Images and discussions of the Civil War focus on the battles and the hardship back east. The burnt out husks of the Old South and bodies of soldiers lie strewn on the ground in black and white photos from the era. Movies romanticize large white columns and women in corallines swearing that they will never go hungry again. While school books will touch some on the Board War between Kansas and Missouri, they leave out the ripple effects of the war on the Indian Territory, and those who have been forced or chose to settle there. It may be that it is forgotten due it being hard to believe that there would be an embracing of more pressure in the already rough struggle to survive in this unforgiving environment. Hunger is already a fact of life;
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This is a place of new starts. See, the Civil War brought more than just hunger, it brought death to his family. First his mother dies while his father is away fighting for the Union. No one to care for Albert, who is just ten at the time, he follows soldiers to fill his stomach. A missionary comes to his aid and sends him to an orphanage in Chicago until he comes to age. While Albert is in the orphanage up north, his father returns from the war only to find his wife is dead, his son is gone, and three days later his father is ambushed and killed. Home at that time is Arkansas and a life expectancy for a Union soldier, even a retired one, is …show more content…
While short in detail, the imagery is there. Union soldier pulling earrings from the Choctaw women’s ears and confining them to a single room. Whether it is based on happenings or just rumor, Mrs. Bates mother found no rest at night as she guarded her children from fear of the “negro boys” whisking them away. Hunger is an overlying theme throughout the stories, for Mrs. Bates that hunger is sated slightly by wheat gruel for war gouging and blockades drives prices up. Dried, parched okra serves a replacement for $100 dollars a pound coffee. A return to spinning and weaving replaces $ 100 dollars a yard calico. Daughter of a leader in the Council of Indian affairs, her father serves as a Colonel who prepares the Indians for battle. Mrs. Bates’ recollections reaches further, her father meeting with Creeks and Cherokees discussing course of action, burial practices and hospitals built for injured Choctaw soldiers. She speaks of spinning for the troops and process of creating shoes and gloves. While these things do not directly affect her, the detail creates a picture of life during the time of struggle.
This is a place of new starts. See, the Civil War brought more than just hunger, it brought death to his family. First his mother dies while his father is away fighting for the Union. No one to care for Albert, who is just ten at the time, he follows soldiers to fill his stomach. A missionary comes to his aid and sends him to an orphanage in Chicago until he comes to age. While Albert is in the orphanage up north, his father returns from the war only to find his wife is dead, his son is gone, and three days later his father is ambushed and killed. Home at that time is Arkansas and a life expectancy for a Union soldier, even a retired one, is …show more content…
While short in detail, the imagery is there. Union soldier pulling earrings from the Choctaw women’s ears and confining them to a single room. Whether it is based on happenings or just rumor, Mrs. Bates mother found no rest at night as she guarded her children from fear of the “negro boys” whisking them away. Hunger is an overlying theme throughout the stories, for Mrs. Bates that hunger is sated slightly by wheat gruel for war gouging and blockades drives prices up. Dried, parched okra serves a replacement for $100 dollars a pound coffee. A return to spinning and weaving replaces $ 100 dollars a yard calico. Daughter of a leader in the Council of Indian affairs, her father serves as a Colonel who prepares the Indians for battle. Mrs. Bates’ recollections reaches further, her father meeting with Creeks and Cherokees discussing course of action, burial practices and hospitals built for injured Choctaw soldiers. She speaks of spinning for the troops and process of creating shoes and gloves. While these things do not directly affect her, the detail creates a picture of life during the time of struggle.