American Indian Culture and Research Journal

The implications of the Civil War divided the nation and created loyalties along social, geographic, racial, and gender lines. Endemic to the divisions were barriers superimposed on the society with resulting restrictions, demands, and tensions. Tomes have been written about the battles and of the calculated maneuvers carried out by the generals and their campaigns, successful and unsuccessful. The stresses of the war resonated in each household. Many lives were transformed and heroes stepped out of the chaos and onto the pages of history, altering the lives of millions. Despite the plethora of Civil War literature, one group remains overlooked and omitted in the annals of war: women. Feminine acts of heroism and selfless patriotism have been recorded in various forms; many written by the participants whose firsthand accounts of their experiences relate excitement, danger, and unthinkable heroism. For the vast majority of the women, however, life was a monotonous continuum of deprivation, fear, and loneliness and their daily activities were carried out in the sphere of illiteracy and poverty. Notwithstanding these disadvantages, along with the dangers of war, a relatively small group of semi- and well-educated women recorded their memories. Their writings exist today and comprise a small collection of diaries, letters, memoirs, and a few novels. Unsung, but not unnamed, the writers shed light on their every day occurrences, fears, and expectations. Katherine M. Jones compiled over one-hundred written accounts by southern women in The Heroines of Dixie: Confederate Women Tell Their Story of the War. Each entry offers the reader an intimate glimpse into the life of individual women who lived in a land invaded and occupied by federal troops. The authors did not think of themselves as