Part of the American History & Genealogy Project

The United Daughters of the Confederacy

 

Introduction by Cornelia Branch Stone.

It is a privilege accorded me by the author of this work, to write, at her request, a brief introductory to that part of her book which recognizes the organization known as the United Daughters of the Confederacy, a body of Southern women, approximately numbering sixty thousand, and now organized in thirty-one states, the District of Columbia and city of Mexico, Republic of Mexico.

In 1894 the chapters of the Daughters of the Confederacy, which had been previously formed in many of the Southern states met in Nashville, Tennessee, and organized themselves into one general federation, the objects of which are "memorial, historical, benevolent, educational and social, namely to honor the memory of those who served and those who fell in the service of the Confederate states; to record the part taken by the women of the South, in patient endurance of hardships and patriotic devotion during the struggle, as well as their untiring effort, after the war, in the reconstruction of the South; to collect and preserve the material for a true history of the war between the states; to protect and preserve historical places of the Confederacy; to fulfill the sacred duty of charity to the survivors of that war, and to those dependent upon them; to promote the education of the needy descendants of worthy Confederates; and to cherish the ties of friendship among the members of the association."

With such aims and purposes, the women of this organization, worthy daughters of noble sires, have cared for the living veterans, and urged upon the legislatures of the Southern states the payment of pensions and the establishment and maintenance of homes for these old heroes, and for the needy Confederate women. By their own efforts they have erected monuments throughout the South, to commemorate the heroism of the "men behind the guns," and their great leaders, among whom stand high on the scroll of fame, the name of Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, J. E. B. Stuart and a host of others who have now become, in our reunited country, a common heritage, as types of American courage and valor.

Under a well-organized educational system, much valuable work is being done for the higher education of worthy sons and daughters of needy Confederates by securing scholarships in universities and colleges. Within such sacred effort, no spirit of antagonism or bitterness has entered, for the heart and soul of this organization has lived and had its being in a clearer, purer atmosphere, where loyalty and faithfulness to our common country has had full part; and the youth of our land while being taught to honor and revere these memories, are also instructed in that patriotism, which leads to the highest type of citizen-ship, and which will give to the service of our country faithfulness and honesty of purpose.

With such inspiration it is not surprising that the women of this organization, theirs of a rich heritage of glorious achievements, calling forth the best qualities of manhood and womanhood, should have in many cases, developed a high order of executive and administrative ability.

Mrs. A. Baum ~ 1910
Mrs. Baum, late of Irwinton, Georgia, was born near Bingen, Germany. She emigrated to the United States in 1849 and came to Georgia, residing in Savannah one year, when she removed to Irwinton and there married. From 1850 till her death Irwinton was her home. She died October 30, 1910.
During the trying times of 1861-1865 she was ever diligent in aiding in every way in her power the cause of the Confederacy, by donating food, clothing and medicines to the soldiers, and by caring for the needy and sick wives and children of the soldiers of her country at the front.

Annie H. (Faulkner) Bocock
Mrs. Annie H. Bocock, the second wife of Thomas S. Bocock, the distinguished Virginia statesman, was a worthy companion during the latter part of his distinguished career. She was the daughter of Charles James Faulkner, who was minister from the United States to Paris at the outbreak of the war.

She is the mother of three children, W. P. Bocock, Mrs. Thomas Carey Johnson and Mrs. Sallie D. Reynolds. She makes her home at Richmond, Virginia; is an active worker in the Daughters of the Confederacy and in all patriotic and philanthropic work of her state and city.

Octavia Cohen
Mrs. Cohen was ninety-three years old on May 30, 1911. During the four years of the war she remained in Savannah, making it her duty to look after the needs of the Southern soldiers, who had been exchanged, and attended them in sickness, and in every way ministered to their comfort

When Captain Cuyler, who was then ordnance officer, did not have sufficient bullets, she took the leaden weights from her windows, putting wood in their place to support the windows, and with those weights Captain Cuyler made five hundred bullets. She, with her two daughters, Fanny (Mrs. Henry Taylor) and Georgina (Mrs. Clavius Phillips) made in their home two kegs of gunpowder. She also made and collected clothes which she sent to Jekyl Island to Captain Charles Lamar, for his men.

Katie Daffan
Miss Katie Daffan was twice state president of the Daughters of the Confederacy of Texas, and author of "Woman in History" 'The Woman on the Pine Springs Road" "Texas Hero Stories," and 'Verses and Fables."

Sarah Ann Ellis Dorsey ~ 1875
Mrs. Dorsey was the daughter of Thomas G. P. Ellis and was born at Natchez, Mississippi. She was the niece of Mrs. Catherine Warfield, who left her many of her manuscripts. In 1853 she married Mr. Samuel W. Dorsey, of Tensas Parish, Louisiana. She established a chapel and school for slaves. Their home was destroyed during the war and they removed to Texas, but afterwards returned to Louisiana, and in 1875, on the death of her husband, made her home at "Beauvoir" and acted as the amanuensis of Jefferson Davis in his great work, "Rise and Fall of the Confederacy." In her will she left this beautiful home to Mr. Davis and his daughter Winnie.

Adaline Gardner
Mrs. Gardner was born near Bingen in Germany. She immigrated to Georgia in 1849 and removed to Florida in 1853. At the commencement of the war she lived at Fernandina and shortly before its occupation by the Federals removed to Waldo, Florida. While residing at Waldo she did all she could to feed the hungry and relieve the sick and furloughed boys passing her door. In the summer of 1864 the family removed to Savannah, Georgia, where she is still living and is in her ninetieth year.

Bertha Gardner
The daughter of Mrs. Adaline Gardner aided and assisted her mother during the war, from 1860 to 1865, to the best of her ability, although but a young girl at the time, by feeding the hungry and nursing the sick.

Mrs. Grant
Among other women who have done conspicuous work in the United Daughters of the Confederacy, we mention Mrs. Grant, who is of a distinguished Virginia family, that of Lewis. She is the wife of Chief Justice Grant of the Supreme Court of Missouri. She has done splendid work in her state along educational lines.

Miss Martha Levy
Miss Martha Levy gave the same support to the cause as did all the loyal women of the South.

Mrs. P. Y. Pember
Mrs. P. Y. Pember, eighty odd years old, residing at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was at the head of the Chimborazo Hospital, Richmond, Virginia, and did wonderful work with little money, few necessities and volunteer nurses.

Mrs. Percy V. Pennybacker
Mrs. Percy V. Pennybacker, of Texas, is president of the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs, and author of "An Abridged History of Texas," which is used in the public schools of that state. She is a woman of fine attainments, and an easy, ready speaker. She is also a member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

Mrs. Philip Phillips
Mrs. Philip Phillips was in Washington with her husband. Judge Phillips, at the breaking out of the war. She was sent, under flag of truce, with two grown daughters and younger children to Fortress Monroe, from which place they returned to their home in New Orleans. Later Mrs. Phillips was imprisoned by Ben Butler on Ship Island in the Gulf of Mexico for many months. She devoted time and money to the cause, giving her jewels, even selling them when she had no other money to give.

Her daughters, Fannie, now Mrs. Charles Hill, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Caroline, now Mrs. Frederic Myers, of Savannah, Georgia, though very young, helped in the care of the sick and wounded.

These four ladies were all daughters of Mrs. S. Y. Levy, who worked earnestly for her adopted Southland, being an Englishwoman never in America until after her marriage. She lived to be ninety-four years old, and died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The following names are of women who loved the cause and who fought the battles with their men, whose hearts were torn with the bullets that mowed down the flower and chivalry of the South: Mrs. Isaac Minis, Mrs. Abram Minis, Mrs. Yates Levy, Mrs. Mordecai Myers, Mrs. Levy Myers, Mrs. Solomon Cohen, the Misses Rebecca, Fanny and Cecelia Minis, and Mrs. Theodore Minis.

Mollie R. M. Rosenbery
Mrs. Mollie R. Macgill Rosenbery, of Galveston, Texas, is prominent in the work of the Daughters of the Confederacy and a philanthropist of note in Texas and other states.

Annie Simpson
Miss Simpson was a native of Charleston, South Carolina. She was a young woman when the War Between the States began. She was heart and soul with the Confederacy and devoted her time, energies and money to the help and needs of the Southern soldiers, nursing the sick and wounded in the hospitals of Charleston and Columbia, South Carolina. At the close of the war, she, with other devoted women, formed the Memorial Association and founded the Confederate Home, both of Charleston, South Carolina. She was secretary of the former, and vice-president and one of the Board of Control of the Home from its formation until her death, at the age of eighty-five, in 1905.

Women of America

Source: The Part Taken by Women in American History, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.

 

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