DK - The American Civil War

the Northern economy grew in all areas

as a result of the war—agriculture,

mining, transportation networks, the

service sector, and manufacturing.

Southern inflation

The situation in the Confederacy was

starkly different. Because the nation

was starting from scratch, there was no

initial balance of credit and few gold

reserves with which to fund the war

effort. Hence, in March 1861, Secretary

of the Treasury Christopher Memminger

asked the Confederate Congress to

authorize the printing of a million

dollars in paper notes. These bills were

backed by nothing more than the

population’s faith in the government

and almost immediately began to

devalue. In late 1861, a Confederate

dollar was worth 80 cents in gold; by

1865 it was worth 1.5 cents. Inflation

plagued rebel currency all through the

war, simultaneously strangling private

and public trade, the collection of taxes,

and the payment of debts.

To help offset inflation, Memminger

resorted to selling bonds as Chase did,

but he had no financier to assist him

and fewer investors willing to wager

their funds. More paper money was

printed, and direct taxation forced on

an unwilling populace. But only seven

percent of the Confederacy’s income

was generated in this way. Instead, the

hated tax-in-kind, or “impressment,”

initiated in March 1863, provided the

bulk of the government’s revenue. In

many parts of the South, the economy

Five dollars’ worth

Confederate banknotes were often beautifully designed,

but inflation ate away constantly at their monetary value.

This one shows Secretary of the Treasury, German-born

Christopher Memminger, in the bottom right corner.

THE HOME FRONT

The Civil War was one of the most

significant events in the movement toward

female equality in the United States. As

men marched off to war, women took their

places in factories, fields, and stores.

WOMEN’S ROLES EXPAND

In North and South alike, women’s activities in

ladies’ aid societies, and as nurses in national

organizations, gained them recognition as

integral contributors to the war effort. In so

doing, they expanded what was regarded

as “respectable” women’s work.

Spared invasion and occupation, Northern

women benefited the most from the war and

reignited the women’s rights movement in the

postwar decades. Southern women, often

devastated by the loss of property and deaths of

family members, were less likely to profit socially but

became hardened to privations. One woman in

Warrenton, Virginia, wrote: “We keep true to the

South amid all our sore trials—and at times are to be

pitied.” Despite this, their experiences operating

farms and plantations in their husbands’ absence

and witnessing war firsthand helped to crack

the gender barriers of the old South.

AFTER

Ammunition workers

Engravings from Harper’s Weekly show workers,

including many women, filling cartridges at Watertown

Arsenal, Massachusetts. The artist was the young

Winslow Homer, later known for his landscape paintings.

Patched up

With the Union blockade biting ever deeper, the South,

which produced most of the world’s raw cotton, found

itself starved of the finished fabric. Clothes, like this

dress, had to be endlessly patched and repatched.

Farewell to home and family

William D. T. Travis, staff artist with the Union Army of

the Potomac, painted this glamorized depiction of an

officer outside his mansion bidding farewell to his

family as he leaves to fight for the North.

sank into a barter system reminiscent of

the European Middle Ages as officials

and private citizens haggled over what

constituted payment of taxes.

Volunteer aid societies

Within months of the firing on Fort

Sumter, almost 20,000 local aid societies

organized in both the Union and the

Confederacy. Many, especially in the

South, withered and died as wartime

hardships disrupted their activities, but

thousands persisted. The societies and

their national counterparts supplied

soldiers in the field with homeknit

clothing, jams and preserves, writing

supplies, newspapers, Bibles, and books.

Most of these organizations were

run locally by wives and daughters of

soldiers, and aimed at the physical and

emotional comfort of their menfolk.

Often they raised money through fairs

and bazaars to purchase items to be

sent to the soldiers. These philanthropic

events were highlights on the social

calendars of Northern and Southern

communities, and in the larger

cities thousands turned out to buy

homemade goods produced by the

societies’ members. Raffles, benefit balls,

and musical entertainment also were

popular fundraising methods. Infused

with patriotism, good will, and religious

fervor, these activities kept the war at the

forefront of peoples’ minds, especially

in the North, where the physical effects

of the conflict were minimal and only

the absence of military-age males

showed that life had changed.

“I sell my eggs and butter from home for $200

a month. Does it not sound well ... But in what?

In Confederate money. Hélas!”

MARY CHESNUT, A DIARY FROM DIXIE, SEPTEMBER 19, 1864