Capital Dames

Author: Cokie Roberts
Genre: Non-Fiction
Publisher: HarperCollins, 2015
Pages: 512
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: With the outbreak of the Civil War, the small, social Southern town of Washington, D.C. found itself caught between warring sides in a four-year battle that would determine the future of the United States.

After the declaration of secession, many fascinating Southern women left the city, leaving their friends - such as Adele Cutts Douglas and Elizabeth Blair Lee - to grapple with questions of safety and sanitation as the capital was transformed into an immense Union army camp and later a hospital. With their husbands, brothers, and fathers marching off to war, either on the battlefield or in the halls of Congress, the women of Washington joined the cause as well. And more women went to the Capital City to enlist as nurses, supply organizers, relief workers, and journalists. Many risked their lives making munitions in a highly flammable arsenal, toiled at the Treasury Department printing greenbacks to finance the war, and plied their needlework skills at The Navy Yard - once the sole province of men - to sew canvas gunpowder bags for the troops.

Review: I wanted something different than what this ended up being, but there were several woman who were household names and prominent figures during the time of the Civil War that history has since forgotten. Details about the Civil War weren't knew since I read a lot of historical fiction and was a History major. However, for someone not as familiar, they might find those sections of the book interesting and helpful for context.

Maybe it's because I've gotten older or perhaps because of "the COVID years," but as I read or listen to historical novels, whether fiction or non-fiction, the impact of events that have long been a part of our conversation and psyche fester in my mind. I think about the real people who endured such hardships and I have a renewed appreciation for how long the Civil War lasted - people's lives and families completely altered and upended. Then, consider how the war changed cities themselves, in this case, Washington, D.C. However, Atlanta and Richmond were also changed. Families lost entire generations and children never existed because the men who would have been their fathers were casualties of war.

Had the Civil War not occurred, how different would things looked, or how long would it have taken to get where we are today? I do not mean the obvious outcomes such as freedom for Blacks, constitutional amendments etc, but rather, the further industrialization of the North, women entering the work force (although generally World War II is credited with women having more options to earn money and support their own independence), and an increase in taxes (the war had to paid for somehow). It's food for thought.