["The Homespun Dress"] manuscript. N.p., n.d. 2 pages, 4to.

A manuscript copy of "The Homespun Dress," a patriotic Confederate song attributed to southern poet, Carrie Bell Sinclair (1839-1883). Sinclair was from Milledgeville, Georgia and reportedly a "literary protege of Alexander H. Stephens," the Confederate Vice President. She regularly contributed to southern newspapers, often under a pseudonym, and published a book of poems in 1860.

Throughout the war, Sinclair wrote several poems, many set to music. This heartfelt verse, from her own perspective as a passionate female supporter of the Confederacy, begins: "O yes I am a Southern girl I glory in the name and boast it with far greater pride than glittering wealth or fame I envy not the northern girls their robes of beauty rare though diamonds grace their snowy necks and pearls bedeck their hair. My homespun dress is plain I know my hat quite common too but then it shows what southern girls for southern rights will do we sent the bravest of our boys to battle with the foe and we will lend a helping hand for we love the south you know."

The poem praises the bravery of the Confederate soldiers, placing them in the highest esteem: "A soldier is the boy for me a brave heart I adore and when the sunny south is free and fighting is no more I will house neither a lover brave from out the galland band the secesch lad that I love best shall have my heart and hand. So now a word to you if you would win the fair go to the field where honor calls and win your lady there remember that our brightest smiles are for the true and brave and that our tears fall for the man fill a soldiers grave."

The person who recorded the verses clearly felt Sinclair's words deeply. An interesting manuscript from the female point of view from the Confederate home front.

Condition: repair of splits along old folds.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate, Women's History, Literary History, Poetry, Poems, Manuscripts, Documents, Songs, Music, Music History]