In the winter of 1865, the home front in the Carolinas became a war front for thousands of civilians. Most able-bodied men of military age were away from their homes fighting in the Confederate army, and their wives, children, parents, grandparents and family servants faced the onslaught of General William T. Sherman’s invading, destructive army without protection. Many of these civilians left behind a record of their encounters with the enemy in the form of letters and diaries written at the time, and in memoirs and other accounts published later. The ladies who wrote about their experiences wanted future generations to know about their trials and tribulations in the spring of 1865. Their stories have been almost forgotten, but they are printed in these pages for you to read and study, and to pass on to generations yet to come. For if one generation forgets, these stories will be lost for all eternity. Let’s not let this happen!