Blood and War at my Doorstep

About the Book

Between these pages the reader will learn that North Carolina citizens did not idly stand by as their soldiers marched off to war. The women worked themselves into “patriotic exhaustion” through Aid Societies. Civilians with different means of support from the lower class to the plantation mistress wrote the governor complaining of hoarding, speculation, the tithe, bushwhackers, unionism, conscription, and exemptions. Never before had so many died due to guerilla warfare. Unknown before starving women with weapons stormed the merchant or warehouses in search for food. Others turned to smuggling, spying, or nature’s oldest profession. Information from period newspapers, as well as mostly unpublished letters, tell their stories.

About the Author

Brenda Chambers McKean has been an independent researcher and collector of ante-bellum and Civil War history for twenty-five years. This book is a compilation of ten years work. Ms. McKean is a retired nurse anesthetist, a graduate of Duke University. Presently she lives in Timberlake, North Carolina with her grandson.