Secession Support: Several documents in this sample reveal white Mississippians' early support for secession and desire to contribute to the Confederate cause, including Charles Fontaine's calls for secession from Pontotoc, MS just after Abraham Lincoln won the Election of 1860. See also Mrs. J. O. Smith's appeal from Vicksburg, where, in September 1861, she offered her services to the Confederate cause as a volunteer nurse in Virginia.

Wartime Pressures: Other documents in this sample reveal the pressures Mississippians faced as Union forces invaded the state, including food shortages that affected their families. A good example of this is L. J. Wilson's plea from Vicksburg, MS, in July 1862 (a year before the Federal siege of that city) for state-assistance to provide sufficient salt for food preservation, as well as wood and water to residents. See also militiaman W. V. W. McLendon's description of food shortages in March 1863 and his proposed solution that militiamen be sent home to plant and later harvest those crops. In Marion, MS, C. W. Henderson suggested securing corn from counties where it grew in abundance, and distributing it to soldiers' families in areas like his own Lauderdale County which was in "a Suffering condition."

Be sure to do a keyword search for "food" or "salt" to pick up letters in the other themes about shortages. There's a fascinating letter by William E. Scott (Copiah County) in February 1863 suggesting ways that the governor might alleviate devastating hunger among Confederate soldiers across the state.

Women Asserting Rights on the Home Front: Several of the wartime letters reveal the experiences of Mississippi white women of all classes asserting their needs to the governor. See, for example, the letter by widow Charlotte Smiley of Jefferson County, MS, whose husband died of consumption in Confederate service. Smiley found herself and her family "quite destitute" by August 1862, and hoped for an exemption from her taxes and financial assistance as a military widow. There is also a petition of Sarah D. Garrett of Canton, Madison County, MS protesting her September 1864 fine for allowing the enslaved men and women she owned to travel "at large" and "trade as freemen." Garrett made the case successfully that it was not her behavior that caused insecurity in the community, but rather the breakdown of the courts, property seizures by Union and Confederate forces, and the collapsing economy that forced her to take these actions while her sons were away serving in the Confederate army.

There is a powerful protest from October 1864 by Sarah Neece of Lawrence County, MS against men who seized her pony for Confederate military needs. Neece appears to have been in the right (based on notations on the document), but it's unknown at this time if the horse was ever returned or replaced for the illiterate mother who relied entirely on "a small dun pony" to provide for her four children.

The request of Caroline M. Burns of Starkville, MS speaks to women's continued roles as breadwinners after the war. She hoped for an exemption from Governor Sharkey's July tax on all businesses and wartime earnings which, Burns argued, she could not pay in addition to the costs of running an inn out of her home and providing for her children. Still, Burns insisted, the governor should note this was the first exemption request she had ever made, having previously fulfilled the "responsibilities and duties of a good citizen."

Mississippi Unionists on the Home Front: The Lost Cause largely erased the memory of white Mississippians who supported the Union during the war, but documents like these demonstrate that they, indeed, existed. As more documents are transcribed and annotated, the CWRGM research team will have a better sense of how prevalent Unionist support was among civilians, as well as why, where and when it tended to increase or decrease. Within this sample, you can find examples of home front Unionism in Mississippi in several July 1865 documents. In one, Union veteran William M. Pollan of Choctaw County, MS, spotlights Unionists' fight against secession even after the war ended. He detailed anti-Union statements heard in his community, and, fearing a resurgence of secessionist support, requested permission to organize the many Unionists he claimed exist in his county into a militia to thwart that threat. See also the letter from Unionist James Pierce of Columbus, MS. He refused to fight for the Confederacy throughout the war and served as a hospital steward instead. Pierce hoped to secure a position in local or state government through his demonstrated loyalty to the United States now that Mississippi had rejoined the Union.

(Written by Susannah J. Ural, Ph.D.)