Unsigned recollections of civilian life on the home front during the Civil War, with details of her experiences as a young Confederate refugee in Orangeburg, S.C., and accounts of the depredations of Sherman's army in Orangeburg and Columbia, S.C. The narrator was a school girl at the time of South Carolina's secession from the Union, attending the Memminger Normal School (Charleston, S.C.) at the time Frederick Adolphus Sawyer was principal and most of her teachers were natives of the north east. Witte reports that in Aug. 1863, Union ships in the blockaded harbor began shelling Charleston, "a boat, with flag of truce, was sent out to the fleet, inquiring whether Charleston was to be destroyed with women and children. 'We will give you two days to remove your women and children,' was the reply...." Prior to the resumption of shelling, Reeves family (Rosa and her mother and siblings) evacuated to Orangeburg, S.C., where they lived during much of the remainder of the war. Witte was in Augusta, Ga., at the time of Sherman's visit to Orangeburg but includes in her account a copy of a letter, 25 Jan. 1865, penned by her sister Charlotte "Lottie" S. Reeves describing their family's encounter with the Union soldiers at the time Federal troops burned Orangeburg. Other letters copied into the memoir date from 24 Feb., 18 Mar., and 14 Apr. 1865 and were penned by her sister Mary E. Harper, an employee at the at the Confederate printing plant in Columbia, S.C., where she worked as one of the 'Treasury girls' who signed their names on a corner of Confedrate bills to signify the currency's authenticity, with discussion of the burning of Columbia and aftermath. The text of one additional letter, 15 Apr. 1865, from Confederate officer Capt. Anthony Michael comments on the political and economic situation in Charleston, S.C., at the end of the war. The account includes details of housing, clothing, and food, with references to African American house servants Maum Charlotte, Maum Diana, and Maum Marie.
