Life in Wartime Richmond

A look at lives and experiences of the people of the Confederate capital within the framework of the Civil War. Prof. DeCredico (U.S. Naval Academy), the author of several other works on the Confederate home front, draws on a wealth of primary material, including many letters and diaries.

DeCredico opens with a word portrait of Richmond on the eve of the war, then reviews the reasons it became the Confederate capital, and gives us a look at life in the city through the end of 1861. She follows this with chapters on each succeeding year of the war.

In this way we get to see trends in daily life. There was inflation and increasing shortages of food and other goods, which led to food riots. The city’s explosive growth. as government and industrial workers, refugees, soldiers, and wounded nearly tripled its population. DeCredico gives us looks at increasing crime, drunkenness, and prostitution, as well as efforts by the citizens and enslaved residents to keep up appearances or just survive. We get glimpses of the life of the enslaved, of women assuming roles challenging the status quo, Unionist sympathizers, the debate over arming slaves, and more. Her frequent use of quotes from eyewitnesses – some at times seemingly contradictory – helps the reader understand the complexities of daily life and how these affected morale as the city came find itself on the front lines by mid-1864.

While a table or two to illustrate trends in prices and perhaps useful statistics would have been a nice addition, Confederate Citadel, a volume in the UPK series “New Directions In Southern History”, is a very good treatment of how the war on the Confederate Home Front, and particularly how it affected the people of Richmond.

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Note: Confederate Citadel is also available in several e-editions.

StrategyPage reviews are published in cooperation with The New York Military Affairs Symposium