Although the Civil War was always present in the correspondence of the prominent Pickens family of Greene County, Alabama, this fine collection of letters written by a mother, two sons, and a daughter is heavily personal. The matriarch of this plantation family, Mary Gaillard Pickens, opposed her sons Samuel and James going off to war and worried constantly once they did so. Her letters expressed support for the Confederate cause but focused more on home problems, her own iffy health, and her offspring.
During the secession crisis, Sam and James attended a prep school in Charlottesville, Virginia. The students there expressed interest in the newly elected president Abraham Lincoln, and some attended the inauguration. There was a military company formed at school, a secession flag was raised at the University of Virginia, and once the Old Dominion seceded, Sam reported that it was “utterly impossible to think of studying” (35-36). Their mother immediately advised against going off to war and urged her sons to stay in school, but by summer the boys were back home helping to manage the family plantations and increase grain production. In April 1862, Sam left home and eventually enlisted in Company D, Fifth Alabama Infantry. Mary fretted about the recently enacted conscription law, fearing that soon James would be taken from her. James promised to help care for his mother and four younger siblings before he joined the army. Expressing a conventional faith in divine providence, Sam, like many other Confederates early in the war, could not imagine being subjugated by the Yankees. Already the slaves at home proved troublesome, though Mary clung to the belief that she was a most humane slaveholder. War news—along with incessant and often improbable rumors—produced much anxiety, especially for Mary.
Sam initially served in Mobile, learned of friends who became casualties in the Battle of Seven Pines, and in the fall of 1862 was finally sent to Virginia. After enduring a couple twenty-mile marches in November, he described the effects on joints and muscles, though he later regretted that news about him “breaking down” had reached his mother. Witnessing the erosion of slavery in northern Virginia, Sam presented this as a cautionary tale for the folks at home and advised against hiring out slaves. Back in Alabama, the family contended with a salt shortage and a shoe shortage. The finances of this affluent family were often complicated, and Mary resolved to have no more “business transactions with relatives” (96). She sharply criticized a neighbor who planted another large cotton crop rather than badly needed grain even as government agents impressed six hundred bushels of corn and several slaves to work on the Mobile defenses. And to compound her frustration, she faced no end of trouble with a German man and his wife who were hired to teach the children.
By the spring of 1863, Sam nervously awaited the unfolding of what became the Chancellorsville Campaign. His regiment was in the thick of the fighting; he was slightly wounded and briefly taken prisoner. Although Sam usually spared his mother the gruesome details of military life, in this case, he wrote a fuller account—including descriptions of casualties. Anxiety at home was compounded by the prevalence of fevers during the summer and fall. And always, there was the worry that James would be called into service, even though he had hired a substitute. And indeed, at the end of the year, Congress had made men who had hired substitutes subject to the draft, and James was soon mustered into service. At least he would be serving with Sam, though his mother rightly worried about his delicate constitution. The railroad journey to Richmond was itself an ordeal. By the end of March, however, James had arrived at Orange Court House, Virginia, and was pleased to get a good look at Robert E. Lee.
On the eve of the Overland Campaign, James witnessed the execution of three deserters. He described the scene in fine detail that recaptured the deeply emotional reactions of so many soldiers, including high-ranking officers. James emerged from the Battle of the Wilderness with severe signs of physical and mental exhaustion compounded by homesickness and was immediately sent to a hospital. More sad news reached home, as sister Mary’s soldier fiancé, Major Tom Biscoe, had been killed in that engagement. After the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse, a bout of diarrhea sent Sam to the Howard Grove Hospital near Richmond, where he remarked on the incessant cries and moaning of the wounded. Sam participated in the 1864 Valley Campaign while James remained hospitalized. After suffering from fevers and various other ailments, James returned home in August, quite emaciated and having lost fifty pounds. As war began to wind down, Mary considered moving to Tuscaloosa for the sake of the children’s education. Sam served out his term of service and was again taken prisoner in April when the Petersburg line was broken and Richmond evacuated.
Editor Henry McKiven Jr. adds a brief epilogue recounting the family’s postwar lives. His valuable introductions to each section of the correspondence help provide context and fill in important details that greatly assist the reader and researcher. He further enhances the volume with a good subject index. The Consequences of Confederate Citizenship presents correspondence that sheds light on the intricate connections between battle front and home front as a mother, two brothers, and a sister attempt to navigate the personal, social, economic, and political turmoil of the Civil War.
George C. Rable is Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Alabama and the author of many prize-winning books on the Civil War and its era.
