Children and Youth during the Civil War Era

Documents: Through the Eyes of Civil War Children

| 225 Documents Through the Eyes of Civil War Children Just as the Civil War inspired untold thousands of American adults to record their thoughts and experiences, their fears and inspirations, it encouraged children and youth to write down their perceptions of the war and its aftermath. Although many of the preceding essays did draw on sources produced by children—or by adults recalling their childhoods—the documents in this part all provide specific points of view of young participants in the Civil War. They range from a southern girl besieged by Yankee troops to a young northern woman besieged by wartime responsibilities and hardships, from northern schoolboys experimenting with political rhetoric and patriotism to southern boys trying out the principle of states’ rights as it applied to their own concerns, and from a brief oral history of a slave’s wartime life and a poignant description of the moment of freedom on a small plantation to a memoir of the equally complex emotions sparked by the return of a soldier-father. Several are reminiscences written years after the war, but one is a famous—and rare—child’s diary, and two others are articles from an even rarer high school newspaper. Together they show that children and youth of the Civil War era were not simply victims or passive bystanders, but active participants with their own particular experiences and insights. This page intentionally left blank | 227 Carrie Berry was not so much politicized by the war as she was worn down by it. During the fighting around Atlanta in August 1864 and for nearly a year afterward, the ten-year-old kept a terse diary that is one of the only first-person accounts of the war by a young child as she actually lived it. Virtually every moment of Carrie’s life was dominated by the war, even after the battle was over and most of her friends and neighbors had evacuated the city. The Berry family moved to supposedly safer quarters on more than one occasion, and they often spent hours or entire nights in a bomb shelter. Carrie frequently wished that she could return to school and to church, and quietly reported on her tenth birthday that “I did not have a cake times were too hard.” A good day was a day with little or no shelling or a treat like the bunch of “nice grapes” her aunt somehow scrounged. When the siege ended with the evacuation of the city by the Confederates, she was happy to have a chance to play with a friend for the first time in six weeks. The excerpts offer a cross section of the experiences of southern children who came in harm’s way during the war. It is worth noting that Carrie survived the war and married a young veteran named William Macon Crumley. Together they raised four children; she died in Atlanta in 1921.1 Aug. 1. Monday. It was raining this morning and we thought we would not have any shelling today so I nurst Sister while Mama would do a little work, but before night we had to run to the cellar. Aug. 2. Tuesday. We have not been shelled much today, but the muskets have been going all day. I have done but little today but nurse Sister. She has not been well today. Aug. 3. Wednesday. This was my birthday. I was ten years old, But I did not have a cake times were too hard so I celebrated with ironing. I hope by my next birthday we will have peace in our land so that I can have a nice dinner. “I Hope by My Next Birthday We Will Have Peace in Our Land”: Carrie Berry Endures the Fall of Atlanta Carrie Berry Diary Typescript, Atlanta History Center, Atlanta, Georgia 228 | Documents Aug. 4. Thurs. The shells have ben flying all day and we have stayed in the cellar. Mama put me on some stockings this morning and I will try to finish them before school commences. Aug. 5. Friday. I knit all the morning. In the evening we had to run to Auntie’s and get in the cellar. We did not feel safe in our cellar, they fell so thick and fast. • • • Aug. 7. Sun. We have had a quiet day it all most seems like Sunday of old. Papa and I went to Trinity Church. Mr. Haygood preached...