Scenes from the Confederate Homefront - Women & the American Story

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Scenes from the Confederate Homefront

An 1863 etched engraving depicting a white woman pleading on her knees before a group of armed men. Her children are trapped nearby, above a porch awning fire. A Union flag is erected in the background, where other men shoot near rising smoke clouds.

Valiant Men

Adalbert John Volck (artist), “Valiant Men – “Dat Fite Mit Siegel,” Confederate War Etchings, 1863. New-York Historical Society Library.

An 1863 etched engraving depicting a destroyed stone and wooden structure where a white woman and animals lay dead. A distraught male wails on the right side while a vulture sits perched above the wreckage and other birds fly overhead.

Tracks of the Armies

Adalbert John Volck (artist), “Tracks of the Armies,” Confederate War Etchings, 1863. New-York Historical Society Library.

An 1863 engraving illustrates a rustic slave cabin kitchen where a Black woman redirects a group of Union cavalry soldiers outside while an armed white male hides in the shadows behind the front door. A Black man and child sit near the fireplace hearth.

Slaves Concealing Their Master

Adalbert John Volck (artist), “Slaves Concealing Their Master from a Search Party,” Confederate War Etchings, 1863. New-York Historical Society Library.

An 1863 engraving illustrates the ransacking of a bedroom by Union soldiers while an older White woman comforts a young girl in her bosom using the window drapery. A scuffle between two soldiers and another White male is visible in the background.

Searching for Arms

Adalbert John Volck (artist), “Searching for Arms,” Confederate War Etchings, 1863. New-York Historical Society Library.

An 1863 etched engraving illustrating the interior of a blacksmith’s workshop where two large bells are on the floor near a pile of other metal objects including a candlestick, pot and andiron below a brickfire oven. A group of male and female visitors led by a pastor appear in the doorway, where a Black man toils under the supervision of a Confederate soldier. A church and town are visible in the background.

Offering of Bells

Adalbert John Volck (artist), “Offering of Bells to be Cast into Cannon,” Confederate War Etchings, 1863. New-York Historical Society Library.

An etching of a room where three white women create textiles. A woman on the left spins the raw material on a wheel loom, while another works the thread into cloth on a cantilever loom, and the third sews garments by hand.

Making Clothes for the Boys

Adalbert John Volck (artist), “Making Clothes for the Boys in the Army,” Confederate War Etchings, 1863. New-York Historical Society Library.

Etching of a rural setting where homes and wooden structures are ransacked and set aflame by uniformed men who attack the civilians they encounter. A man carries off a woman on horseback while other soldiers take aim at women attempting to flee in the background.

Jamison’s Jayhawkers

Adalbert John Volck (artist), “Jamison’s Jayhawkers,” Confederate War Etchings, 1863. New-York Historical Society Library.

Etching of armed White men who rally near a family whose stone home was destroyed near other, still smoking, structures. In the background, a soldier bears a flag with the slogan “No More Surrenders,” while two others are mounted on horses.

Formation of Guerilla Bands

Adalbert John Volck (artist), “Formation of Guerilla Bands,” Confederate War Etchings, 1863. New-York Historical Society Library.

Etching of a woman praying below a crucifix mounted on a tree trunk in a cave shelter that has become her makeshift home. Visible in the background are the trunk she leans upon, her child’s doll, a bucket, broom, books, some clothes, a coffee pot, and a few pieces of wooden and upholstered furniture.

Cave Life in Vicksburg

Adalbert John Volck (artist), “Cave Life in Vicksburg During the Siege,” Confederate War Etchings, 1863. New-York Historical Society Library.

Background

Confederate women experienced the ravages of the Civil War more intimately than Union women. Both nations lost husbands, sons, fathers, and brothers, but the smaller population of the Confederacy meant that these losses added up to a higher percentage of the total population. The loss of trade throughout the war meant that Confederate women lacked the food and goods they needed to survive. And by the war’s end, nearly every part of the Confederacy had been invaded or occupied by Union troops, bringing the violence and horrors of the battlefield directly into many women’s lives and homes.

About the Resources

These engravings were created by Dr. Adalbert John Volck during the first half of the Civil War. Volck was a German immigrant who worked in Baltimore as a dentist. He created the engravings as a response to the pro-Union work of another German immigrant artist named Thomas Nast. Volck wanted to make illustrations that were sympathetic to the Confederacy. In all, he published 30 engravings that he circulated to 200 subscribers.

These nine engravings from Volck’s collection highlight the struggles and efforts of Confederate women. Because Volck’s goal was emotional impact rather than accuracy, the scenes should not be taken as absolute fact. However, they do evoke the trials and tribulations experienced by Confederate women throughout the war.

Vocabulary

Confederate: Relating to the group of states that seceded from the United States before the Civil War in order to preserve slavery.
engraving: A picture made from an engraved plate of metal or wood.
Union: The name for the states that remained a part of the United States during the Civil War.

Discussion Questions

What do these scenes reveal about life on the Confederate home front?
Why do you think Volck dedicated so many of his 30 engravings to the experiences of Confederate women?
What is the value of examining works of art that don’t necessarily depict exact events?

Suggested Activities

Use these images to illustrate lessons about life in the Confederate home front.
To investigate how Confederate women worked to bypass the Union blockade, read Smuggling.
Teach these images together with excerpts of Carrie Berry’s war diary and ask students to compare Carrie’s lived experience with Volck’s dramatizations.
Ask students to research the pro-Union engravings of artist Thomas Nast and create a poster comparing how Nast and Volck elicited sympathy for their causes.
Volck’s entire portfolio of engravings is available on the New-York Historical Society website. Ask students to examine the complete works of Volck and then write a short essay about how his depictions of women fit within his larger body of work.
For an in-depth lesson on the experiences of women in the Confederacy, combine this resource with any of the following: Smuggling, Surviving the Siege of Atlanta, Changing the Rules of War, Civil War Political Cartoons, Cherokee Home Front, Swearing Loyalty, Life Story: Emily Jane Liles Harris, Life Story: Loreta Janeta Velázquez, and Life Story: Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas.
To compare the home front experiences of women in American wars, combine these resources with any of the following: Fear and Danger in New York, Army Wife, Madam Sacho and Sullivan’s Army, Reflections from the Home Front, Life Story: Nancy Morgan Hart, and Life Story: Catharine Littlefield Greene.
For a larger lesson about the ways women contributed to Union and Confederate war efforts during the American Civil War, teach these resources together with any of the following: Life Story: Sojourner Truth, Nursing, Sanitary Fairs, Women’s War Production, Women Soldiers, Smuggling, Changing the Rules of War, Life Story: Elizabeth Blackwell, Life Story: Emily Jane Liles Harris, Life Story: Loreta Janeta Velázquez, Life Story: Harriet Tubman, Life Story: Susie Baker King Taylor, and Swearing Loyalty.

Themes

AMERICAN CULTURE; DOMESTICITY AND FAMILY

New-York Historical Society Curriculum Library Connections

For more resources on women’s abolitionist activism, see Saving Washington: The New Republic and Early Reformers, 1790–1848.

Source Notes

Resource

Scenes from the Confederate Home Front