Thought some of you might find this interesting, memories from a lady named Mrs. Nettie Kraft about the (1860-1865)Civil War: "When my brother was five years old and I was six and a half, our greatest trouble came to us. Father, the bread-winner, was drafted for the Civil War and mother was left to fight the battle of life alone for herself and two small children. Food was not hard to get, as she rented the land on shares, but shoes and clothing were, with eggs 5¢ a dozen and butter 15¢ a pound. How mother did everything she had to do, I don't know, she must plant and care for potatoes for the year's use, plant and care for the garden, milk the cows, churn the butter, care for horses, cattle, and hogs. And every evening she must go for the cows, which sometimes wandered far up the river bottoms. We little tots would stand at the north window and watch her go across the cultivated ground; when she reached the prairie where the grass grew so tall we could see her no more, we would cry and cry and finally crawl into bed and cry ourselves to sleep, for it was often very late before she returned, wet almost to her arms from the grass that grew so tall. How her heart must have ached when she was forced to leave us there alone. In memory of my mother, I want to say that those lone women on those lonesome Iowa prairies, and in other states as well, had the harder part of the Civil War to live through. Their husbands and sons had hardships to bear, many of them, but they had companionship and excitement to keep them up, while these brave women fought their battles alone. Many men gave their lives in the war. Can anyone say how many women's lives went out because of sorrows too great, of burdens too heavy? No record has been kept of these; no monuments erected for them."