Date: Mon, 25 Jul 94 17:52:54 EDT
From: "Hollis L. Gentry" <LIBEM077%sivm.si.edu@KSUVM.KSU.EDU>
Subject: Re:Women's visits to army camps
Joe, the visitation of female relatives was very common at least within the
regiments of colored troops. The best documentation you can find of this is
within the records of the Freedmen's Bureau. Pick any southern state and look
at the records for any given camp, and I bet you can find at least one
reference to families of soldiers living in or near a camp. Women were
frequently employed as servants, cooks, seamstresses, laundresses and nurses.
There are lots of employment records on these women. Most of these manuscripts
have remained untouched, save for those selected and published by the Freedmen
and Southern Society Project. You want sources on the topic? They have it.
Furthermore I've been tracking down this experience in my family.
Hollis L. Gentry/Smithsonian Institution Libraries
NHB 28, Stop 154, Washington, DC 20560
(202)357-1851/fax (202)786-2443 (LIBEM077@sivm.si.edu)