Civil War: Starvation Descends Upon the South

Starvation loomed as a stark possibility for many Southern women. Desperate women, trying to feed hungry children resorted to robbery.  

"To be hungry is there an everyday occurrence. For ten days, ...lived off just hominy enough to keep their bodies and souls from parting, without being able to procure another article; not even a potato... I am satisfied that two months more of danger, difficulties, perplexities, and starvation will lay her (Mother) in her grave. "~ Sarah Morgan, Louisiana

Food Riots

The women knew food was stored in depots and warehouses.  In cities from Alabama, to Virginia, gatherings often erupted into riots in which crowds of women, broke into stores, depots, and warehouses and carried off supplies.

In the town of Salisbury, North Carolina in March 1863, a group of 75 women armed with axes and hatchets descended upon the railroad depot and local stores, desperate for food.  The women thought that the railroad agent and the store owners were hoarding flour, to sell later at a higher price.  When faced with the angry mob, the storekeepers reluctantly gave flour, molasses, and salt to the women.”

Richmond, Virginia - Bread Riot

In April 1863, a “mob of women” desperate with hunger, marched up Main Street, entered the stores of the suspected speculators and emptied them of their contents.  

Eventually Jefferson Davis appeared, spoke to the crowd, and calmed the women who left, reluctantly, with their stolen baked goods.

Yankee marauders made the situation worse. Luckily, two factors saved the Confederate families: 1) the local southerners knew the land well and hid food and livestock, 2) Yankees thought sweet potatoes were weeds and overlooked them, when they plundered.