13 November 1867: "with a view to matrimony"

On this day in 1867, the following personal ad was run in the Southern Watchman:

The names used by the young women placing the ad are likely pseudonyms, since they are engaging in somewhat forward behavior for "refined and accomplished" ladies "of good family." However, the war had changed the social world and expectations for many young southern women. Even before the end of the conflict, "changed attitudes and often changed strategies proved necessary as women recognized that men were becoming ever scarcer resources."

Due to poor record keeping during the war, the exact numbers of casualties on either side of the hostilities are unknown.  Of the estimated 1.2 million men who served in the Confederacy, approximately 250,000 were killed in action or by disease, and another 90,000 were wounded.  Estimates for Georgia were that of the approximately 120,000 men who served, between 11,000-25,000 men died in the war. It is generally believed that the country lost nearly 25% of military age (also marriageable age) men. 

Though there is record of some women embracing "spinsterhood" has a patriotic endeavor, "more common...were those single women who remained committed to increasingly impossible hopes." 

Learn More:

• Southern Watchman, Sep. 1864 - Dec. 1867 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• Civil War Cemeteries article on the New Georgia Encyclopedia website.
• This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust in the general collection.
• Mothers of Necessity: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust in the general collection.
• These Men She Gave: Civil War Diary of Athens, Georgia by John F. Stegeman in the Heritage and general collections.
• Confederate Athens by Kenneth Coleman in the Heritage and general collections.
• A Woman's War: Southern Women, Civil War, and the Confederate Legacy, edited by Edward D. C. Campbell in the general collection.
• The Civil War as a Crisis of Gender: Augusta, Georgia, 1860-1890 by Leann Whites in the Heritage collection.
• Southern Watchman, Athens, Georgia: Civil War Home Front Coverage, 1861-1865 by Faye Stone Poss in the Heritage and general collections.
• Confederate Cemeteries, Volumes I & II by Mark Hughes in the Heritage collection.
• Scarlett Doesn't Live Here Anymore: Southern Women in the Civil War Era by Laura F. Edwards in the general collection.
• Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 by Eric Foner in the general collection.
• Georgia Women: Their Lives and Times, edited by Ann Short Chirhart and Betty Wood in the Heritage collection.