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“Economy Rules the Day:”
The Civil War Sacrifices of Judith Walker McGuire
by Tim Sheehan

Table of Contents | Introduction | Conclusion | Endnotes | Printable HTML version | Images | Related Web Resources

Room Hunting in Richmond (continued)

By August of 1864, a cynical Judith McGuire called the routine, “the usual refugee occupation of room-hunting.” McGuire perceived rents as “an extortion designed to take all that could be extorted from the necessity of others.” Paying “$100 to $110 per month” for rent was not affordable to the McGuires, so they shared rooms with family and friends throughout the war. (28) Discouraged at this time, she dreamed of the wealthy opening up their rooms to refugees. “The rent would perhaps be no object to them, but their kindness might be twice blessed-the refugees would be made comfortable and happy, and the money might be applied to the wants of the soldiers and the city poor.” To McGuire, this idea would assist all in need; the wealthy, refugees, the poor (she considered them a different class from refugees like her), and the soldiers. (29)

This fantasy never became reality. McGuire once asked the owner of a large residence housing a small family to take Rev. McGuire and herself as boarders. Appalled by McGuire’s suggestion, this person gave McGuire a cold look, which "meant me to feel that she was too rich for that.” McGuire withdrew her request, but felt “not a little scornful of such airs, particularly as I remember the time when she was not quite so grand.” (30) Obviously, McGuire viewed such people as being selfish since they did nothing to assist refugees.

The one residence that completely satisfied McGuire was a country cottage rented with other refugee friends in Ashland, Virginia, a village north of Richmond situated on the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad. The McGuires stayed there from the summer of 1862 to September 1863. The year at Ashland provided Judith McGuire with the stability and feeling of home that she once had in Alexandria. (31) The lack of domestic slaves did alter household responsibilities, a phenomenon that attacked the status quo of middle to upper class Southern women. (32) The Ashland household had to adjust to this circumstance. McGuire states in the Diary her expectations regarding the division of labor. The men were to manage their families' affairs. The younger married women of the house were to assume the housekeeping duties, with McGuire’s younger daughters, whom possessed “nimble fingers,” to assist only in emergencies. “We old ladies have promised to give our sage advice and experience, whenever it is desired,” wrote McGuire. Due to the expected light load of her household duties, Judith McGuire planned, at this time, to devote more time to ailing soldiers. (33)

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This page last updated 23 August 2008