Portrait of a civilian
Emma LeConte
'Reunion! Good Heavens!' exclaimed
17-year-old Emma LeConte about the
prospects of peace with those vandals, the
Yankees. 'How we hate with the whole
strength and depth of our souls.'
Born in Georgia and raised in Columbia,
South Carolina, Emma was the daughter of a
science professor at the College of South
Carolina, later renamed the University of
South Carolina. From this privileged
background, she received a world-class
education for a young woman in her day.
Her upbringing bound her intricately to the
cultural trappings of Southern society, and
her youthful and unyielding passion for the
Confederacy reflected broad sentiments
among the well-to-do people in
South Carolina.
Just a handful of blocks away from her
home on campus grounds. South Carolinians
celebrated secession from the Union. Emma
recalled with delight the moment she and
her neighbors learned that Fort Sumter had
capitulated. They were seated in her father's
library when the bell at the marketplace
clanged, announcing a momentous event.
Everyone rushed outside, where they heard
the news. 'The whole town was in joyful
tumult.' she described. Men ushered off to
war. Women filled the void in all sorts of
ways and contributed to the war effort by
supporting the cause, caring for the ill and
injured, and enduring any sacrifice necessary
for victory.
Emma never doubted the justice of the
Confederate cause. Despite her exceptional
education in mathematics, science, French,
German, philosophy, literature, and history,
she did not challenge the notions that blacks
were inferior beings and that slavery
benefited the African race. The Northern
states threatened to undermine the
institution of slavery and impose themselves
and their ideas on the Southern people. No
self-respecting individual, no free person,
could justly endure such a humiliation. The
North attempted to enslave them, and
Southern whites dissolved their connection
to the Union. God and justice - inseparably
intertwined in her mind and those of fellow
secessionists - were on their side.
But by the end of 1864, the prospects
looked bleak. Lee and his valiant army had
locked in a life-and-death struggle outside
Petersburg and Richmond. Sherman's army
had swept through Georgia, leaving
desolation in its wake. Savannah had
capitulated. And 'Sherman the brute avows
his intention of converting South Carolina
into a wilderness,' she feared.
Even before the Federal army turned
northward, it threatened Emma's family. Her
15-year-old sister Sallie, her aunt, and two
cousins resided on a plantation 25 miles
(40km) south of Savannah. In December,
Emma's father, who worked during much of
the war for the Nitre and Mining Bureau,
embarked on a lengthy trek to find and bring
them back to Columbia. While she waited,
reports reached her ears on the conditions in
Georgia. How would they survive without
provisions, she wondered. In her diary, she
worried over 'how dreadfully they must have
been frightened.' With her father traveling
into harm's way, the thought of his death
instilled a sense of terror in her. By
7 February 1865, he had brought them all
back to Columbia, but in doing so, he had
unwittingly moved from an area beyond
Sherman's swath to a primary target.
The war had taken its toll on the LeConte
family's quality of life, too. Although they
were well off financially, skyrocketing
inflation, a relatively tight Union blockade,
and limited supplies forced them to cut back
drastically. The family ate two meals a day.