31 Empty Spools

Empty Spools

By Becky Brown

Empty Spools can remind us of the early months of the war when women set aside their sewing to cut up textiles for lint and bandages. After reports of the first bloody battle at Manassas/Bull Run, women North and South had a heartfelt need to contribute.

Sallie Brock Putnam, thirty years old, was living at her parents' home in Richmond. With two brothers who were doctors in the Confederate Army advising her, she organized friends to provide medical supplies for the Confederacy. Supplies included bandages, clothing, bedding and lint.

"Our women for a time suspended the busy operations of the needle, and set aside the more expeditious and labor-saving sewing machine, to apply themselves more industriously to the preparation of lint, the rolling of bandages, and the many other nameless necessaries which the signs of the times made apparent would soon be in requisition of the unfortunates which the chances of battle would send among us mutilated and helpless. No longer the sempstress, every woman of Richmond began to prepare herself for the more difficult and responsible duties of the nurse."

A hospital near Manassus, Virginia in 1862

Library of Congress

In 1861 Peterson's Magazine advised women to deconstruct linen textiles to make lint.

"Lint should be made of unraveled linen, new or old (the latter preferred), by cutting it in pieces of four or five inches square, which would be highly acceptable, while lint made from canton [cotton] flannel is irritating to the wound.”

Women on both sides abandoned their sewing baskets to participate in a "lint and bandage" mania, as Northerner Mary Livermore described it after the War.

"For a time it was the all-absorbing topic... 'What is the best material for lint?' 'How is it best scraped and prepared?' ... Every household gave its leisure time to scraping lint and rolling bandages, till the mighty accumulations compelled the ordering of a halt."

Doctors believed packing a wound with lint scraped (actually more raveled than scraped) from cotton or linen was an effective treatment method, although our contemporary ideas about infection consider the idea of packing thread into a wound unwise.

The pattern is BlockBase #2350, a variation of a block called Spools by the Ladies Art Company about 1900. Today people tend to call this design Empty Spools, an appropriate pattern to recall the ladies of Richmond who turned from their needles to nursing.

Cutting an 8" Finished Block

A - Cut 1 dark square 9-1/4" for the spool. Cut into 4 triangles with 2 diagonal cuts. You need 2 dark triangles.

B -Cut 2 light strips 9-1/4" x 2-1/2". Cut 45 degree angles off the edges as shown or use the template in the PDF. Click here:
http://www.barbarabrackman.com/31EmptySpools.pdf
NEW LINK (as of 9/1/2011)
https://acrobat.com/#d=kGTumHNuNPkQSPlKFeBrQA 

C- Cut 1 dark square 5-1/4" for the spool. Cut into 4 triangles with 2 diagonal cuts. You need 2 dark triangles.

Becky, the pattern tester writes:

"I sewed C to B, and THEN cut the 45 degree angles off B.  (C must be centered on B.)"

Here's how I'd have done it.

Read more about scraping lint during the war by Virginia Mescher in this PDF file Lint & Charpie: It's Not Your Dryer Lint.

http://www.raggedsoldier.com/lint.pdf

And read more about Sallie Brock here:

http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Brock_Sarah_Ann_1831-1911 

  

Richmond During the War: Four Years of Personal Observation by Sallie Brock Putnam, Virginia Scharff, editor. (Reprinted in 1996 by the University of Nebraska Press). The book was first published in 1867 so you can read it at Google Books:
http://books.google.com/books?id=S3wVAQAAMAAJ&pg=PR5&dq=richmond+during+the+war&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=3#v=onepage&q&f=false

Winslow Homer

Harper's Weekly

June, 1861

After the lint craze subsided, women went back to sewing clothing and bedding. Note the cockade on the woman in the left forefront who is making a jacket and wearing a hat.

29 Railroad Crossing

Railroad Crossing by Becky Brown

During the spring and early summer of 1861, Confederate recruits gathered in Prince William County, Virginia, at the crossing of two railroads, the Manassas Gap and the Orange & Alexandria. By July 20,000 Southerners were waiting for the first great battle of the Civil War as 35,000 troops in the Union Army left Washington City to march to Richmond, now the Confederate capitol.

"On the Way to Manassas"

from Battles and Leaders of the Civil War

Union General Irvin McDowell's first goal was to capture the railroad crossing that led to Richmond. Excited Washingtonians followed the federal army, carrying picnic baskets for a summer outing while they watched Union troops vanquish the Rebels and put short end to the war.

Newspaper correspondent "G.P.R." wrote an article for the Boston Transcript describing the "advance of General McDowell's vast column of troops towards  the 'land o' Dixie' ", on July 16th.

"The sun shone brilliantly, and the fresh morning air was highly invigorating. The troops on foot started off as joyfully as if they were bound upon a New England picnic, or a clambake; and not the slightest exhibition of fear or uneasiness, even, as to what might possibly be in store for the brave fellows, (thus really setting out upon an expedition from which, in all human probability, hundreds of them will never return!) seemed for an instant to occupy any part of their thoughts for their anticipations.

In the morning:

Our troops entered Fairfax—ten thousand of them—at early noon, the bands ringing out with cheerful tones the "Star-Spangled Banner," and the boys cheering lustily for the Union and the Stars and Stripes. Six or seven thousand infantry blocked up the main street, for a time; the Court House building was taken ... a secession flag was hauled down and the banner of the regiment run up in its place, and then the foot soldiers opened right and left, or gave way, for the entrance of the cavalry and artillery. These dashed through the town at a gallop, and down the road out into the country beyond..."

On July 18th they met General Pierre Beauregard's army at a creek named Bull Run about 25 miles from Washington. Over the next few days rebel troops, backed up by 10,000 reinforcements, held their ground . The novice Federal soldiers fled in chaos, running panicked spectators off the roads back to the Union capitol.

Manassas Junction was the site of a second battle in 1862.

This photo shows tracks destroyed by the retreating Confederate Army.

Photo by Barnard & Gibson. Library of Congress

Over 400 Union troops were killed and nearly that many Confederates. With this Confederate victory North and South were jolted into a realization that this was not to be a thirty-day war. On July 22nd President Lincoln asked for 500,000 men to sign up for a three-year enlistment.


Railroad Crossing can remember the War's first battle, called by the Confederacy "The Battle of Manassas" (First Manassas) and by the Union "The Battle of Bull Run." The patchwork pattern Railroad Crossing (BlockBase #2779) was given that name in 1935 in the Kansas City Star's quilt column.

Cutting an 8" Finished Block

A Cut 2 dark squares 2-7/8". Cut each in half diagonally.

 You need 4 dark triangles.

B Cut 1 dark square 5-1/4". Cut into 4 triangles with 2 cuts. You need 4 dark triangles.

C Cut 8 light and 4 medium rectangles 1-1/2" x 3-3/8".

D Cut 1 medium square 3-1/2".

Read the newspaper account above and many more reprinted in the 1867 history The Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events (Editor: Frank Moore, New York: G. P. Putnam, 1867). The quote here is from page 313 of the Google Books version. Click here:

http://books.google.com/books?id=RTAOAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

 

 

21 Underground Railroad

Railroad by Becky Brown

Railroad can symbolize the end of the Underground Railroad, a change in the strategy of escape from slavery.

At the end of May, 1861, Union General Benjamin Butler refused to return three escaped slaves to a Confederate officer, disobeying the Federal law known as the Fugitive Slave Act, which dictated that runaways must be returned to their owners. Because Virginia was at war with the United States, Butler confiscated the slaves, declaring them contraband of war.

This Union cartoon lampooning one of the FFV's

 (First Families of Virginia) was printed on an envelope.

Printers created a variety of humorous and patriotic stationery for both sides.

The news of Butler's decision spread throughout Virginia. Within two months he reported he was sheltering and feeding hundreds of refugees called "contrabands," who sought asylum with Butler's army at Fortress Monroe.

Contrabands, Newport News, 1861, drawing by Alfred R. Waud.

Butler, an attorney from Massachusetts, had long been an anti-slavery advocate. In his report on the contraband situation in July he wrote: 

"I have, therefore, now within the peninsula, this side of Hampton Creek, nine hundred negroes, three hundred of whom are able-bodied men, thirty of whom are men substantially past hard labor, one hundred and seventy-five women, two hundred and twenty-five children under the age of ten years, and one hundred and seventy between ten and eighteen years, and many more coming in....

My duty as a humane man is very plain. I should take the same care of these men, women, and children, houseless, homeless, and unprovided for, as I would of the same number of men, women, and children, who, for their attachment to the Union, had been driven or allowed to flee from the Confederate States...."

Timothy O'Sullivan photographed refugees fording

the Rappahannock River in 1862. People continued to seek shelter with

 the Union Armies throughout the war. Many camps held thousands.

Butler's decision changed the refugees's status as well as their strategies. No longer forced to make their way alone to a Northern state, slaves poured into Union Army camps in the South. The days of the Underground Railroad were over as contrabands replaced runaways.

The Railroad block is BlockBase #1312

Cutting an 8" Finished Block

A Cut 1 medium and 1 dark  square 4-7/8". Cut each in half diagonally. You need 2 medium and 2 dark triangles.

B Cut 4 light and 4 dark squares 2-1/2".

The block, which creates a strong diagonal line across the quilt, has many published names including Railroad, Railroad Crossing and Jacob's Ladder.

Ruth Finley gave the pattern the name Railroad Crossing in 1929 in her book Old Patchwork Quilts. Here's a tattered version from about 1900. Finley also pictured a nine-patch variation she called Underground Railroad in that book.

Underground Railroad  Nine Patch block by Gloria Clark.

BlockBase #1695.

See more photographs documenting the faces of people held in slavery by clicking on this PDF from the National Humanities Center Resource Toolbox

http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai/enslavement/text1/photosenslaved.pdf

Two humorous envelopes on the subject of Butler's decision.

In the lower cartoon the refugee running towards Fortress Monroe shouts at his former master, "Can't Come Back No How, Massa. Dis chile's CONTRABAN."

The "humor" in the dialect may not translate today but the cartoons as stationery show the effect of Butler's ruling in the popular culture.

See more of these Civil War envelopes or covers in the collection of the Library Company of Philadelphia by clicking here:

http://lcpdams.librarycompany.org:8881/R?func=collections-result&collection_id=1148 

6 Richmond

Richmond by Becky Brown

Richmond is a block published about 1915 by the magazine Hearth and Home,

 which asked readers to send in patchwork patterns for the state capitols.

The Confederate White House in Richmond.

The Davises moved into this house in August, 1861.

Varina gave birth to two children here and lost one.

Richmond, Virginia, became the capitol of the Confederacy in the spring of 1861. Jefferson Davis, former U.S. Senator from Mississippi, was inaugurated as President of the Confederate States 150 years ago this week.

A star on the floor of the statehouse in

 Montgomery, Alabama

 marks the spot where Davis was inaugurated.

A remarkable view of history. Confederate Inauguration Day

February 9, 1861

The Davis's photo at their marriage in 1845. Varina was 19.

Varina Howell Davis, his 34-year-old wife, became First Lady of the Confederacy. Varina had spent the early years of her marriage in Washington as the wife of an important Senator. When they left Washington, their family included three young children--- Margaret, Jefferson and Joseph.

Varina Davis's wit and style is reflected in the diary of her close friend Mary Chesnut.

May 19, 1861-  [at the first capitol in Montgomery, Alabama]. Drove out with Mrs. Davis. She finds playing Mrs. President of this small confederacy slow work, after leaving friends...in Washington. I do not blame her. The wrench has been awful with us all, but we don't mean to be turned into pillars of salt [in looking back.]

May 20th, 1861.—Lunched, at Mrs. Davis's. Everything nice to eat, and I was ravenous... Mrs. Davis was as nice as the luncheon. When she is in the mood, I do not know so pleasant a person. She is awfully clever, always."

The surviving Davis children after the War.

Jefferson, Margaret, William and baby Varina (Winnie)

Four years of War changed the lively young wife. Like her Union counterpart Mary Lincoln Varina Davis lost a child during the War. In her memoir she recalled the day in 1864:

“I left my children quite well, playing in my room, and had just uncovered my [sewing] basket in [Jefferson’s] office when a servant came in for me. The most beautiful and brightest of my children, Joseph Emory, had in play climbed over the connecting angle of the banister and fallen to the brick pavement below. He died a few minutes after we reached his side."

She gave birth to her youngest that year and wrote to Mary Chesnut in April, 1864.

"Do come to me, and see how we get on. I shall have a spare room by the time you arrive, indifferently furnished, but, oh, so affectionately placed at your service. You will receive such a loving welcome. One perfect bliss have I. The baby, who grows fat and is smiling always, is christened, and not old enough to develop the world's vices or to be snubbed by it. The name so long delayed is Varina Anne. My name is a heritage of woe."

Richmond in 1865

Among other names, this week's block was called Butterfly by the Chicago Tribune's quilt columnist in the 1930s. The name is particularly appropriate as Varina Davis herself embroidered a butterfly in the center of a silk quilt she made about 1870.

Her granddaughter Varina Davis Hayes Webb donated the quilt to the Museum of the Confederacy with notes describing the butterfly as a symbol of the "soul of the Confederacy beautiful and immortal." See a photo of the quilt at the website of the Museum of the Confederacy by clicking here:
http://www.moc.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ce_col_digitalcollection

For more information about Varina Davis's quilt see page 111 of my book Quilts From the Civil War.
We can remember Varina Davis and her heritage of woe with Richmond.

Cutting Instructions for an 8" finished block

A - Cut 2 medium light and 2 medium dark squares 3-1/2". Cut each into 2 triangles with 1 diagonal cut.

 You need 4 triangles of each shade.
B - Cut 4 dark and 4 medium light squares 2-1/4". Cut each into 2 triangles with 1 diagonal cut. You need 8 triangles of each shade.
C - Cut 1 dark square 3-1/8"
D - Cut 8 medium light and 4 (MY technical editors---the readers---say 8) light squares 1-1/2"

A suggestion from Karen D.:

Karen sent a note on Sunday Feb 6th. "I made the block this morning and love it but I think there is a cutting change - B - 2 1/8" squares instead of 2 1/4" squares. I drew it out on EQ and it also stated the rotary cutting for B to be 2 1/8". I did this because the four patch section ended up too big."

When we originally drew the block in EQ it did say 2-1/8" but the test block turned out to be too small, so we added the 1/8" inch. The problem here is that my criteria for choosing a block is whether it is an interesting Civil War block, not whether it fits nicely into an 8" format---four patches would fit best. If this is the kind of thing that drives you crazy, redraft the blocks to 12" (which fits both a four-patch and a nine-patch format)---but what of the blocks that are divided by 5 or 7??? Ohhh dear.

Read Varina Davis's 1890 memoir of her husband's life Jefferson Davis Ex-President of the Confederate States of America by clicking here at Google Books.

http://books.google.com/books?id=GHE4AAAAMAAJ&dq=memoir+varina+davis&source=gbs_navlinks_s

Read the 1905 version Mary Chesnut's diary Diary From Dixie online at the University of North Carolina's site Documenting the American South. 
 http://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/chesnut/menu.html

But once you start reading Mary Chesnut you have to read the uncut version: C. Vann Woodward's edition called Mary Chesnut's Civil War.

Varina's wartime home now houses

the Museum of the Confederacy

See more about Quilts from the Civil War by clicking here:

http://www.ctpub.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=1685