If Confederate women had heard the Civil War referred to as a total war, they would have agreed because of the war s immense effect on their lives. Union generals did not intentionally kill or physically harm unoffending women and children. Nevertheless, the pillaging and destruction of private property as a strategy of war was shocking to civilians. They saw such attempts to break the will of the people to resist as violations of codes of war. There was no way that women and children on the home front could avoid the war. Whether or not civilians were in the pathway of troops, the Confederate government required sacrifices that affected each citizen s daily life. Fighting of the war caused the widespread absence of men, which was the most serious problem confronting Confederate women as they attempted to hold their homes and families together amidst unfamiliar duties that had previously belonged to men (see Table 20.1). Most women reluctantly assumed management of homes, families, farms, and businesses after male family heads went away to war. Many women for the first time faced the necessity of making decisions on their own and devising ways to support their families. The shortage of men made old standards impractical.