“We shall never be the same” - Helena, Arkansas - Arkansas Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

This marker, behind the Seated Boy Sculpture, is located at the northeast corner of Perry and Walnut. This marker tells the story of the women left behind at home during the Civil War and the trials they faced.

“We shall never be the same”

(left side of frame - picture of woman and two young boys)

The Civil War changed the lives of Southern women in ways they could not have imagined. They lived with anxiety, fear and loneliness. As the war ground on, many felt an increasing sense of desperation and depression. The lives they had known were lost. One confided to her journal that she was "almost on the borders of craziness."

Unprepared, Anxious and Alone

Women who had never performed the most basic tasks found themselves faced with cooking, cleaning, laundry and child care. A Virginia woman wrote, "I find myself, every day, doing something I never did before." It was no different in Phillips County. Mary Sale Edmondson, who lived near Helena, wrote a friend, "I have never in all my life been obliged to wait on myself before, and I am now forty-seven years of age." Though their problems may seem trivial, many women felt almost crippled by their unpreparedness for the changes war brought.

Struggling to Survive

Women raised to depend on men for economic and emotional security now had no one. Some had to find jobs. Those on small farms worked in the fields. Mary Edmondson struggled to keep the family plantation afloat. Like most women, she knew little about agriculture. More daunting was managing the slaves she was dependent upon, many of whom were now openly asserting their desire for freedom.

Confrontations with Union Soldiers

The Union occupation of Helena in July 1862 increased anxiety. Union patrols (scouts) scoured the countryside. Sue Cook confided to her diary, "The first thing I saw when I got to the road this morning was a scout had passed in the direction of our house. I feared they had caught brother, but they did not." Lucretia Roberts and her daughter, Matilda—loyal Unionists—watched helplessly as soldiers seized thirty wagon loads of provisions from their plantation. One Southern woman wrote, "I think sometimes that my trials are more than I can bear." She was not alone.

(bottom center of frame - picture of Confederate money)
Currency issued by Helena Insurance Company in 1862, before the Union Army occupied the city.
Helena Museum of Phillips County

(bottom right of frame - picture of Sue Cook, needles, thread, and cloth)
Manufactured goods became almost impossible to obtain in the Confederate states. By 1864, cloth cost ten times what it had in 1861. Women like Sue Cook, above, recycled curtains and linens; many took up knitting.
Sue Cook, courtesy of the Phillips County Historical Society

Support for Civil War Helena generously provided by Delta Cultural Center-Department of Arkansas Heritage, Helena-West Helena Advertising and Promotion Commission and Southern Bancorp.

History of Marker: See long description Link to Marker: Not listed Additional Parking: Not Listed

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