Cranes Ford DAR Group Learns About 'Strong Southern Women'

Cranes Ford Daughters of the American Revolution officially marked national “Woman’s History Month” in March with a presentation by Rhonda Spivey Florian, “The Strong Southern Woman of the Civil War.”

The program focused on the challenges of women facing war in their own backyard. It also recognized the 150th anniversary of this country’s Civil War. The annual luncheon was held at the Roselle Golf Club and celebrated the local chapter’s 69th Anniversary.

The speaker, dressed in period costume, shed light on lives of southern women
during the War Between the States with vivid anecdotal biographies. Using power point presentation, Florian introduced the world of confederate nurses, spies, refugees and how southern women expressed their patriotism while coping with food shortages and living in constant physical danger.

The presentation featured the war-time experiences of 22 southern women and included photographs or portraits of thirteen of them. Sketches from “Harper’s Weekly” and other photographs revealed life as it was for southern women
during the war.

References included an Alabama housewife as she recalls the constant labor of
making clothing for soldiers; desperate pleas of a Virginia farm wife begging for food for her starving children; a grieving Confederate nurse at the death of very young soldier.

Some supportive activities and duties of the women were hand sewing uniforms
and flags for soldiers; holding bazaars, concerts and benefits to raise money for the war effort; weaving their own fabric for homespun clothing since there was no factory made material due to a blockade of southern ports by the north.

One thousand southern women served as nurses in field hospitals; many homes
were used as hospitals including four wounded generals on the porch of one Southern residence; the floor boards were soaked with blood and remain so today at the home of Carrie McGavock, Carnton Plantation, Franklin, Tennesse. Phoebe Yates Pember, nurse matron of Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond wrote her memoir “A Southern Woman’s Story” which is rated by some historians as “the most realistic treatment of the war ever published.”

The speaker related how critical food shortages and starvation were were rampant due in part to the U.S. blockade of Confederate ports. Clothing, medical supplies and cash crops were also affected. There were bread riots in Richmond, Atlanta and North Carolina. The federal army stole food supplies, destroyed crops and killed farm animals, causing desperate situations for the women.

The southern women were in constant danger of physical attack, enraging the
South and shocking Europe. By federal general’s orders they were forced to cook for Northern troops, and arrested and jailed for carrying their family goods and medical supplies beneath their hooped skirts.

The burning of thousands of homes by Union troops made many thousands of
southern woman and children homeless. General Sherman’s orders for removal of the citizens of Atlanta produced mass refugees in the forced evacuation. Every southern woman was considered a spy or smuggler with her necessities carried under hooped skirts. Many women served the Confederate cause including Rose O’ Neal Greenhow, who became head of a Confederate spy ring which sent intelligence resulting in the Confederate win at Manassas, Va.

Rhonda Spivey Florian grew up in the rural areas of Cove City and New Bern,
North Carolina. She received her B.A. in Bible and English from Baptist Bible College in Nashville, Tennessee and her M.F.A. in Acting from Rutgers University. In addition to her theatre training at Rutgers, Mrs. Florian spent three years studying the Rough and Ready Style of Shakespearean acting at American Globe Theatre in New York.

In North Carolina, Florian worked as a high school English teacher. A
former theater professional, Mrs. Florian was the co-founder and managing director of Carolinian Shakespeare Festival in New Bern, North Carolina. A New Jersey resident since 1982, Florian resides in Somerset.

Currently, Florian serves as president of the New Jersey Society of Southern
Dames of America. She is a member of Daughters of the American Revolution and National Society of the Sons and Daughters of the Pilgrims. She is the proud recipient of the Jefferson Davis Historical Gold Medal issued by the United Daughters of the Confederacy for outstanding contributions in furthering the study and preservation of Confederate history.

A neverending love for history was born on a sixth grade class trip to Tryon
Palace in New Bern, North Caroline. From that moment, Mrs. Florian has been fascinated with the lives of people from the past. She is the direct descendant of eight Confederate soldiers, including two who were present at the Battle of Gettysburg, one who was present at the fall of Richmond, and one who received his parole at Appomattox Courthouse.

Editor's note: This press release was submitted by the Cranes Ford DAR Chapter.