author
Cora Mitchel
A teenage witness to the Civil War, she later turned her memories into a vivid personal account of displacement, loyalty, and survival. Her life also reached beyond the page, including years of work in the woman suffrage movement in Rhode Island.
1 Audiobook
Reminiscences of the Civil War
by Cora Mitchel
About the author
Born in 1847, Cora Mitchel wrote Reminiscences of the Civil War, a memoir drawn from her experience as a young girl when her Unionist family fled the Confederacy during the war. Her story looks at the conflict from the perspective of family life and forced upheaval rather than battlefield action, which gives it an immediate, human feel.
Records connected with her book and later historical summaries describe her as an American diarist and memoirist, and also note that she was active in music and teaching. She spent much of her later life in Rhode Island, where she became involved in public causes as well as writing.
Mitchel was also remembered as a suffragist. Biographical sources credit her with helping found the Newport County Woman Suffrage League in the early 1900s, showing that her legacy belongs not only to Civil War memory but also to the broader story of American women's civic activism.