Texas Women in the Civil War, A Tribute to
Dallas, Dallas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Civilian duties of 90,000 Texas men fighting for the Confederacy fell to wives back home in land of few factories and an enemy blockade that cut down on imports. Women had to run businesses and farms for their absent men who committed to the uncertain mails their letters of instruction. Yet with help of children, old men and loyal slaves, furnished Army and the Confederacy with grain, meat and cotton for home consumption and foreign exchange for guns, gunpowder, factory goods, drugs and other supplies. Ran newspapers. Loaded shells. Made gun caps. Did "man's work" of many kinds, in addition to homemaking, sewing, nursing, teaching and child care. Made medicines from herbs and plants. Grew poppies and squeezed the seed pods to supply opiates to the hospitals. Carded cotton and wool, spun and wove, then dyed the homemade cloth with bark or roots. Plaited palmetto or corn shucks to make hats. Made coffee of acorns or vegetables, tea of sage or orange leaves. On 2,000 miles of coastline and frontier, faced personal hazards from invasion or Indian raids. Elsewhere were in peril from marauders. Through the four years won admiration for their pluck, and maintained faith enough to help rebuild the defeated South.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
With some 90,000 Texas men away fighting for the Confederacy, the civilian labor of a whole society fell to the women left behind in a land of few factories and a tightening naval blockade. They ran farms, businesses, and newspapers; loaded shells and made gun caps; spun, wove, and dyed homemade cloth; brewed coffee from acorns and medicine from herbs; and faced raids and marauders along thousands of miles of coast and frontier.
Why it matters
The tribute recovers the vast, often invisible home-front labor of women that sustained the Confederate war effort and the society around it — a dimension of the Civil War long overshadowed by battlefield accounts.
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Related events
- · American Civil War
Themes & tags
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