Daisy Anderson (L) and Alberta Martin (R)

Daisy Anderson and Alberta Martin lived what seemed like parallel lives. Both had grown up poor, children of sharecroppers in the South. Daisy in Tennessee; Alberta in Alabama. Both women got married in their early 20’s, to husbands who were near 80. And both those husbands had served in the Civil War. Except, on opposite sides.

Daisy Anderson was black, her husband was a slave who escaped and joined the Union Army. Alberta Martin was white, her husband fought on the Confederate side. Daisy and Alberta were not alive during the Civil War. But they married into history.

On this episode of the podcast, two of the last surviving Civil War widows.

The Radio Diaries Podcast is produced by Joe Richman, Nellie Gilles, and Sarah Kate Kramer. Our editors are Deborah George and Ben Shapiro. We have support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowments for the Arts. We are a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX, a network of sixteen outstanding podcasts.