Gunboat Quilts
The cause is a noble one, the effort is sublime, and the moral effect will reach far beyond the deadly projectiles which the contemplated gunboat can send. If the women take it up with a will, there is no word as fail.
"Mobile Register & Advertiser, 1862"
By 1862 it was obvious that the South direly needed more gunboats costing about $80,000 each. Women raised enough to buy three of these ships during that year.
Southern women responded to a patriotic call by creating gunboat quilts. The quilts displayed elaborate medallion style floral arrangements cut from printed fabric.
These elegant quilts were auctioned and raffled off. A quilt was sold in one place, it was re-donated by the purchaser, and then resold in another place. Several hundred thousand dollars was raised in this way and applied to paying for the gunboats. The boats were sometimes jokingly referred to as "petticoat gunboats" having been bought by the earnings of women.
Gunboat Quilt - Martha Singleton Hatter
"Gunboat Quilt" is one of two attributed to Martha Jane Singleton Hatter Bullock of Greensboro, Alabama whose husband had been killed in the war and who had at that time two sons fighting in the Confederate army.
Mrs. Hatter gave the quilt to be sold at auction in every town in Alabama to raise a fund with which to build a gunboat. As fast as the "gunboat quilt" was sold in one place it was re-donated by the purchaser and resold in another place. Several hundred thousand dollars was raised in this way and was applied to paying for the CSS Alabama.
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| Gunboat Quilt - Martha Singleton Hatter |
Quilt attributed to Martha Singleton Hatter - 71" x 68"
Collection of the First White House of the Confederacy
Montgomery, Alabama
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