Elizabeth Scrivenor was born in Southampton, England on October 16, 1820 to Joseph and Elizabeth Scrivenor. When exactly she came to the United States appears to be unknown, but she married a Welsh man by the name of Richard Jones and lived in Galena, Illinois. The couple had a daughter, Lucy Ada in 1851, but Richard died just a year after the birth of their daughter, leaving Elizabeth a single mother and widow. She then moved to Wisconsin where she married a German immigrant named John H.F. Aufderheide in 1855. The couple had a son named Frederick in 1856. John enlisted in the Union Army in 1862 with the 33rd Wisconsin Infantry. Unfortunately, he died in 1864 of pneumonia, once again leaving Elizabeth a widow.

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     Widowhood during the Civil War was tragically widespread, and often placed a great social and financial burden on the woman affected. Though widows received pensions if their husband died in war, they often were meager and not easy to support a family with. Elizabeth Aufderheide’s pension was only $8 a month, the modern day equivalent of about $247. On top of this meager financial support, societal expectations for mourning women were lofty, as upon the death of her husband, a woman was expected to enter a period of mourning. Typically, this was a two year process consisting of two stages: full mourning and half mourning. A woman remained in full mourning for a year and one day after the death of her husband, and was expected to wear all black including a veil that covered the woman’s face, correspond using black lined stationary, and leave home only for church. Following this phase, a woman entered half mourning, where she was able to wear lighter albeit drab colors and remove the veil from her face. Widowhood carried a deeply gendered set of expectations for American women both Union and Confederate, and as the war raged and times became harder, these traditions became harder to uphold.