Political Influences Actions And Expressions Of Young White Women In Civil War Kentucky

During the American Civil War, Kentucky women were active participants and political actors in their communities, on the home front, as well as in their social circles. While women from all regions of the United States were affected by the war, as a border state Kentucky provided a particularly ripe environment for women to engage in debates surrounding the conflict. Kentucky was fixed directly between the North and the South where two main factions converged: those who supported the Confederacy, which supported secession, and those who sympathized with the Union in hopes the United States would remain united. This convergence created a combination or a mixture of opinions about the war in Kentucky. This study provides insights into the actions and opinions of white, Kentucky women during the Civil War by examining the diaries of two such women -- Josie Underwood and Frances Peter.1 My analysis of their diaries provides an in-depth look at the views and actions of these women as well as the events they lived through and experienced.