On Sat. August 23rd members of the Homespun
Living History Guild met at the
Jefferson Davis capture site in Irwinville, GA for a "Life
on the Home Front" program for the park. Considering
the remote location of the park
attendance was good, and those present took time to ask numerous
questions.
While Anne and Krista worked on their
needlework I set up a display of herbs
used during the war for medicinal purposes and spoke to visitors
on their use. We talked about the blockades, difficulties
encountered in obtaining goods during
the war, illness both in the camps and on the home front, the
lack of medicines, and the substitutes used. Information was
given on Dr. Francis Porcher and his treatise, Resources
of Southern Fields and Forests, published in 1863.
The herbs (where they grew, how they were
gathered and processed and administered)
were discussed along with their uses. It was also discussed
that some of the substitutes used were in themselves poisonous
while the remainder generally ranged from mildly effective to
useless in their success at curing the illnesses for which they
were being taken.
After the last talk had been given we watched
the film on the
significance of the capture site and walked
out to the monument where the capture
of Confederate President, Jefferson Davis, actually took place.
The site left me with a melancholy feeling standing there realizing
that was the exact spot where the last hopes of the Confederacy
flickered and died. So many lost lives and so very little gained.
As we stood there I thought of the site at
Appomattox where the
surrender was signed and the intervening days
between that meeting and the encounter
which took place there at Irwinville and I think I realized some
small degree of the sadness and hopelessness felt by the
Southern people. When I visited both sites I felt the same
sense of sadness, and I think I
carried away some of that sadness Saturday as we made our
journey home.
The rangers were very cordial and we would
like to thank them for the invitation to visit and interact with
visitors. We enjoyed ourselves immensely.
