Southern Cross of Honor, #9405-D

The United Daughters of the Confederacy awarded the Southern Cross of Honor medal to ex-Confederate soldiers (members of the United Confederate Veterans) in recognition of their devotion to the Southern cause. This one, ca. 1895, was awarded to William Lewis Beasley, Company C, 4th Virginia Cavalry; on the verso is engraved the name of the manufacturer, Charles W. Crankshaw, Atlanta, Georgia, and an inscription, "Southern Cross of Honor-Deo vindice, 1861-1865" [God Will Judge].

Recollections of the Evacuation of Petersburg, #10839

Defeat was an unexpected experience many Southern women never forgot. This April 1903 typescript, "Recollections of the Evacuation of Petersburg," written by Marie Morrison, describes her participation in the burial a Confederate soldier in Petersburg on April 3, 1865.

Alderman Library/Government Documents

Virginia General Assembly, Acts and Joint Resolutions Passed by the General Assembly of the State of Virginia During the Session of 1901-2, Richmond: J. H. O'Bannon, Superintendent of Public Printing, 1902. An April 2, 1902 state law established pensions for widows of Virginia Confederate soldiers, sailors, or marines; $40.00 annually for unmarried widows; $25.00 for remarried widows.

Papers of the Irvine, Saunders, Davis and Watts families, #38-33

Captain J. C. Featherston, who served the Confederacy from Alabama, collected clippings about the Civil War. The story displayed on the left side of the scrapbook romanticizes the relationship between slaves and mistresses. In the story, former slaves celebrate a miserable, cold Christmas but are happily delivered from their misery by the reappearance of their former young mistress. "What a happy Christmas it turned out to be after all. Back at the old mansion with their own white people! - could they be dreaming?"

Papers of the Irvine, Saunders, Davis and Watts families, #38-33

The right side of Captain Featherston's scrapbook features an article about Mrs. Hayes, daughter of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. In this article, Mrs. Hayes remembers Lincoln's assassination. Although she was prepared to rejoice, her father "gravely and gently took (her) up in his arms and explained to (her) that this was a terrible deed..."