Confederate Homefront: South Carolina, 1861-1865

by John Hammond Moore

This penetrating portrait of behind-the-lines activity in a vital Confederate state is based largely upon thoughts and random comments of thirty-seven South Carolinians during war-time. As such, this... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1887714308
• ISBN13: 9781887714303
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Summerhouse Press
• Length: 303 Pages
• Weight: 0.09 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A readable, interesting history of the civil war homefront

A friend of mine gave me this book as a gift. Looking at it, I thought, the civil war? It's not a subject I have any great interest in. However, I found Southern Homefront to be extremely interesting, especially the role of women on the homefront: how they made do with few supplies, what kind of war work they did, and how many took charge when their husbands were away. Highly amusing were the "scadalous" things that went on among Charleston's young people--some were actually waltzing, allowing their bodies to touch, instead of square dancing! Also in Charleston, some ladies were apparently shocked that free black women would dare to take their carriages out during the day. I find such stories funny now, but imagine what it must have been like then.Especially interesting is the first chapter of the book, which is mostly diary entries and letters of people on the homefront. It is difficult to imagine today what those people must have gone through. What was incredibly fascinating to me, and carries on as a theme throughout the book, was the suggestion that the apathy of the southerners was, in part, why the war was lost. It seems from the information presented that southerners started off the war gung-ho, but quickly lost their enthusiasm and their will to fight. Desertion, the exemption that if you owned 20 slaves you didn't have to fight, and the habit of buying substitutes were rampant problems.From what I've written, Southern Homefront sounds like a history lesson, but it was really very readable and quite interesting. I encourage anyone, especially people like me who don't really care much about the war, to read this book. Fascinating.