 Hello and welcome to the Betsy B. Creekmore Special Collections and University Archives. I'm Laura Romans, Manuscripts Archivist. As we continue to commemorate the centennial of the passage of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote, today we're going to consider the American Civil War and its influence on women's agency. Let's take a closer look at a young woman's diary written during the war. Beginning in 1862, Tennessee native and Confederate sympathizer, Eleonora Willower, kept this diary, documenting the world around her during the Civil War. She was 18 when she started this diary in the early years of the war and was living with her family in Cumberland Furnace, Dixon County, Tennessee. In it, Eleonora recorded daily activities as well as her feelings about the ongoing war. The Civil War was a turning point for many women who began to see themselves in a different light and it marked a shift in the social and economic lives of women. As men left their homes and communities to fight, many women took up the work left behind. They began running their households and farms, conducting business activities, and performing other tasks that were traditionally done by men. These different and more public roles situated women with experiences that empowered them. The war also offered women an opportunity to provide care and support in a more public way than they had historically. They labored to fundraise and provide healthcare, food, shelter, and more for soldiers and others impacted by the war's devastation. Many of these wartime efforts provided a foundation for stronger social movements and crusades afterward, like the suffrage movement. Diaries like Eleonora's and letters written by women during the Civil War provide us with a glimpse into their lives during this transformative time. I invite you to learn more about this item and this topic by visiting our website.