In this engrossing and informative companion to her New York Times
bestsellers Founding Mothers and Ladies of Liberty, Cokie Roberts
marks the sesquicentennial of the Civil War by offering a riveting look
at Washington, D.C. and the experiences, influence, and contributions of
its women during this momentous period of American history.
With the outbreak of the Civil War, the small, social Southern town of
Washington, D.C. found itself caught between warring sides in a
four-year battle that would determine the future of the United States.
After the declaration of secession, many fascinating Southern women left
the city, leaving their friends--such as Adele Cutts Douglas and
Elizabeth Blair Lee--to grapple with questions of safety and sanitation
as the capital was transformed into an immense Union army camp and later
a hospital. With their husbands, brothers, and fathers marching off to
war, either on the battlefield or in the halls of Congress, the women of
Washington joined the cause as well. And more women went to the Capital
City to enlist as nurses, supply organizers, relief workers, and
journalists. Many risked their lives making munitions in a highly
flammable arsenal, toiled at the Treasury Department printing greenbacks
to finance the war, and plied their needlework skills at The Navy
Yard--once the sole province of men--to sew canvas gunpowder bags for
the troops.
Cokie Roberts chronicles these women's increasing independence, their
political empowerment, their indispensable role in keeping the Union
unified through the war, and in helping heal it once the fighting was
done. She concludes that the war not only changed Washington, it also
forever changed the place of women.
Sifting through newspaper articles, government records, and private
letters and diaries--many never before published--Roberts brings the
war-torn capital into focus through the lives of its formidable women.
