The public is invited to a talk by Lisa Tendrich Frank, author of The Civilian War: Confederate Women and Union Soldiers during Sherman's March, on Tuesday, November 29 at 4 p.m. at Pebble Hill.

The Civilian War explores home front encounters between elite Confederate women and Union soldiers during Sherman’s March, a campaign that put women at the center of a Union army operation for the first time. Ordered to crush the morale as well as the military infrastructure of the Confederacy, Sherman and his army increasingly targeted wealthy civilians in their progress through Georgia and the Carolinas. To drive home the full extent of northern domination over the South, Sherman’s soldiers besieged the female domain—going into bedrooms and parlors, seizing correspondence and personal treasures—with the aim of insulting and humiliating upper-class southern women. These efforts blurred the distinction between home front and warfront, creating confrontations in the domestic sphere as a part of the war itself.

Lisa Tendrich Frank received her Ph.D. in history from the University of Florida. She is the author and editor of numerous works relating to the Civil War, including Women in the American Civil War and the forthcoming The World of the Civil War: A Daily Life Encyclopedia.

The event is free, open to the public, and will be followed by refreshments. Books will be available for purchase and signing. Support for this event comes from the Auburn University Special Lectures Fund. The Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities at Pebble Hill is located at 101 S. Debardeleben Street, Auburn.

For more information on the program, call 334-844-4903 or visit www.auburn.edu/cah.