New Orleans Belles, after the occupation by Union forces in April of 1862, were appalled by the rude and coarse treatment of the unrefined Yankee soldiers. A letter from one New Orleans Beauty, to her cousin in Gallatin, Tennessee, expressed a Louisiana Lament indicative of the oppressive nature endured by the fairer sex, in The Crescent City. Hoping that her cousin can get the appeal published in the Tennessee Press, she encloses a lock of her hair and prays that the plea will be shared with all their male friends around Gallatin.
“To every Soldier:
We turn to you in mute agony! Behold our wrongs, fathers! husbands! brothers! sons! We know these bitter, burning wrongs will be fully avenged. Never did Southern women appeal in vain for protection from insult! But, for the sake of our sisters throughout the South, with tears we implore you not to surrender your cities, ‘in consideration of the defenseless women and children.’ Do not leave your women to the merciless foe! Would it not have been better for New Orleans to have been laid in ruins, and we buried beneath the mass, than subjected to these untold sufferings? Is life so priceless a boon that, for the preservation of it, no sacrifice is too great? Ah, no! ah, no! Rather let us die with you! O, our fathers! rather, like Virginius, plunge your own swords into our breasts, saying, This is all we can give our daughters.
The Daughters of the South.
New Orleans, May 14, 1862.
Bummer
While we know that soldiers cannot always be trusted with the local female population, I can’t help but believe these New Orleans belles might have been embellishing things a bit.
Louis,
Sure they might be stretching the truth, Butler would not have put up with much of their nonsense. Some stories relate the dumping of chamber pots on Union Officer’s heads from balconies above the side walks of New Orleans. Go figure!
Bummer