Mommio: Civil War Journals

Louise Wigfall Wright was the daughter of a Confederate Senator in South Carolina during the Civil War.  

She kept extensive diaries during the war and wrote many letters and poems that have survived time and help us to get a good picture of what it was like for the women and children left at home during the war.  This week you can earn 10 points each for your team by writing your own poem about the what it felt like to be one of your homefront characters during the war.  This will count as a journal entry for one of your characters.  Read the poem below by Ms. Wigfall first to get some ideas.  Feel free to research other Civil War poetry too.  Your poems can be any style you choose but must be at least ten lines long, relate to the given topic and be finished before Sunday to earn the points.

"THE CONFEDERATE FLAG"

By Louise Wigfall Wright

The hands of our women made it,
Baptized in our mothers tears
And drenched with the blood of our kindred
With hope for those four long years,
Across vale and plain we watched it
While the tide of battle rolled,
And with streaming eyes have we followed
The wave of each soft silken fold.

As high over our hosts it floated,
Through dust and din of the fight,
We could catch the glint of spearhead
And the flash of crimson light;
While the blood of men who bore it
Flowed fast on the reddened plain,
And our cry went up in anguish
To our God for our martyred slain.

And we went and watched and waited
By our lonely household fire,
For the mother gave her firstborn
And the daughter gave her sire,
But the wife sent forth her husband
The maiden her lover sweet,
And hearts kept time in the silence
To the rhythmic tread of their feet.

As they marched o'er vale and mountains,
While our banners rose and fell,
Though victory often crowned it
As the Northern hosts can tell.
But the whole world was against us;
Our battle we fought alone,
Till the conquerors - want and famine -
Bade us lay our colors down.

Cold are the loved hands that bore it.
Stilled are the brave hearts and true,
Watching nor waiting can bring them,
Weeping is all we can do.
Light from our banner has faded,
We, in its shadow forlorn,
Have only our mem'ries left us,
And our battle flag drooping and torn.

No hand of vandal shall touch it.
'Tis shrined in our heart of hearts
With dearest, holiest mem'ries;
And the burning tear drops starts,
While laurel we weave and cypress
For the fair, the brave, the good;
The only stain on our banner
Is the stain of our heroes' blood.