Chapter 5 - The Civil War

William and Mildred stayed in Northumberland through the Civil War, despite their southern sympathies. William ran the family shoe shop until 1863, when he bought a canal boat. Three of his brothers had moved to Americus, Georgia, in the 1850s, and served in the Confederate army.

• Mildred learned to cook using recipes which William would copy down from his mother’s dictation. The resulting cookbook survives.
• William’s ledgers from the shoe shop provide a glimpse of the family’s financial fortunes.
• Thanks to Mary Wheatley McBride, the Confederate military records of William’s brothers John, Charlie and Thornt are available. Mildred’s brother Ed also served for the South. Among Mary’s papers is a small handsewn Confederate flag which, she says, was pinned on Ed’s breast by a young woman who had sworn to give it to the handsomest soldier who passed.