Civil War Women

I found a webpage about Civil War women. It features diaries and letters as well as links to pictures offsite. Here's a bit from the diary of 10 year-old girl who lived in Atlanta as Sherman marched on it:

Aug. 6. Sat. We have ben in the cellar all day. Cousin Henry Beatty came this evening and brought some Yankee coffee for me to grind for him. some he had captured yesterday in a skirmish.

Aug. 14. Sun. Sure enough we had shells in abundance last night. We averaged one every moment during the night. We expected every one would come through and hurt some of us but to our joy nothing on the lot was hurt. They have ben throwing them at us all day to day but they have not ben dangerous. Papa has ben at work all day making the cellar safe. Now we feel like we could stay at home in safety. I dislike to stay in the cellar so close but our soldiers have to stay in ditches.

Aug. 16. Tues. We had shells all night. There was a large piece came through Mama's room directly after we went to bed and fell on the little bed and I expect if we had been sleeping there some of us would have ben hurt. Cousin Henry and Cousin Eddy came to see us to day. They told us that they did not think the Federals would be here much longer to torment us and I hope that it may be so for we are getting very tired of living so.

There's more than stories of girls cowering from the war, however. For instance, you can also find out about women who diguised themselves as men so they too could fight for their country, such as Frances Clayton here: