Richmond During the War: Four Years of Personal Observation

by Sallie Brock Putnam, Virginia Scharff (Introduction)

The Civil War turned the genteel world of Virginia society upside-down for Sallie Brock Putnam. She lived in the Confederate capital of Richmond throughout the war and saw it transformed from a quiet town of culture to a swollen refugee camp, black-market center, prison venue, and hospital complex. As the smoke from nearby battlefields drifted into town, swaggering young soldiers and ambulance trains filled the streets. Putnam describes the excitement of secession giving way to sacrifice and grim determination, the women of Richmond aiding the war effort, the funerals and hasty weddings, the reduced circumstances of even the “best” families, and the despicable profiteering. Asserting that “every woman was to some extent a politician,” she offers keen analyses of military engagements, criticizes political decisions, and provides accounts of the Richmond Bread Riot of 1863 and the inauguration of Jefferson Davis that have been praised by historians. The war brought the battlefield into the house, forcing women into unaccustomed roles and forever changing the old social order.

Genres: Civil War

373 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1867

About the author

Sarah "Sallie" Ann Brock was an American author, best known for her memoir Richmond During the War; Four Years of Personal Observation.

She often published under the pseudonym Virginia Madison, published numerous editorials, historical articles, reviews, essays, letters, travel sketches, short stories, biographies, and translations in her career.

Brock was born Sarah Ann Putnam in Madison County, Virginia, on March 18, 1831. She was the daughter of Ansalem Brock and Elizabeth Beverley Buckner.

During the American Civil War, Brock lived with her family in Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederate States of America. In 1865, she moved to New York and began writing about her wartime experiences.

Brock 's book, Richmond During the War: Four Years of Personal Observation, was published in 1867 and described the social and economic upheaval of the residents of that city. The book was based on her diaries and notes of the period and contains details about incidents involving refugees, prisoners of war, the sick and wounded, the reality of obtaining basic supplies, and other events the city, particularly in the last few weeks of the war.

In Richmond on January 11, 1882, Brock married Richard Fletcher Putnam, an Episcopal minister and member of the Boston publishing family. Although she continued to contribute to magazines after she married, she wrote more for enjoyment than for a livelihood, and her output diminished considerably.

The couple lived in New York and Connecticut and traveled frequently. Brock retained her literary contacts and participated in a display of books by Virginia authors at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. She wrote two more novels and started a third but published none of them, although her draft novel "Myra" is sometimes listed as published.

Sarah Ann Brock Putnam died in New York on March 22, 1911, five years after her husband's death on January 16, 1906, and was buried next to him in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond.

Works:

Richmond During the War: Four Years of Personal Observation (1867)
The Southern Amaranth: A Carefully Selected Collection of Poems Growing out of and in Reference to the Late War (1869) Editor
Kenneth, My King (1873)

Reviews

[Kaz Kazper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent insight into what a southern lady thought about everything that was happening during the civil war. She talks of how families in Richmond dealt with food shortages, price hikes, speculators, and other day to day challenges the war brought to them. She also talks of the hospitals and how people were cared for in them, the prisons, the battles themselves and how folk on the home front celebrated victories or lamented defeats, evacuations, the burning of Richmond, looting, and all other manner of events.

[Lana Sterling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very long but powerful history.

This book is amazing when you know it is written by someone of the civil war era. You feel the same as the writer does through the whole book. Good information on the history of the civil war you want get from any other book.