Henry Chapin Letter, #10310-G

As regiments of United States Colored Troops restored order in the former Confederate capital of Richmond, their professionalism surprised ex-rebels. "What hurt the most was to see the Colored troops," a white female Richmonder grudgingly conceded to a white Union soldier in April 1865. "We were surprised to see them so well drilled, and clothed and equipped."

Gilliam Family Papers, #3593

Confederate soldiers and civilians, including women, were required to take oaths of allegiance after the war and formally apply for pardons if they wished to obtain federal assistance, return of captured property (excepting slaves) or restoration of their civil rights. Secretary of State William Seward issued this pardon to Mary E. G. Gilliam of Dinwiddie County, Virginia,on January 19, 1866.

Papers of the Hill Family, #6548

The end of the war not only brought defeat to the Confederacy, but also freedom to the slaves. Eloise Connor of Virginia found it difficult to adjust to this new relationship to her former slaves, complaining that "My future course is still uncertain. The servants are not willing to remain with me on the same terms."

An 1866 broadside, "To His Excellency Andrew Johnson," in which Richmond women appeal for the imprisoned Jefferson Davis: "Woman has ever been the privileged pleader, even for those who have no special claim upon her regard. To the women of Virginia Mr. Davis can never be an object of indifference."

Papers of Eugene Davis, #2483

After the war, Southern women remained loyal to the Confederacy. In this 1866 invitation to a benefit supper to raise funds for a Confederate cemetery, this Ladies' Memorial Association of Charlottesville describes its mission as "to embrace the sisterhood of those who once called the Confederate cause their own."

Margaret J. Preston's "Memorial Psalm/For The Tenth of May," 1878, commemorating the unofficial "Confederate Memorial Day."

The Ladies Confederate Memorial Association of Charlottesville, Virginia, issued this 1890 form letter, "Dear Sir, In the cemetery of the University of Virginia are buried 1,091 Confederate soldiers" as part of their fund raising appeal for the erection of a monument to Confederate soldiers buried in a cemetery next to the University of Virginia Cemetery. Their efforts were successful in June 1893; the monument bore the inscription, "Fate denied them victory but crowned them with glorious immortality."