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War presented special problems for the
world of ladies’ fashion in the Confederacy, as is best described in the words
of General James Longstreet:
“While we were longing for the (reconnaissance) balloons that poverty denied us, a genius arose... and suggested we.... gather silk dresses and make a balloon. It was done, and we soon had a great patchwork ship.... One day it was on a steamer down on the James River, when the tide went out and left the vessel and balloon high and dry on a bar. The Federals gathered it in, and with it the last silk dresses in the Confederacy.”
“While we were longing for the (reconnaissance) balloons that poverty denied us, a genius arose... and suggested we.... gather silk dresses and make a balloon. It was done, and we soon had a great patchwork ship.... One day it was on a steamer down on the James River, when the tide went out and left the vessel and balloon high and dry on a bar. The Federals gathered it in, and with it the last silk dresses in the Confederacy.”
For those interested in cultural
history, researcher/historian Sarah Mitchell provides an entertaining,
meticulously researched and informative look at southern ladies' Civil War and
antebellum fashions 1855–1865, in her book by the same name. Mitchell’s book
contains historically accurate descriptions of clothing, shoes, and undergarments
worn by Southern women from 1855 to 1865, and a look at the ways that Southern
women ingeniously kept themselves clothed and shod during the hard days of the
Civil War. Sources include newspapers, magazines, letters, and diaries from the
period. This work is complemented by her book on a slightly earlier period,
Ladies' Clothing in the 1830's.
The Civil War Wedding, an entertaining look at the customs
and superstitions of weddings during the Civil War era.
A brief look at love, sex, and marriage in the Civil War. The
book covers courtship, marriage, birth control and pregnancy, divorce, slavery
and the impact of the war on social customs.
