Page 49 - Arkansas Confederate Women
P. 49
44 Confederate Women of Arkansas
Aladies who had not previously ever made one. tailor or skilled
woman in cutting was employed to cut out garments, which were
frequently taken home to be returned in a few days. Many,
however, preferred to work at the society meetings and exchange
the news and gossip of the day.
The woods were scoured for roots and barks to dye the Con-
federate gray. They resurrected the spinning wheel, carded and
spun.
KNITTING SOCKS FOR PRICE'S BODYGUARD.
—Knitting socks this was the most fashionable work of the
times, the old teaching the young. Women walked the streets
of Camden knitting socks, and on a visit to a friend the click
of the knitting needles kept time with their tongues.
General Sterling Price's bodyguard, one frosty morning,
halted long enough at Mrs. Graham's to receive eighty pairs of
socks. Mrs. Caroline Burk knitted a sock one day that a poor
Confederate soldier might have two pairs as he was hurriedly
ordered away. Mrs. Tyra Hill knitted a pair of socks as she rode
in her carriage from Camden to Washington on a visit to her
son. These women had been delicately reared, but they remem-
bered that they were Southern women and that the South had
now need of their work. They frequently toiled all day and
far into the night, so that some passing soldier might be cared
for or the box for their distant loved ones made ready.
HOSPITAL WORK.
The sick and wounded soldiers were cared for in Camden.
There were regular days to send nourishing and dainty meals
to the sick and other days to visit them and cheer them up. For
those at a distance, bed comforts and food that would keep good
for a few days would be shipped as circumstances permitted,
and many a soldier exhibited in camp the handiwork of the
wife, mother or the girl he left behind him.
WHEN HOPE HAD FLED.
The women had nobly done their part at home as the men
had done theirs on the field of battle. But in 1865 all hope had
fled, and the tattered remnants came back. The returning soldier
