Northern aid to the Shenandoah Valley (1865)

In the middle of a bitter war, some people on both sides still found ways to show Christian charity. Historian Robert Moore shared a remarkable 1865 newspaper article about a group of Northern women who organized to help the women, children and other suffering people of Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. Though their nations were at war, they believed their faith called them to help those in need.

The Burning of the Valley

The Shenandoah Valley was known as the “Breadbasket of the Confederacy.” Its rich farms fed Lee’s army and its people for much of the war. In the fall of 1864, Union General Philip Sheridan was ordered to make sure the Valley could no longer supply the Confederacy. His troops burned barns, mills, crops and haystacks and drove off livestock up and down the Valley. Local people remembered it simply as “The Burning.”

By the winter of 1864 and 1865, many Valley families, most of them women, children and the elderly, faced hunger and hardship. Their homes might still stand, but their food, animals and means of making a living were gone.

Northern Women Lend a Hand

The 1865 article described Northern women who, moved by the suffering they heard about, gathered food, clothing and money to send south. Their effort was rooted in their Christian principles. To them, the women and children of the Valley were not enemies but neighbors in need.

Acts of kindness like these were not common, but they did happen throughout the war. Soldiers shared rations with prisoners, nurses cared for wounded men from both armies, and families on both sides took in strangers.

Seeds of Reconciliation

Stories like this one remind us that the war was fought by people who shared the same faith, language and many of the same values. Small acts of charity across the lines helped plant the seeds of reconciliation that would slowly bring North and South back together after the war.

Read more stories of kindness between enemies in Friendly Enemies: Tex and Fanny, and browse our Confederate flag collection.

Source: Robert Moore, Cenantua’s Blog: Northern aid to the Shenandoah Valley (1865)

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