“WE ARE ALMOST STARVING TO DEATH” — TWO WARTIME PLEAS FROM GEORGIA WIDOWS

Two powerful letters from the home front in Confederate Georgia, giving voice to the women whose hardship and desperation lay just beyond the battlefield. Written directly to Governor Joseph E. Brown by widows seeking the return of sons or husbands on whom their livelihood depended, they reveal the acute domestic strain imposed by early wartime mobilization, especially among poor rural families with no economic safety net. Their language is especially affecting for its plainness and urgency. 

A group of two (2) letters written by widows to Georgia Governor Joseph E. Brown (1821-1894) seeking assistance. Items include: 

1. Autograph letter signed by Rebecca Dodd to Brown. Murray County, Georgia, 15 April 1861. 1 page, folio, approx.7 3/4 x 12 1/2 in. 

In full: "Sure here is a message to you from J.H. Dodd Wife he is in the army at Fort Jackson under the Command of Capt Jacob Ried of the Company of the First regiment of the Georgia army and I cannot get along without him at home and if you please write to Capt Ried to release him and let him come home if you please can help me get along without him for times is hard and a woman work is of no use in this Country I cannot get support without him." 

James H. Dodd was a private in Company F of the 1 Georgia Regulars, enlisted on 26 February. His wife's pleas appear to have fallen on deaf ears as he remained in service until at least June 1863, when he is listed as sick. 

2. Autograph letter signed by Mrs. Mahulda Jackson, to Brown. Bibb County, Georgia, 19 November 1861. 1 page, 4to, on blue paper. 

"I am a poor widow I had two sons which was all my dependence in this life I let my eldest go to the war he is at Brunswick and the other is a lad too small to do any good in service...Captain Stubbs the Capt. of the Bibb Greys they took him off without my consent and I should be more than obliged to your honor if you would send him back to Macon his name is James Jackson and I his mother Mrs. Mahulda Jackson and how we are to live without my boy to help me to work for times is hard provisions so by that even the soldiers wives and children is almost starving to death."

A summary of the letter is penned to the verso, suggesting it was passed to the Governor for consideration. 

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs]