Sister Of Confederate Congressman Offers Nursing Services To Alabama Gov. Moore: "Woman's Mission Is To Soothe"

Demopolis, Alabama, was the location of Confederate hospitals during the Civil War. The city’s strategic location at the confluence of the Tombigbee and Black Warrior rivers and along a railway line made it suitable for military installations, including hospitals. Demopolis also had a Confederate wayside hospital, which focused on providing care to soldiers in transit. A Confederate cemetery was located south of the city at Webb’s Bend, where soldiers who died in these hospitals were buried.

Offering a 1 ½ pp, 5 x 8 ¼, ALS, in which Catherine Elizabeth Smith Trueheart writes to Alabama Gov. Andrew B. Moore offering her services as a nurse to the Confederacy. Writing from Demopolis, Trueheart stated, “Wishing to be useful to my country in this her hour of trial & feeling that woman’s mission is to soothe to bind up & to heal, I write to offer my services as a nurse for the sick & the wounds among the soldiers of our Southern Army.  Knowing nothing of the arrangements & the steps necessary to be taken, I apply to you for such information as I need.

“I am ready to go to any point that I may be needed & devote my time, energy, strength & if necessary, my life, to the alleviation of the suffering of those who have left homes & their all for their country. I should prefer Richmond, as I have friends there & as my brother Robt H. Smith will be in that place during the session of the summer Congress. But I will go wherever duty calls me, be that where it may. Any information you can give will be truly appreciated by Mrs. C.E. Trueheart

“His Excellency

“A.B. Moore

“Montgomery”

Trueheart references her brother Robert Hardy Smith, who served in the Confederate States Army and in the Alabama House of Representatives and the Alabama Senate. He also served in the Confederate Congress and advocated for slavery. He was a colonel of the 36th Alabama Infantry Regiment. In an 1861 speech, Smith stated that Alabama declared its secession from the Union over the issue of slavery, which he referred to as ‘the negro quarrel.’ In his speech, he praised the Confederate Constitution for its protections of the right to own slaves.

Gov. Moore defeated extremist William F. Samford in the gubernatorial election of 1859. Moore was considered a moderate on the slavery issue but became concerned with the defense of slavery after John Brown’s raid on the U.S. Arsenal at Harper’s Ferry. Moore ordered the state’s militia to seize the U.S. Army arsenal at Mt. Vernon and Forts Morgan and Gaines on Mobile Bay. He also contributed more than 500 troops to assist Florida Gov. Madison S. Perry in capturing the U.S. Army forts at Pensacola. He used his influence to help Jefferson Davis become president of the Confederacy. Following the surrender of Robert E. Lee at Appomattox, Moore was arrested by Federal troops and imprisoned at Fort Pulaski in Savannah, Georgia, with other Confederate leaders. He was released in August 1865 and returned to Marion, Alabama, and resumed his law practice. 

Folds, even toning. The handwriting is excellent.

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