fts and privations, though they managed in some unselfish
manner to send, from time to time, great quantities of clothing,
meats, and other supplies to the soldiers in the field and their
wounded comrades in the army hospitals.

The intense devotion of Loudoun women to the Confederate cause was
most irritating to a certain class of Federal officers in the armies
that invaded Northern Virginia. They seemed to think that through
their military prowess they had conquered entrance into Southern
society, but the women repulsed them at every turn and quite
effectually checked their presumptuous advances.

The women of all classes played and sang Confederate airs on every
occasion, and, though ordered by the military authorities to desist,
with consummate daring they usually persisted until a guard of
soldiers had been detailed to enforce the order. The Federal officers
who acted in a gentlemanly manner toward the non-combatants were
accused by their rude fellows and by ruder newspaper correspondents of
being "wound round the fingers of the rebel women," who, they were
sure, had some cherished object in view.

The women, without question, had much the harder task. The men, in
active service in the field, were reasonably sure that their families
were safe at home and, in the feverish excitement of war, felt no
concern for themselves, while, on the other hand, the women lived in
hourly dread of direful news from the front, and, moreover, were
burdened with labors and cares more irksome and harassing than had
ever been borne by the absent males.

The music and songs that were popular just before and during the war
attest the vacillating temper of the people. Joyous airs were at first
heard, these growing contemptuous and defiant as the struggle
approached, then stirring war songs and hymns of encouragement. But as
sorrow followed sorrow until all were stricken; as wounds, sickness,
imprisonment, and death of friends and relatives cast an
ever-lengthening shadow over the spirits of the people; as hopes were
dashed by defeat, and the consciousness came that, perhaps, after all
the cause was losing, the iron entered into the souls of the people.
The songs became sadder, while in the churches, where the doctrines of
faith and good works were earnestly propounded, little else was heard
than the soul-comforting hymns and the militant songs of the older
churchmen. The promises were, perhaps, more emphasized and a deeply
religious f