[Granville-Hough] 23 Sep 2009 - Civil War Home Activities

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

Date: Wed, 23 Sep 2009 07:28:09 -0700
From: Granville W Hough <gwhough at oakapple.net>
Subject: CivilWar- 23 Sep 2009


Civil War Home Activities. (GWH: Just about the saltiest stories I ever 
heard came from my grandmother Mary (Arender) Richardson as she repeated 
what she had been told about activities of Smith County women during the 
Civil War. That was her mother's generation. Not all followed the models 
described below from Smith County History, pages 80-81.)

While the men at war were suffering hardships, the women were having a 
struggle at home trying to provide for the family. A few men were 
detailed to render service at home, such as making shoes for the 
soldiers, or grinding meal. At this time grist mills were several miles 
apart and the people had to go for miles to mill. Where there were no 
boys in a family large enough to go to mill, the mother would put a 
small child on a horse with the corn, and she would walk and lead the 
animal. She had to work hard and late at night, as after the dayÆs work 
was complete, the night task was begun. Some children would have to 
break so much wood, some pick a certain amount of seed out of the 
cotton, or burrs from the wool, from which the clothing was to be made. 
Someàwould card cotton or wool so it would not require so much work for 
mothers when they got ready to make the rolls (of thread on the spinning 
wheel). The woolen cloth they made was called linsey (the garments, 
linsey-wooley or linsey-woolsey) and each lucky member of the family got 
a new suit each year. (Later this year, my friend Harold Hopkins has a 
discussion about "Fuller's Earth," and its role in making linsey-woolsey 
more wearable.)
Before the war closed, it became necessary for the ones at home to keep 
their food hidden for fear some deserter would steal it, or some of the 
Union forces would take it or destroy it. They would hide it in various 
places; some would raise the floor and dig holes in the ground in which 
they would place their food and put the floor back into place. Not only 
during the war did these hardships last, but for years afterwards. 
(People remembered and spoke darkly about a group called the ôLeaf River 
Gang,ö possibly a take-off from Newt KnightÆs deserters from the 
Confederate forces and the "Free State of Jones.") A number of men who 
returned were crippled and disabled, and those who could work had 
practically nothing with which to work, as their homes and farms had 
been pillaged. The few implements they had were crude, and they turned 
to using oxen, as the horses had been worn out in Army service. For 
years after the war, clothing was made at home. (Oxen were standard 
until 1900, and I even saw an ox team loading second-growth logs onto 
freight cars in Mize in the late 1930s. My father could handle oxen 
better than he could handle mules. Mules replaced oxen as work animals, 
and horses could not compete with automobiles. Then tractors replaced 
mules in the 1940s.)
Salt became a precious commodity, and available sources were used to 
cure meat for the Confederate soldiers. The soil in the old smoke houses 
was dug up and boiled to extract what salt had dripped off the curing 
meat over the years. That gave you some salty brine with a taste like 
hickory smoke, but it was better than no salt at all.
Lamps were unknown by the majority of people. They used tallow candles 
home-made in molds with wicks made from spun cotton. The wicks were 
placed in the mold, then hot tallow poured into the mold, the the mold 
was set aside to cool and harden. These candles were placed in home-made 
holders with a saucer to catch the melting tallow, which would be 
reused. (Lighter wood knots were also used as torches, but they were 
dangerous.)
It was a problem to keep fire, as there were no matches, and flint was 
hard to come by. The flint rocks were used to strike metal surfaces 
quite fast so that sparks would go into cotton or other flamable 
material. Once the fire was started, every effort was made to preserve 
the flame, or at least hot coals, so a fire could be started again. If 
for some reason, the fire went out, someone had to run a mile or so to a 
neighborÆs house to get some fire, then get it back home in an old 
coffee pot or some other container to keep the wind from blowing it out. 
(It was said in admiration of my uncle Elijah Hough that he ôalways had 
fire,ö meaning in the later days a box of safety matches.) There was a 
shortage of needles, and every family had special places to keep their 
needles. Pins almost disappeared, and honey locust thorns became 
substitutes for pinning clothes together.
Brides usually made their own trousseaus, and made their own dyes for 
clothing and hosiery. One man in Smith County had an extra nice suit 
which everyone borrowed for weddings. He made lots of friends. Dyes were 
made from different kinds of bark, such as sweet gum, maple, wild peach, 
and walnut. The Laurel bush was used as well as indigo. They got 
copperas out of rocks in Leaf river to set the dye. (Grandma Richardson 
once demonstrated how to use green walnuts to make a beautiful brown 
dye, and she dyed some old clothes just to demonstrate. She also had 
several walnut trees just for that purpose.)
In making woolen cloth, the wool from black and brown sheep was highly 
prized, as it did not have to be dyed and would not fade. (Grandma 
Richardson seemed to have been proud of her ability to spin and weave 
the clothes for her family, and she was still doing it in the 1900 era. 
When she was demonstrating at her spinning wheel in the 1930s after she 
was past sixty years old, it was remarkable to see her finger dexterity. 
Clearly, she had had much practice. My mother, however, was a 
disappointment to her as far as wool was concerned. She was absolutely 
allergic to it, though she could work with cotton without any problems.) 

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Inerrancy and its conclusions. A pastor was visiting one of his Sunday 
School classes and asked Johnny if he thought Noah did a lot of fishing 
when he was on the Ark. To which Johnny reflected a bit and said "No, 
how could he; he only had two worms." So I ask you, where does literal 
inerrancy lead you?

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Granville, I love sage! It is reputedly quite medicinal and good for 
fighting infections. A healthy "sick person's soup" from one of my 
favorite cookbooks combines sage, garlic, thyme sprigs with water or 
chicken stock. Cook for 20 minutes, remove herbs, and drink as is or add 
potatoes, cabbage...whatever you happen to have. April. (April Sayre of 
Indiana, first cousin once removed, responded to my recollections of 
sage. It was also April, not her sister Cathy Ballard of Virginia, who 
responded to my discussion about pokeweed.