Abstract

Judith Walker McGuire wholeheartedly supported the Confederacy during the Civil War. She made various patriotic contributions to the war effort. Reading Judith Walker McGuire’s Diary of a Southern Refugee During the War gives one the impression that McGuire aspired to play the role expected of the Confederacy’s women. To her dismay,economic necessity hindered that role.

What were the contributions McGuire made during the war? Did such activities comply with gender roles of Southern society? How did wartime economics prevent McGuire from becoming the ideal Confederate female patriot? All the answers are found in this paper.

This work is a study of women’s history. It is not meant to celebrate the Confederacy. I view Confederacy supporters, past and present, as traitors to the United States of America and to humanity.

See also Overshadowed: The Value of Judith McGuire’s Diary of a Southern Refugee During the War to learn the value historians place upon Judith McGuire’s Civil War diary.

Introduction

During the first year of the Civil War, Judith McGuire observed that economy rules the day for Virginians once accustomed to the finest luxuries. At this time, Confederate patriots promoted the restraint of personal indulgence so that soldiers could be supplied with scarce goods. McGuire praised women for their economizing efforts. I do not believe there is a woman among us who would not give up everything but the bare necessities of life for the good of our cause. Judith McGuire’s Diary of a Southern Refugee heralds the various contributions women made for the Confederacy’s war effort. Read Footnote 1

Most of the South’s middle to upper class women embraced slavery. Judith McGuire’s family possessed slaves. The Diary’s introduction contains McGuire’s belief that the fairest land, the purest social circle, the noblest race of men, and the happiest people, blessed the antebellum South all due to slavery. Read Footnote 2

Scholarship on this topic has concluded slaveholding women dreaded emancipation. Slavery provided wealth, social status, and freedom from menial household labor. Whereas the United States government was a perceived threat to slavery, the formation of the Confederate government was seen as slavery’s savior. As a result, these women supported the Confederacy and the atrocious enslavement of black people. In identifying with this cause, women contributed via gender roles typical of the times. Society regarded sewing, bringing food and cheer to soldiers, and, to a minor extent, visiting the wounded as acceptable wartime functions for women. Read Footnote 3

Judith McGuire wanted to provide any available spare time to these deeds. However, the wartime environment limited such participation. She lived through the entire war as a refugee. After attempting to conserve the family income by home manufacture, employment outside of the home had to be sought out of economic necessity. Time for the soldiers became substituted by time for earning money. Reading the Diary gives one the impression that Judith McGuire aspired to play the role expected of the Confederacy’s women. To her dismay, economic necessity hindered that role.

In the Diary’s introduction, Judith McGuire claimed she only intended her family to read her wartime journal, not the general public. Others encouraged her to have it published to show the wartime suffering of the South. The original diary McGuire kept during the Civil War is not known to be in existence. Read Footnote 4

Therefore, whatever content McGuire added or subtracted from her original record of events is unknown. The best means to verify McGuire’s published testimony is to rely on primary sources. Newspapers, government records, and the diaries and letters of other contemporaries of McGuire are tools used to confirm McGuire’s account.

Chapter 1: The McGuire and Brockenbrough Families

At the time the Civil War commenced, Judith and her husband, Rev. John Peyton McGuire, resided in Howard, Virginia, a hamlet that is now part of the City of Alexandria. Rev. McGuire’s success in building up the St. Anne’s and South Farnham Episcopal Parishes of Essex County, Virginia from 1826 to 1852 amazed others so much that they regarded him as the Apostle of the Rappahannock. Throughout the 1840’s and into the early 1850’s, Rev. McGuire participated in numerous state and national conventions of the Protestant Episcopal Church, as well as serving on the Board of Directors of the Episcopal High School located in Howard. In 1852, the Church appointed him as Rector of the Episcopal High School, providing him and his family a spacious residence on the School’s property. In this position, Rev. McGuire managed the school’s accounts, curriculum, teachers, and student body. He had quite the reputation as a strict disciplinarian. Rev. McGuire even issued two demerits to his nephew Robert Page for no particular disobedience on Page’s part. This measure was a scare tactic used by Rev. McGuire to prevent indifference to E.H.S. rules. Read Footnote 5

Photo: Hoxton House, Episcopal High School, Alexandria, Virginia. Taken by the author, 10 July 2002.

Three years after the death of his first wife Maria Mercer Garnett, John McGuire married Judith Walker Brockenbrough in 1846. Judith was born 19 March 1813 in Richmond County Virginia. Being one of five daughters of respected jurist William Brockenbrough, Judith McGuire was raised amidst the social and political elite of Richmond, Virginia. Specifics regarding her education are unknown, but in the 3 January 1864 Diary entry, McGuire mentioned attending school thirty-four years ago. Throughout her marriage with John McGuire, she acted as the mother for his children, and as an aide in his works with the Episcopal Church. James Mercer Garnett, a student at the Episcopal High School from 1853–1857, wrote of his fellow classmates adoring Judith McGuire. She was the guide, counselor and comforter of all the homesick lads, and when they were ill, it was she who nursed them with loving care These same motherly actions towards E.H.S. students would be provided to Confederate soldiers. Read Footnote 6

Chapter 2: Secession

Once secession from the Union occurred, the South found itself lacking goods essential for an effective wartime economy. Southern women were expected to take up production of military clothing as a means to combat the Northern economic blockade. Newspaper editorials urged women to sew clothes for the volunteers as an attempt to create a self-sufficient Confederate nation. The Alexandria Gazette & Virginia Advertiser often used flattery and praise to attain women’s participation in the war effort. On 23 May 1861, the paper urged Such ladies as can conveniently, (all are willing) gather to make clothes for the O’Connell Guards. The Gazette’s 22 April 1861 issue not only used flattery to encourage women to partake in war production, but connected the women of 1861 Virginia to the glorious year 1776. This movement on the part of the Alexandria ladies, speaks well for their patriotism, and shows that the spirit that animated the ‘Women of the Revolution’ still lives in the hearts of the lovely and accomplished daughters of Virginia. Coincidentally, this newspaper placed a large advertisement for the Wheeler & Wilson Manufacturing Company’s Sewing Machines close to these appeals. Read Footnote 7

Judith McGuire’s Diary does mirror the same patriotic spirit that the Gazette promoted, although it does not describe any of the specific activities mentioned above. McGuire’s first report of contributing to the war effort occurred on 10 May 1861, about two weeks before the eligible voters of Virginia ratified secession from the Union. The Diary’s 10 May entry proclaims that women of All ages, all conditions, meet now on one common platform, to work for our country. Although this quote gives one the impression that all women in the Alexandria area worked together for the Confederacy, McGuire appears to have kept with those of her class. She never recorded working with the common women of Alexandria. Only women of our neighborhood came to McGuire’s parlor to sew. McGuire discontinued hosting such events by mid-May of 1861. After mid-May, many of Judith McGuire’s neighbors were leaving Alexandria due to fears of a Union invasion. Read Footnote 8

Photo: Entrance to Hoxton House, Episcopal High School, Alexandria, Virginia. Taken by the author, 10 July 2002

Throughout the Diary, reference is made of John Peyton McGuire’s favorite saying: The Lord will provide. Rev. McGuire appears to have been a remarkably composed and positive person during a time of great alarm. He had faith that Alexandria would remain untouched by Federal troops. After Virginia’s Secession Ordinance was issued on 17 April 1861, most schools in Alexandria were soon dismissed. Benjamin Harrison McGuire, a student at the Episcopal High School, reported to his family that Rev. McGuire considered such actions to be ridiculous and, as of 23 April 1861, he had no desire to close the school. By 4 May, classes had been dismissed. Yet the McGuires remained at Alexandria, although they did send their three daughters to family in Clarke County, Virginia, about 70 miles west of Alexandria. Judith McGuire hoped that Federal troops would focus on attacking forts, instead of cities. However, as a precaution, the McGuires packed up and hid their possessions within their home on 15 May. Read Footnote 9

Judith McGuire continued to contribute to the Confederate cause. Her Diary describes McGuire’s ride into Alexandria on 9 May with her carriage full with milk, butter, and other goods. Because volunteers were risking their lives, women must not be idle. There is much for us to do, and we must do it. Such comments give us the impression that McGuire seemed determined to make sacrifices for the coming war. She expected other women to do the same. Read Footnote 10

Chapter 3: Refugees

Alexandria immediately came under Federal control on 24 May 1861, the day after Virginia voters ratified secession from the Union. As their first personal sacrifice of the war, the McGuires decided to leave the Alexandria area. Fearing that Rev. McGuire’s vote for disunion would result in harassment by Federal troops, the McGuires fled just before troops arrived. Judith McGuire initially thought they would be gone for a short period of time, so they left their slaves and most of their belongings. They never returned to their home in Howard. Read Footnote 11

As one of the Confederacy’s first refugees, the McGuires depended on family and friends for food and shelter throughout 1861. Judith McGuire, however, did not let her position as a refugee prevent her from contributing to the war. Throughout 1861, she proudly recorded occasional patriotic deeds. During her stay with family in Clarke County, Virginia, the chief employment of her time was spent knitting for the soldiers. Women would gather to sew while one read aloud the latest news. McGuire jokingly theorized about Federals destroying the sewing machine she left at Howard, which was used to mend clothing she sent to the Confederate armies. At this time in 1861, she felt that she would get that machine back, repair it, and then put it back to work as a silent agent to aid the Confederacy for the wrongs it has suffered under Union occupation. This patriotic dream never came to reality. Read Footnote 12

Some of McGuire’s 1861 Diary entries describe contributions other women made to the war effort. These entries not only include scenes McGuire witnessed, but also include second-hand information McGuire obtained from letters and newspapers. In her 6 June 1861 entry, McGuire claimed that hundreds of women in Richmond, Virginia gathered at various churches to sew for the soldiers, and were fitting out company after company. Women in Richmond did actively supply soldiers with goods. The 5 June 1861 Richmond Dispatch, for example, contains the following item:

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The Ladies of the Centenary Church will be at the school room of their church every day (till further notice, or for so long as their services may be needed,) from 9 o’clock in the morning until 3 o’clock in the evening, where they will be pleased to make up any article that may be wanted for the volunteers or soldiers. The above ladies in common with those composing the congregations of the other churches in this city, have done their whole in this contest. They have said they were willing to help and have demonstrated their faith by their works.

This tidbit gives readers the impression that Richmond’s Christian women worked tirelessly to outfit soldiers with clothing. It however does not state that these women supplied company after company with clothing. McGuire obviously embellished the secondhand information she received. Read Footnote 13

Another account made six days later tells us about McGuire’s sister, Sarah Jane Colston, and niece, Mary White Leigh, assisting the Confederate cause by sewing uniforms and bringing provisions to troops encamped near their Berkeley County, Virginia home. Because of these sins, Unionists forced them out of the county and destroyed their home. The Virginia Republican did report that houses and farms of secessionists were plundered by Federal troops on 3 July. According to this paper, William Leigh, husband of Mary White Leigh, had fifteen horses stolen from his property. The Republican did not mention Unionists forcing Confederate sympathizers out of Berkeley County. Colston and Leigh may have felt safer being within Confederate lines, so they left. Read Footnote 14

Although Judith McGuire believed that women should be staunch supporters of men going to war, her Diary does contain entries in which such acts drained her emotions. McGuire sometimes became dispirited when observing men going to or coming back from battles. General Joseph E. Johnston’s army passed through Clarke County on 18 July 1861, where they were greeted with supporters serving refreshments. Being in the area at that time, Judith McGuire initially planned on participating in this service. She changed her mind at the last minute, for I felt too sad to meet with those dear boys marching on to such danger. Read Footnote 15

As the summer and fall of 1861 progressed, the McGuires waited for Alexandria to be safe for their return. Judith McGuire appreciated the hospitality of family and friends, but thought I am not yet prepared to think ourselves refugees, for I do hope to get home before long. By 1862, it became apparent to McGuire that it may never occur. Her Diary’s 30 September 1862 entry informs the reader that her home became a Union army hospital. War appeared to be indefinite. Due to their pride, the McGuires did not wish to be charitable cases. They needed to find a place of their own. Read Footnote 16

Chapter 4: Room Hunting in Richmond

For the McGuires, self-sufficiency necessitated obtaining financial security. Richmond, Virginia provided opportunity for employment in the private and public sectors. The McGuires moved to Richmond in January 1862, staying with family until board could be found. Rev. McGuire wrote to C.S.A. Secretary of the Treasury Christopher G. Memminger for an appointment, explaining the arrival of the Union Army forced him to leave Alexandria and find a source of financial support for his family. He promoted his early life experience as Paymaster at Harpers Ferry and in his work for the Episcopal High School as qualifications for consideration. Judith McGuire did not report this information in the Diary. Read Footnote 17

Judith McGuire did report in the Diary that Rev. McGuire settled for a position as a clerk in the Confederate States Post Office in Richmond. Judith McGuire believed such a position was not good enough for her husband. It seems a strange state of things which induces a man who has ministered and served the altar for thirty-six years, to accept joyfully a situation purely secular. A field chaplaincy was unsuitable for the health of a sixty-one-year-old man. Rev. McGuire had no choice but to accept non-spiritual employment in order to support his family. Read Footnote 18

Many people, especially war refugees, came to Richmond to seek shelter and employment. As a result, the city’s housing stock could not keep up with demand throughout the war. The move to Richmond did not end the McGuire’s status as refugees. Even though the McGuires remained in Richmond for three years, they had to move at least once a year to rooms that provided comfort at a price the McGuires could afford. Each search, averaging a month, often overwhelmed Judith McGuire. In February of 1862, her time was spent looking for rooms while her husband was at work. On the fourth day of her search, she vented her frustrations of not finding an affordable residence to one landlady. McGuire complained about the asking price being twenty dollars more than the usual price, and three dollars less than our whole salary per month. Her argument did not persuade this person to lower the rent, so McGuire went elsewhere. She found a room for her husband and herself. Their daughters had to stay with relatives. Read Footnote 19

Photo:Robert Knox Sneden. Map of Richmond, Virginia. [to 1865, 1863]. Original map housed at Virginia Historical Society. This digital copy from the Library of Congress Map Collection.

By August of 1864, a cynical Judith McGuire called the routine, the usual refugee occupation of room-hunting. McGuire perceived rents as an extortion designed to take all that could be extorted from the necessity of others. Paying $100 to $110 per month for rent was not affordable to the McGuires, so they shared rooms with family and friends throughout the war. Discouraged at this time, she dreamed of the wealthy opening up their rooms to refugees. The rent would perhaps be no object to them, but their kindness might be twice blessed-the refugees would be made comfortable and happy, and the money might be applied to the wants of the soldiers and the city poor. To McGuire, this idea would assist all in need; the wealthy, refugees, the poor (she considered them a different class from refugees like her), and the soldiers. Read Footnote 20

This fantasy never became reality. McGuire once asked the owner of a large residence housing a small family to take Rev. McGuire and herself as boarders. Appalled by McGuire’s suggestion, this person gave McGuire a cold look, which meant me to feel that she was too rich for that. McGuire withdrew her request, but felt not a little scornful of such airs, particularly as I remember the time when she was not quite so grand. Obviously, McGuire viewed such people as being selfish since they did nothing to assist refugees. Read Footnote 21

The one residence that completely satisfied McGuire was a country cottage rented with other refugee friends in Ashland, Virginia, a village north of Richmond situated on the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad. The McGuires stayed there from the summer of 1862 to September 1863. The year at Ashland provided Judith McGuire with the stability and feeling of home that she once had in Alexandria. The lack of slaves did alter household responsibilities, a phenomenon that attacked the status quo of middle to upper class Southern women. The Ashland household had to adjust to this circumstance. McGuire recorded in the Diary her expectations regarding the division of labor. The men were to manage their families’ affairs. The younger married women of the house were to assume the housekeeping duties, with McGuire’s younger daughters, who possessed nimble fingers, to assist only in emergencies. We old ladies have promised to give our sage advice and experience, whenever it is desired, wrote McGuire. Due to the expected light load of her household duties, Judith McGuire planned, at this time, to devote more time to ailing soldiers. Read Footnote 22

Chapter 5: Hospital Work

Military hospitals gave women another opportunity to contribute for the Confederate cause. Women brought goods and meals to the hospitals, assisted in the care of the wounded, and provided companionship. Florence Nightingale’s work in the Crimean War created an initial acceptance and excitement regarding women in the Confederacy’s hospitals. A North Carolina woman suggested to readers of the Daily Richmond Dispatch that other women should study Nightingale’s Notes on Nursing. Let us now nurse the sick, dress wounds, attend hospitals, be learning all we can, she commanded to other female Confederate patriots. Newspapers made pleas asking women to flock to the hospitals. One paper declared that women could do a great deal of good by attending to the sick and wounded so Let them set about it speedily. In 1862, the Daily Richmond Dispatch credited the low death rate from the battles around Richmond to the constant and tender nursing of the ladies of Richmond. The paper didn’t give women complete credit, for it believed good weather may have been a factor as well. The paper may have forgotten about the heavy rains of that spring and the heat of that June, factors not conducive to the recovery of wounded soldiers. Read Footnote 23

Judith McGuire viewed the visitation of soldiers’ hospitals as an important wartime contribution. However, it took time to make the change from being an observer of such activities to active participation. In the 12 June 1861 Diary entry regarding hospitals in Winchester, Virginia, McGuire observed other ladies devoting their energies in preparing food for the wounded. Food preparation appears to have been the only contribution McGuire noticed women made during her visit to Winchester. In another entry pertaining to the Winchester hospitals, she applauded the self-sacrificing attention other women paid to the soldiers, remembering that her son, brother, or husband may be placed in the same situation among strangers, and to be determined to do unto others as she would have others to do unto her. These women greatly impressed McGuire. Because she had numerous relatives and friends in the military, McGuire may have taken these maternal sentiments to heart. Being without foodstuff and a kitchen with domestics to cook under her supervision, McGuire could not contribute in Winchester due to her refugee position. Read Footnote 24

On 18 July 1861, McGuire first bestowed her time to sickly soldiers at a temporary hospital located in a small meetinghouse near Millwood, Clarke County, Virginia. During this visit, she talked to one soldier suffering from typhoid fever. She broke the ice by asking about the soldier’s life at his home, believing that doing so showed interest, in which they at once feel themselves among friends. The Diary describes this soldier as an Alabama widower, who left his children and farm to the care of his elderly parents. McGuire and the soldier both shed tears when he displayed the locks of his children’s hair. McGuire did not visit hospitals often during the remainder of 1861 most likely due the fact that the hospital set up in Millwood was only a temporary shelter to house the wounded. Read Footnote 25

McGuire had limited skills in aiding sick and wounded soldiers. After locating rooms to rent in Richmond, Virginia, she decided to devote some time to the Robertson Hospital in Richmond during March and April of 1862, McGuire read the Bible at her post by the bedside of the soldiers. Although McGuire may have lifted the spirits of those she encountered at the Robertson and Millwood hospitals, she’s more of a companion than a nurse. McGuire’s philosophy on the matter of contributing to the war effort was that we all do what we can in our own little way; and surely if we have nothing but prayer to offer, great good must be effected. Being a refugee without property to donate, and lacking nursing knowledge, McGuire could only lift the spirits of hospitalized soldiers. Read Footnote 26

Chapter 6: Women Regarded as Hospital Pests

By 1862, the initial euphoria of women in hospitals waned. The Confederacy’s military did hire women as matrons to manage the cooking and sanitary conditions of hospital wards. However, there were concerns about women visitors being in the way. The Daily Dispatch of Richmond held the opinion that the idle and the curious should not be in hospitals to crowd around a dying person. The paper provided the following scene to back it's beliefs:


Lady (at the bedside of a sick soldier) - How d’ye do? Is there anything you want?
Soldier, (curly) - No, I believe not.
Lady - Is there anything I can do for you?
Soldier, (with anxiety) - No, I think not.
Lady - Oh, I do want to do something for you. Can’t I wash your hands and face?
Soldier- Well, if you want to right bad, I reckon you can; but if you do, you will be the fourteenth lady who has done so this morning!

Doctors and military officials considered women like Judith McGuire pests. In their view, these women did nothing but crowd bedsides talking and reading to soldiers, thwarting the professional staff from doing their job. Read Footnote 27

Judith McGuire did encounter resistance against her desire to assist the wounded. In January of 1862, Willie B. Phelps, a relative of McGuire, lost his arm due to a wound received during the Battle of Dranesville. McGuire wanted to assist him during his hospitalization in Centerville, Virginia. She claimed that a letter she received instructed her not to go because ladies would be in the way in so small a hospital. Read Footnote 28

Due to the poor health of her husband, the McGuires left Richmond during the summer of 1862 and traveled to Lynchburg and Charlottesville Virginia. That August, Judith McGuire went to a large Lynchburg hospital, which is unnamed in the Diary. McGuire knew two matrons at this hospital. Two associations controlled the visitation of women to Lynchburg’s hospitals. The Lynchburg Hospital Association had a hold on the majority of Lynchburg’s military hospitals. According to an Association advertisement, a group of women went to the Hospitals each day, but only when requested by hospital surgeons. The Senior Surgeon, Dr. William Owens, preferred to have women completely out of hospitals for, in his opinion, they interfered with doctors’ work Therefore, the Hospital Association was a control mechanism that limited women to participate in certain activities that didn’t require their actual presence in the hospital wards. Contributions of food and goods by women appear to be the only acceptable involvement of women in Dr. Owens’ hospitals. As a result of Dr. Owens’ attitude towards female participation in hospitals, Lucy Mina Otey opened the Ladies Relief Hospital in August 1861. This Hospital gave Lynchburg’s women an opportunity to contribute in a more personal fashion. Read Footnote 29

Whatever hospital McGuire visited in Lynchburg, it appears she was only a passive observer to the hospital scene. McGuire disclosed in the Diary that she could not participate in that city’s hospitals mainly because she was a stranger in Lynchburg, although she also uses another excuse of a patient at home needing attention (meaning Rev. McGuire). The only contribution she made to the soldiers during this visit was to knit for them all the time, and give them a kind word in passing. Lynchburg appears to have not taken kindly to refugees during the Civil War. McGuire socialized with the refugee society of her boardinghouse instead of Lynchburg society. McGuire’s account gives the impression that Lynchburg treated war refugees as a separate, lower class. Even though she had good intentions to assist the wounded, McGuire’s refugee status appears to have prevented her from visiting Lynchburg’s hospitals. Read Footnote 30

En route back to Richmond from Lynchburg, the McGuires stopped at Charlottesville. The Diary’s 3 October 1862 entry contains a second hand description of women’s contributions to the Charlottesville military hospitals. McGuire recorded that it seems to her that every lady in Charlottesville participates with the hospitals. The kitchens are presided over by ladies; each lady knows her own day to go to a particular kitchen to see that the food is properly prepared and served to the patients—I mean those who are confined to their beds or wards—the regular ‘matrons’ do every thing else. As described by McGuire, Charlottesville had a women’s organization that prepared food for ill soldiers. The Charlottesville General Hospital and the Midway Hospital employed women as matrons. Women could participate in some way in the hospitals. However, the Charlottesville way did not cater to McGuire’s desire to casually pay a visit to the wounded with words of cheer and readings from the Bible. Once again, she could only observe other women contribute towards the recuperation of the Confederate soldiers. Read Footnote 31

In July of 1863, Reverend McGuire received a post chaplaincy to the Richmond Officer’s Hospital. Judith McGuire possessed an interest in the patients of that hospital, which she obtained via conversations with her husband. Yet she never visited the soldiers at this Hospital. In her 18 September 1864 entry, Judith McGuire wrote that she often attends Sunday service given by her husband and other chaplains at the Officer's Hospital. The Rev. McGuire had his wife act as the chorister. After that day’s service, the Reverend went to the bedsides of the soldiers for conversation and prayers. Judith McGuire left once the services ended, going across the street, as I have done several times before, to the Shockoe Hill Cemetery, apparently to pass the time as she waited for Rev. McGuire. Although she never expressed such notions in the Diary, it appears that Judith McGuire never visited with that Hospital’s patients, possibly due to either hospital rules or by her husband's insistence. Judith McGuire appears to have considered the Officer’s Hospital as her husband’s turf, for the Diary often refers to the Officer’s hospital as Mr _____’s hospital. In one entry of the Diary describing the location of rooms the McGuires had obtained, Judith McGuire described the rooms as being near my hospital, meaning the Robertson Hospital, whereas Mr. M_____’s hospital was farther away. The Officer’s Hospital belonged to Rev. McGuire’s domain. Read Footnote 32

Chapter 7: The Robertson Hospital

The Robertson Hospital belonged to Judith McGuire’s domain. After settling in Ashland in the fall of 1862, McGuire volunteered her spare time to the Robertson Hospital. Sally Tompkins (1833–1916) operated the Robertson Hospital from 1861 to 13 June 1865.Tompkins made sure that the soldiers received proper medical treatment, sufficient food, and comfortable, sanitary quarters. During the war 1,333 patients passed through this hospital. The Robertson Hospital cared for the most seriously wounded, and earned the distinction of having the highest rate of soldiers returning to combat. Family money and government rations funded the Hospital’s operations. In 1861, during an attempt to streamline the military hospital system, the Confederate Medical Department wanted to close the Hospital. After being lobbied by Tompkins, Jefferson Davis made her a military captain in order for Tompkins to keep her hospital open. Tompkins received this title without pay. The authority Captain Tompkins had in managing the Robertson Hospital allowed women like Judith McGuire to volunteer their time to hospital duty without being deemed a thorn in the side by doctors and patients. Read Footnote 33

McGuire used words like nursing and attending to those [u]nder my care in her accounts regarding her volunteer work. Because of her use of terminology, readers of today may classify Judith McGuire as a nurse. Tompkins and the patients at Robertson regarded her as a volunteer. In a reminiscence of Robertson Hospital, Alexander Hunter described in his book Johnny Reb and Billy Yank the volunteers’ duties: [A]t ten the lady visitors came, bringing food, wine and flowers, and many remained all day, reading to or writing for the disabled, or assisting Miss Sallie about the house. McGuire indicated in later entries of the Diary her limitations in caring for the wounded. In an entry for 13 May 1864, McGuire recorded that she spent five hours at Robertson, soothing the sufferers in the only way I could, by fanning them, bathing their wounds, and giving them a word of comfort. Yet these tasks as a volunteer were still appreciated by Sally Tompkins for she listed McGuire as one of the Ladies of Robertson Hospital in the Hospital Register. Read Footnote 34

Judith McGuire felt her presence at the Robertson Hospital made a difference. She believed her kind words had a positive impact on the patients. One soldier, anxious to leave Richmond, asked McGuire for her opinion of his leg. He intended to marry his sweetheart as soon as possible, yet never informed his prospective wife of his injury. Because he was stuck in the Hospital, he feared, maybe she’ll think I don't want to come. McGuire provided some encouragement by telling him to show her your scars for she had a hunch his darling will love him all the more for his sacrifice. McGuire then provided the soldier with verse to boost his confidence. It is always the heart that is bravest in war, That is fondest and truest in love. The soldier was so impressed by this quote that he had McGuire repeat it again. He schemed, If she is affronted, I wants to give her the prettiest excuse I can. Read Footnote 35

Judith McGuire’s Diary pays tribute to soldiers who met their end at the Robertson Hospital. One of the first Robertson patients McGuire adored was Nathan Newton, a young soldier suffering from typhoid fever. McGuire reported, with great remorse, Newton’s age as fifteen. Newton was actually thirteen approaching fourteen, according to U.S. Census records. Military records also list him as a private in his father’s Company G Alabama 26th Regiment, an even more shocking fact not mentioned in the Diary. The motherly instinct in McGuire must have drawn her to Newton. In her 23 February 1862 entry, McGuire stated she went to the Robertson Hospital, particularly to nurse our little soldier boy (meaning Newton). Suffering from delirium, Newton thought McGuire and other women volunteers were his mother due to the maternal presence these women provided him. McGuire claimed to be at the bedside of Newton on 9 April 1862, closing his dark eyes after his life ended. At the end of this Diary entry, McGuire provides to the reader Caroline Augusta Ball’s Jacket of Gray, a poem about a young Confederate volunteer’s death. Read Footnote 36

The hospital setting sometimes put quite a damper on McGuire’s spirits. The suffering she witnessed often overwhelmed her. On 8 January 1865, Judith McGuire wrote of walking home with my heart full of the sorrows of hospital-life. That day, the sister of a dying soldier hung over him in agony, an emotional scene for McGuire to witness. Scenes from the hospital and news of the war gradually wore away at her patriotic spirit. I wish I could sleep until it is over — a selfish wish enough; but it is hard to witness so much sorrow which you cannot alleviate. Read Footnote 37

Chapter 8: Care of Family Members

Being in the presence of suffering strangers dispirited Judith McGuire. To be in the presence of a suffering family member was by far a more emotional challenge. The first situation in which McGuire acts more like a nurse than a hospital volunteer occurs, not in the Robertson hospital, but in the care of a nephew. Major Bowyer Brockenbrough was wounded at the December 1862 Fredericksburg battle and taken to Richmond. A very kind Richmond woman, Mrs. Payne, took the Major into her own house, for the wounded from Fredericksburg overwhelmed the city’s hospitals. McGuire stayed with Mrs. Payne and both cared for her nephew. To cut off his bloody clothes, and replace them by fresh ones, and to administer the immense doses of morphine, was all that Mrs. P. and myself could do. Fortunately, to all involved, Major Brockenbrough survived his injuries, due to McGuire’s insistence that porter ale be bought for his nourishment. Read Footnote 38

Witnessing a relative dying from war-inflicted wounds was downright distressing. In December of 1863, she rushed to Charlottesville to nurse her nephew Raleigh Thomas Colston. Colston’s left leg was amputated due to a gunshot wound received during the Battle at Mine Run, Virginia. Colston came down with pneumonia a few weeks after the amputation. McGuire and several relatives spent ten days watching and nursing, amid alternate hopes and fears, until Colston passed away on 23 December. His burial took place Christmas Day. The sorrow McGuire felt in the presence of those severely wounded, especially those she knew well, brought her spirits down. However, her desire to aid the Confederacy by visiting the wounded, gave her the motivation to visit the Robertson Hospital during the remainder of the war. Read Footnote 39

Chapter 9: Other Contributions to Confederate Soldiers

Photo: Center of Ashland, Virginia. Taken by the author 15 July 2002.

As mentioned earlier, a rail line linking Richmond to points North runs through Ashland. Once every so often, trains carrying troops passed by the Ashland depot during the time she resided there. On 15 December 1862, McGuire recorded that trains carrying invalid soldiers from the Fredericksburg campaign to Richmond stopped at Ashland. Every lady, every child, every servant in the village, has been engaged preparing and carrying food to the wounded as the cars stopped at the depot. People gave soldiers coffee, tea, soup, milk, and every thing we could obtain. The gratitude of the soldiers touched McGuire. Ah, poor fellows, what can the ladies of Virginia ever do to compensate them for all they have done and suffered for us? McGuire noted that the men of Ashland were enabled to do what we could not—walk through each car, giving comfort as they went. This restriction may have been due to the ghastly condition of the wounded. Someone informed McGuire that one of the men aboard the train had both his eyes shot out, a sight deemed unsuitable for women. This means of contributing to the war effort appears to have ceased after the fall of 1863. Judith McGuire did not have the time for such tasks during the remainder of the war. Read Footnote 40

Chapter 10: Domestic Economy

Economic necessity began to thwart patriotic contributions. From 9 October 1862 and continuing throughout the remainder of the Civil War, any participation in sewing for soldiers is not reported in the Diary. Instead, McGuire needed to attempt to meet the clothing needs of her own family. Because purchasing clothing from merchants would cipher out the already depleted family income, McGuire resorted to homespun, regretting she did not learn to spin and weave earlier in life. McGuire and her daughters not only knitted socks and stockings, but also repaired the family’s wardrobe to look like new. McGuire could not afford new materials, such as muslin dress ($6-$8 per yard) and calico ($1.75 per yard), so clothes were recycled. Each woman of the Ashland household had a basket filled with clothes to be repaired. Working with dyes was the most difficult to master, for they had not learned the art of setting the wood colours. Yet, in the Diary, McGuire boasted about the economy she and her daughters practiced, mentioning the complements she received on the genteel appearance of her clothes. Read Footnote 41

Like McGuire, many recycled old clothing. Others put up with the scarcity and wore rags. The wealthy could afford smuggled Northern imports provided by blockade-runners, those who made it through the Unions naval blockade of Southern ports. McGuire used such means to obtain items such as black gloves and a black calico dress, which improved my wardrobe. Smuggling Northern goods also occurred when women crossed Federal lines with goods placed in hidden pockets. Such acts were not only an economic necessity, but also considered patriotic. These acts, according to Judith McGuire, were small victories against the eagle eyes of Federal watchers. Read Footnote 42

McGuire could not make everything the family needed. She attempted to use home manufacturing to supplement her husband’s income. The women of the Ashland household produced soap. Income from this undertaking bought things which seem essential to our wardrobes. In the entry for 9 April 1863, McGuire listed purchases absolutely necessary for our comfort. She obtained cotton and toweling by paying prices she once remembered as thirty times lower. Nothing reconciled me to this extravagance but that I had sold my soap for $1 per pound! Read Footnote 43

McGuire praised other women for their clever labors, which produced various items, ranging from pickles and ketchup to straw plaited hats. McGuire noted, in particular, a Mrs. Primrose’s manufacture of gooseberry wine, which sparkles like champagne, and is the best domestic wine I ever drank. Judith McGuire took pride in the ingenuity she and other women practiced in their attempts to obtain income. However, later entries of the Diary do not report on soap production, probably because such activity did not provide enough income to match the high rates of wartime inflation. Read Footnote 44

Chapter 11: Employment

In order to augment her family’s income, McGuire had to seek employment outside of the home. Wartime inflation forced many middle and upper class women to enter the workforce. The Confederate States Government eagerly sought women to fill numerous occupations. Jobs, such as washing, cleaning, sewing, and packing cartridges of gunpowder were available to women. Middle and upper class educated women, like Judith McGuire, preferred office positions. The government offered to women positions that involved the clipping and signing of C.S.A. Treasury monetary notes. Christopher Memminger, Secretary of the Treasury, employed women under the belief that they would be found diligent and efficient, and that Congress would approve the relief which was thereby extended to a large portion of the most loyal suffering and deserving of our country-women. The government considered itself charitable in employing women who, due to the wartime economy, needed income. Read Footnote 45

McGuire had set her sights on note-signing positions the Confederate Treasury offered women. She, unfortunately, had competition. The 24 September 1863 entry of the Diary states the following: Mr. Memminger says that one vacancy will bring a hundred applicants. McGuire then applied for a position in the Virginia State Treasury Department. A letter from Judith McGuire seeking employment survives. McGuire gave the following explanation to J.M. Bennet for her reason for seeking outside employment:


I am a refugee from the neighborhood of Alexandria. My husband, the Rev. J. P. McGuire, has been obliged to take an office in the Post Office department with a salary of $1500, which as our property is in the hands of the enemy, is entirely inadequate to our support. I therefore seek an office at your hands.

McGuire not only used her story of wartime misfortune to obtain a position, but also relied on the influence of her brother, Judge John W. Brockenbrough, to assist her. Brockenbrough wrote to Bennet, describing his sister as a lady of pre-eminent qualifications, and reiterated his sister’s standing as a refugee. Judith McGuire never mentioned her qualifications for the position. That task was left to her brother. Brockenbrough informed Bennet of McGuire’s excellent hand, which writes a rapid pace, a desirable craft for the job. Despite these efforts, McGuire did not obtain a position in the Virginia Treasury. She must have been disappointed because this specific application is not mentioned in the Diary. Read Footnote 46

McGuire’s opinion about obtaining employment varied. Sometimes she felt the numerous widows and orphans in Richmond needed the job more than she did. She had her husband with her. Other women weren’t so fortunate. If I fail, I shall try to think that it is not right for me to have it. Yet the family’s finances altered this charitable thought. Although her husband became chaplain of the Officer’s Hospital in Richmond, the pay, according to McGuire, couldn’t support the family. She also had the pressure of her daughters who expected more from their parents than they could give. McGuire did not want to disappoint them. Oh, that we could be perfectly satisfied, knowing that we are in the Lord’s hands! The pressure of needing extra income made Judith McGuire jealous of the poor, feeling they are better off than usual, due to the government jobs available to them. Job seekers outnumbered available jobs. As a result, McGuire had begun in 1863 to panic about the family’s finances. Read Footnote 47

At the end of 1863, the conscription of all men under the age of fifty-five necessitated the opening of War Department office positions to women. The War Department wanted women in the office and men in the field. Lt. Gen. R.S. Ewell of the War Department noted that, in December 1864, he had frequent applications from ladies, who are well recommended and in great want, and are apparently well fitted for clerical duty. The first War Department office to employ women was the Niter and Mining Bureau in July 1863. The Subsistence Bureau, another War Department Office, began to employ female clerks in December 1863. In January of 1864, the Subsistence Department employed a total of 24 men. That number dropped to 13 men by March 1864, then to 7 men by the end of the year. That number remained constant for the remainder of the war. On the other hand, 27 women were employed in this department at the end of 1863. That number peaked at 38 in the summer of 1864. Read Footnote 48

Judith McGuire became one of the first female employees in the Subsistence Department. She obtained a clerkship, noting the position was obtained without the least effort on my part. Her cousin, Colonel F.G. Ruffin of the Commissary Department, used his influence to get her a job entering accounts. A requirement for us to say that we are really in want of the office insulted McGuire. She viewed the job as a work of supererogation, I should say, as no lady would bind herself to keep accounts for six hours per day without a dire necessity. McGuire accepted this job only as a temporary sacrifice to benefit her family. Read Footnote 49

Judith McGuire flirted with the idea of not accepting the job when she learned she would have to take an arithmetic test to prove her competency. Her pride almost cost her the job. She vented her frustrations in the Diary by writing of the absurdity of being examined in arithmetic by a commissary major young enough to be my son. Because the job paid a much-needed $125 per month she decided to submit to it and passed. The financial well-being of her family came before her own pride. Read Footnote 50

In the Diary’s only entry containing a full description of her job, McGuire stated she liked it well. The job was not very onerous, but rather confining for one who left school thirty-four years ago. She regarded her supervisor, Major Brewer, as a kind person considerate of others’ comfort. Her fellow employees were, like her, refugees of fallen fortunes and destroyed homes. Despite their circumstances, she found them to be amiable and hoped to get along very well. Why didn’t McGuire frequently write about her work? Read Footnote 51

It can be assumed that she disliked the thought of employment. The job did not appeal to her. The Diary entries about soap making and sewing show enthusiasm, both of which women and McGuire considered acceptable forms of wartime employment since they were done at home. Yet these domestic undertakings never prevented McGuire from visiting the wounded. McGuire’s job at the War Department did interfere with visiting the Robertson Hospital. With work consuming her time from nine to three in the afternoon, she could only visit the Robertson Hospital in the afternoons and two evenings a week. Housework also got in the way after the various families of the Ashland household went their separate ways in the Fall of 1863, forcing McGuire to provide more time towards domestic chores. Referring to the Robertson Hospital, Judith McGuire made the following complaint: that It is a cross for me not to be able to give it more time. Economic and domestic necessity had to come before patriotic charity. Read Footnote 52

Chapter 12: A Continuing Battle Against Inflation

Despite the income Judith McGuire earned, inflation continued to hurt the family’s standard of living. A pay raise to $255 a month in March of 1864 did not benefit the family since a pair of shoes, according to McGuire, cost $125 to $150. That’s quite an increase from the February 1861 costs of $0.50 to $1.50 a pair! In order to spend less on footwear, McGuire, in January of 1864, stitched gaiter boots in her spare time. She obtained a canvas from a sail, which, she fantasized, has been often spread to the breeze, under the ‘Stars and Bars’. McGuire brought the canvas to a shoemaker to cut. She then took the canvas home to stitch and bind. Once that was done, McGuire returned the stitched fabric to the shoemaker to sole, completing the end product. McGuire boasted that this ingenuity only cost her $50.00 a pair, as opposed to the $125.00 minimum cost of purchasing finished shoe products. McGuire and her daughters also produced gloves out of old flannels and linens. We make a very nice blacking, and a friend has just sent me a bottle of brilliant black ink, made of elderberries. This thriftiness greatly impressed McGuire. Read Footnote 53

Yet McGuire’s thriftiness went only so far. The McGuires needed more income. In September 1864, Judith McGuire’s 24 year-old daughter, Grace Fenton McGuire, became a clerk in the Surgeon General’s office. It was a job she obtained with very little trouble on her part, meaning the Brockenbrough family connections worked again. The McGuires didn’t want their daughter to work, fearful of the effect of sedentary employment on her health, yet economic pressures forced this decision upon them. So it seems that the Lord intends us to work for our daily bread and to be independent, but not to abound. Read Footnote 54

Flourish they did not. Even with their daughter employed, the extra income did not provide enough leverage against inflation. In the 26 December 1864 entry of the Diary, McGuire stated the family had milk only twice in the last eighteen months. Two meals a day has become the universal systems among refugees, and many citizens. Occasionally, McGuire received food and goods every once in a while from relatives and country friends. Irish and sweet potatoes, cabbages, hams, mats, and other goods were greatly appreciated by McGuire, since these items were too expensive to purchase at the market. This dependence on people in the country was not unique. J.B. Jones, a clerk in the War Department, also depended on the charity of friends possessing farms. Jones praised his good friend Dr. Powell, who almost every week, brings my family cucumbers, or corn, or butter, or something edible from his farm. He is one in ten thousand. Read Footnote 55

Chapter 13: The Confederacy Collapses

The Confederate States Government abandoned Richmond on 2 April 1865, causing destruction to the city and leaving the McGuires without jobs. Devastated and uncertain about the future, Judith McGuire turned to the Robertson Hospital as an emotional escape from the war-torn, Union-occupied city. There I am not much subjected to the harrowing sights and sounds by which we are surrounded, and believed the wounded needed her. Lt. Col. Charles Richardson, a son of an old acquaintance, was admitted to the Hospital on 2 April. I love to sit by his bedside and try to cheer him, wrote McGuire. Other women continued to visit and/or work at the Confederate hospitals. On 4 April 1865, Kate Mason Rowland, a matron at the Marine Hospital (also known as the Naval Hospital), sang patriotic songs to hospitalized soldiers. In her own diary, Rowland describes the scene as overflowing with merriment, in which an observer would hardly realize we were all prisoners of the Union. Read Footnote 56

The McGuires were completely broke at the end of the war. They lost their home, their jobs, their investment in Confederate bonds, and their slaves. Thank God, we have our faculties; the girls, and myself, at least have health. Judith McGuire wrote that her husband was stil showing hope with his favorite saying, The Lord will provide, but she did not indicate any agreement to that statement. The McGuires did not return to Alexandria. By 24 April 1865, they were settled at the Hanover County home of Judith McGuire’s brother, Dr. John Brockenbrough. McGuire intended to employ herself as teacher to my bright little niece as well as other area children. That is the last glimpse of a positive future McGuire provided in the Diary. The last entry dated 4 May 1865 states that General Johnston surrendered, then quotes Lord Byron with My native land, good-night! Read Footnote 57

Chapter 14: Adjusting to Life After the War

McGuire’s experience in teaching must have been a success. After the war, the Reverend McGuire and his wife opened in Tappahannock, Virginia the Female Boarding and Day School. The Brockenbrough family provided a Georgian home located on the Rappahannock River to house the school. Advertisements for the school listed Mr. And Mrs. McGuire as the proprietors. After her husband’s death in 1869, Judith McGuire continued operating the school until 1880. The McGuires offered English, French, Latin, History, Algebra, and Geography. Judith McGuire taught the latter. One student felt she knew a good deal about Geography but Mrs. McGuire seemed to think that I knew very little. The student felt that McGuire was a very poor teacher and deceitful. The student concluded her opinion of McGuire by stating, I think that book of hers has put her beside herself, she is as proud of it as she well can be, always talking about it. The book referred to is Diary of a Southern Refugee During the War. Although the first three editions of the Diary, printed in 1867, 1868, and 1889, listed A Lady of Virginia as the author, Judith McGuire obviously let her authorship be known. Read Footnote 58

Photo:Brockenbrough House at St. Margaret’s School, Tappahannock, Virginia. Taken by the author, 15 July 2002..

McGuire also penned General Robert E. Lee, The Christian Soldier, a biography published in 1873. In her description of secession, she deviated from the main topic (Robert E. Lee) and described the war’s effect on women. None but those who witnessed the efforts made by the Southern women in every State of the Confederacy, can realize all that was done and suffered by them in behalf of a cause which seemed to them so just and righteous. In this passage, McGuire listed all the sacrifices and contributions women gave to the war, all but the need to seek outside employment. She mentioned her Subsistence Department job in the Diary but only as an economic necessity that impeded her contributions to the soldiers. Read Footnote 59

Conclusion

Judith McGuire did manage to live up to the expected wartime roles of women for a few years, despite the limitations she encountered as a refugee. She sewed and, for the most part, supported the soldiers with enthusiasm. The visitation of the wounded was a long-term devotion she made throughout the war. Even home manufacture and clothing repairs for herself were acceptable roles, although McGuire’s pursuit of these tasks did end her sewing for soldiers. However, with the Confederate economy in shambles, McGuire had to join the workforce out of economic necessity. It not only was unacceptable to McGuire, but also limited the time she devoted to the Robertson Hospital. Judging from McGuire’s biography of Robert Lee, the sewing, the hospital visitations, and the sacrifice of luxuries by women were activities McGuire appears to have wanted all to remember. Women in the wartime workforce may have been something Judith McGuire wanted history to forget.

See also Overshadowed: The Value of Judith McGuire’s Diary of a Southern Refugee During the War to learn the value historians place upon Judith McGuire’s Civil War diary.

Photo: John Peyton McGuire’s grave, St. John’s Episcopal Church, Tappahannock, Virginia. Taken by the author, 15 July 2002. Grave inscription reads: John Peyton McGuire, September 4 1800, March 26, 1869 Rector South Farnham Parish, Saint Anne’s Parish Apostle of the Rappahannock.

Photo: Judith McGuire’s grave, St. John’s Episcopal Church, Tappahannock, Virginia. Taken by the author, 15 July 2002. Grave inscription reads: Judith Brockenbrough McGuire, March 19, 1813, March 21, 1897. Wife of John Peyton McGuire, Authoress of Diary of a Southern Refugee.

About This Site

Photo: Captain William Smith House, at Minuteman National Park, Lincoln, Massachusetts, taken by the author, August 2017.

I created this website in 2006 to share various papers I have authored. This site has not been peer-reviewed. All are for your review. Should you find that I have made any mistakes, please feel free to contact me via e-mail. I assure you that I have made every effort to properly cite my sources.

Most of the history content on this site first appeared from 2006 through 2015 on historynut.info (link goes to saved versions on The Internet Archive Wayback Machine). From 2016 to 2018, my works were hosted on timthehistorynut.com (another link to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine). In October 2018, I decided to rebrand, and created timsheehan.info.

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General Robert E. Lee, The Christian Soldier. [by Judith Walker McGuire]
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The War of the Rebellion in Cornell University’s Making of America
The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Union and Confederate Armies is a very useful Civil War research tool containing government and military reports from both sides. For the McGuire paper, I originally used the print volumes to locate sources relevant to the topic. The print copy's indexes are a pain in the neck to use. Save yourself some time, use the online version listed above, and take the time to thank Cornell University’s Making of America project for digitizing this and other important resources.