wright. In making
selections from the works of others, great pains have been taken to
give proper credit for all matter quoted. The author's home has been
for more than thirty years his delightful Pearland Cottage, in the
suburbs of Camilla, Ga. On account of his afflictions he has moved his
family to Blakeley, Ga., while he himself may remain some time for
medical treatment here in Richmond. The book is sent forth from an
invalid's room with a fervent prayer that it may do good in all
sections of our beloved country. Much of the work has been done under
severe pain and great weakness, and special indulgence is asked for
any defects.
J. L. UNDERWOOD.
Kellam's Hospital,
Richmond, Va.
INTRODUCTION BY REV. DR. J. B. HAWTHORNE
RICHMOND, VA., _January 30th, 1906_.
Only within the last two years have I had the opportunity to cultivate
an intimate personal acquaintance with Rev. J. L.
Underwood, but as
the greater part of our lives have been spent in the States of Georgia
and Alabama, I have been quite familiar with his career through a
period which embraces a half century. Wherever he is known he is
highly esteemed for his intellectual gifts and culture, his fluency
and eloquence in speech, his genial manner, his high moral and
Christian ideals, and his unflinching fealty to what he believes to be
his country's welfare. No man who followed the Confederate flag had a
clearer understanding or a more profound appreciation of what he was
fighting for. No man watched and studied more carefully the progress
of the contest. No man interpreted more accurately the spirit,
purposes, and conduct of the contending armies. When the struggle
closed no man foresaw with more distinctness what was in the womb of
the future for the defeated South. His cultivated intellect, his high
moral and Christian character, his personal observations and
experiences, his residence and travels in Europe, his extensive
acquaintance and correspondence with public men, North and South, and
his present devotion to the interests of our united country, render
him pre-eminently qualified for the task of delineating some features
of the greatest war of modern times.
I have been permitted to read the manuscript of Mr.
Underwood's book,
entitled, "The Women of the Confederacy." I do not hesitate to
pronounce it a valuable and enduring contribution to our country's
history. There is not a page in it that is dull or commonplace. No man
who starts to read it will lay it aside until he has reached the
conclusion of it. The author's definitions of the relations of each
sovereign State to the Federal Union and of her rights under the
Federal Constitution are exact. His argument in support of the
Constitutional right of secession amounts to a demonstration. His
interpretation of the long series of political events which drove the
South into secession is clear, just and convincing. His tributes to
the patriotism and valor of the Southern women are brilliant and
thrilling without the semblance of extravagance. His description of
the vandalism of Sherman's army in its march through Georgia and South
Carolina cannot fail to kindle a flame of indignation in the heart of
any civilized man who reads it. His anecdotes, both humorous and
pathetic, are well chosen.
The section of this book which relates most directly to
"The Women of
the Confederacy," including Mr. Underwood's tribute in the Symposium
to their memory, is by far the most thrilling and meritorious part of
it. Into this the author has put his best material, his deepest
emotions, his finest sentiments, and his most eloquent words. To the
conduct of Southern women in that unprecedented ordeal, history
furnishes no parallel. Through many generations to come it will be the
favorite theme of the poets and orators.
I need no prophetic gift to see that this book will be immensely
popular and extensively circulated. Its aged and afflicted author has
done a work in writing it which deserves the gratitude and applause of
his fellow countrymen.
J. B. HAWTHORNE.
INTRODUCTION BY REV. DR. J. WM. JONES
J. WM. JONES,
_Secretary and Superintendent_,
_Confederate Memorial Association_,
109 N. 29th Street.
RICHMOND, VA.,
_January 23, 1906_.
I have carefully examined the manuscript of Mr. J. L.
Underwood on
"The Women of the Confederacy" and I take great pleasure in saying
that in my judgment it is a book of very great interest and value, and
if properly published and pushed I have no doubt that it would have a
very wide sale.
Mr. Underwood has given a great deal of time to the collecting of
material for his book, and has had great advantages in doing so in
having had free access to the libraries of Richmond, and his book
abounds in touching and thrilling incidents, which present as no other
book that has been published does the true story of our Confederate
women, their sufferings and privations; their heroism and efficiency
in promoting the Confederate cause. I do not hesitate to say that it
is worthy of publication, and of wide circulation.
J. WM. JONES.
AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION
One of the last things the great Henry W. Grady said, was: "If I die,
I die serving the South, the land I love so well. My father died
fighting for it. I am proud to die speaking for it." The author of
this volume fought for the South and is now so afflicted that he can
no longer hope to speak for the South, but he will be happy to die
writing for it. Not half has yet been told of the best part of the
South, her women.
The Apostle John, on finishing his gospel story of Christ, said: "And
there are many other things which Jesus did, the which if they could
be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not
contain the books that should be written." While at work preparing
this volume, Mr. C. D. Kennedy, the courteous State librarian of
Virginia, said to the writer it would "take a whole library to tell
all about the Confederate women." As in the life of Christ, only a
small part can be told; and only a small part is necessary.
It is remarkable that the life of Christ was the most tragic,
thrilling, and beneficent life the world ever saw. And yet it is all
told in four booklets of simple incidents. Those four little books
have been worth more to the world than all other books combined.
Neither is there any system in the gospel record. There was no system
in Christ's life. It could not be told in a consecutive biography nor
in a scientific treatise. Science and system all fail when it comes to
telling of a life of such love and labor and sorrow.
It is not sacrilegious to say the same thing when we come to tell of
the heroic lives, the courage, the trials, the work of the Confederate
women. We can only give incidents, and these incidents tell all the
rest.
Fortunately the author, while a patient in a Richmond hospital, has
been strong enough to search the libraries of the city and gather
material scattered among the Confederate records already made. With
them and his own original sketches, it is hoped that a contribution of
some value has been made to a good cause. The story of the Southern
women is worth studying; and the author tells in his eulogy his
estimate of their great virtues. Then he shows that his estimate is
not from partiality or ignorance by giving a symposium of tributes
from others, some from the North and some from Europe.
It may surprise some that so much attention is given to holding up the
righteousness of the cause in which these women labored and suffered.
Why not? The great cause ennobled them, and they adorned the
Confederate cause. The truth must be told from both directions. This
is the ground idea of this humble volume.
It is hoped that it will fill a good place in our Southern literature,
suggesting further investigation on the same line. It has been a work
of love, a comfort to him in the days of very fearful bodily
affliction. He is conscious of the feebleness of his work and much
indulgence is asked for.
The author deems his subject a consecrated theme. And he rejoices that
he could labor at his task amid the consecrated memories of dear old
Richmond, where he has had the assistance and the smiles of
encouragement from the noble women who continue to keep guard over
Hollywood and Oakwood Cemeteries, the Soldiers' Home, and the Home for
Confederate Women, and keep vestal watch in the Confederate Museum.
Not a line is written in sectional prejudice or tainted by a touch of
hate. The author was a Confederate soldier. He hates sham, injustice,
falsehood, and hypocrisy everywhere, but he loves his fellow men, and
still bears the old soldier's respect and warm hand for the true
soldiers who fought on the other side. The barbarities of bummers and
brutal commanders must be repudiated by us all that the honor of true
soldiers like McClellan, Rosecrans, Thomas, and Buell, on the one
side, and Lee, Jackson and Johnston on the other, may stand forth in
its true light.
When our broad-brained and big-hearted President Roosevelt has just
stepped down from the White House to tell on Capitol Hill at Richmond
and at the feet of the monuments of Lee and Jackson, his great
admiration for the Confederate soldiers and the Confederate women, it
is time for us all to take a fresh look at their heroic lives.
J. L. UNDERWOOD.
KELLAM'S HOSPITAL,
_Richmond, Va., April 1st, 1906_.