My family roots stretch from Maryland through Tennessee to Georgia and Alabama.

I have a tangible souvenir in a lovely cameo broach which was given to my great grandmother in 1860 when she was at Female College in Columbia, Tennessee.

I don't know if the war ended her studies. However, by at least one account (I.M.E. Blandin 1909), the college was “occupied and much abused by the Federal troops during the war between the States,” so classes did not take place again until the troops withdrew from the area and the buildings were repaired.

The broach was subsequently given to me by my great grandmother’s daughter -- my grandmother -- when I entered college.