Portrait of a civilian
Kate Stone,
a Confederate civilian
Kate Stone was 20 years old when the Civil
War broke out. She was living with her
widowed mother, five brothers, and younger
sister at Brokenburn, a 1,200-acre cotton
plantation in northeast Louisiana, about
30 miles (48km) northwest ot Vicksburg,
Mississippi. The Stones owned 150 slaves and
their antebellum plantation life imbued
strong devotion to the Confederate cause in
- Kate began writing her diary in May
1861 and it chronicles the hardships she and
her family endured until they were forced to
leave Louisiana as a result of the Vicksburg
campaign in the summer of 1863.
In 1861, Kate was coming of age and
keenly aware of the significance of her times
and of her own maturation as woman. The
war threatened her family's affluence and
social status, and her chances of marriage.
She resented the fact that the Confederate
army mobilized three out of four white
males in the South, including her brother
and uncle, leaving behind mostly women
and slaves to conduct the affairs of economic
and social life. Kate was dissatisfied with her
isolation on the plantation, 'When quietly
our days are passing,' she commiserated,
when the Whole planet is in such a slate of
feverish excitement and everywhere there is
the stir and mob of angry life - O! to see and
be in it all.' 'I hate weary days of inaction.'
she remarked, 'yet what can women do but
wait and suffer?'
Although Kate recognized that lite would
be difficult for the soldiers, remarking that
'They go to bear all hardships, to brave all
dangers, and to face death in every form,'
she soon learned that the home front could
be just as challenging as the battlefront. 'We
who stay behind.' she wrote, 'may find it
harder than they who go. They will have
new scenes and constant excitement to buoy
them up and the consciousness of duty
done.' Still, the waiting and the monotony
were exasperating. No war news or any
other kind. Oh, this inactive life when there
is such a stir and excitement in the busy
world outside. It is enough to run one wild.
Oh! to be in the heat and turmoil of it all, to
live, to live, not stagnate here.'
For Kate, writing was a way to participate.
But as the war closed in on her world, she
came to feel the attack, the occupation, and
the devastation of thousands of Southerners
in the west. As early as May 1861, Kate
commented that 'Times are already
dreadfully hard.'
The press made an impact on Kate,
particularly because she came to believe that
Northern papers had terribly misrepresented
the South. 'The Northern papers do make us
mad!' she commented in May 1861. 'Why
will they tell such horrible stories about us?'
One of the most significant changes on the
plantation was the change in attitude among
the slaves. The runaways are numerous and
bold.' In time 1861, she wrote, 'We live on a
mine that the Negroes are suspected of an
intention to spring on the fourth of next
month.'
Like thousands of Southern women, Kate
found refuge in prayer groups and religion.
In late June after an abundant rain, Kate
remarked that the crops were thriving and
that 'The North cannot starve us, try as they
may, and God will aid us in our righteous
cause.' 'May I always be able to put my trust
in God ... satisfied that He will order our
future as is best ... He has given us wise
rulers, brave and successful generals, valiant
and patriotic men and a united people.
self-sacrificing and with their trust in God.'
As the war moved closer to northeast
Louisiana, Kate's scorn for the yankees
increased. She reported on the sacrifices of
Southern planters in late January 1862.