Such Anxious Hours
Wisconsin Women's Voices from the Civil War
Edited by Jo Ann Daly Carr

Wisconsin Studies in Autobiography
William L. Andrews, Series Editor

“This book is a gift, bringing us into the lives of several Wisconsin women. Their words describe everyday pleasantries and rend the heart by detailing the immense sacrifices and struggles back home. A welcome addition to Civil War literature.”
—John Zimm, editor of This Wicked Rebellion: Wisconsin Civil War Soldiers Write Home

Letters from soldiers to their families often provide prominent narratives of the Civil War. But what about the messages from the women who maintained homes and farmsteads alone, all while providing significant emotional support to their loved ones at the front? The letters and diaries of these eight women echo the ever-growing horrors of the conflict and reveal the stories of the Wisconsin home front. Twenty-one-year-old Emily Quiner sought a way to join the war effort that would feed her heart and mind. Annie Cox wrote to her pro-slavery fiancé to staunchly defend her abolitionist principles. Sisters Susan Brown and Ann Waldo faced the unexpected devastation that each battle brought to families.

In Such Anxious Hours, Jo Ann Daly Carr places this material in historical context, detailing what was happening simultaneously in the nation, state, and local communities. Civil War history enthusiasts will appreciate these enlightening perspectives that demonstrate the variety of experiences in the Midwest during the bloody conflict.

Praise

“Highlights these women’s opinions about the war, their worries about their loved ones, and their contributions to the war effort. This book illuminates women’s varied roles during the Civil War era and points the way toward women’s expanded influence during the postwar period.”
—Suzanne Bunkers, editor of Diaries of Girls and Women: A Midwestern American Sampler

 

Of Related Interest
Dear Delia The Civil War Letters of Captain Henry F. Young, Seventh Wisconsin Infantry Henry F. Young, edited by Micheal J. Larson and John David Smith	All the Hometown Boys Wisconsin's 150th Machine Gun Battalion in World War I Brad Larson

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January 2020
LC: 2019011083 E
368 pp. 6 x 9
12 b/w illus.

	Casebound $34.95 T ISBN 9780299324209
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