Work of the UDC

Monuments were not the only way in which the ladies communicated the Lost Cause memory, though they were the most visible and financially demanding. The daughters also founded homes for needy Confederate veterans as well as several locations dedicated to needy Confederate women or other family members. They often established parks, constructed markers at notable Confederate locations, and maintained cemeteries of Confederate dead. One of they most successful venture which is still present in the United States today is the creation of an auxiliary group known as the Children of the Confederacy. Through the Children of the Confederacy, the women involved are able to deeply indoctrinate the Lost Cause Narrative as well as a strong sense of Confederate pride into young children. This line of work may not be tangible evidence of their work yet it is extremely successful in their quest for vindication. Historian Catherine Bishir argues that women used gender conventions to accomplish their goals that would have been difficult if not impossible for males in similar organizations. Similarly, in A Woman's War, Campbell and Rice discuss the resentment many women felt towards men for failing to protect them throughout the war however they continued to embrace the traditional ideals from antebellum life despite the new public roles the war established.

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Working with children was no strange task for women during the time therefore it naturally fell into the agenda. The UDC realized that they could control the learned history of future generations by starting with children whom they already taught everything else. This was perhaps one of their cleverest moves. Through the widespread indoctrination of children throughout the South, the UDC was able to communicate their Lost Cause sympathies to large numbers of individuals through catechisms, songs, textbooks, and other modes. They labeled their teaching Southern heritage and pride, acceptance of one's background. The spread from there would be imminent. After all, women are caretakers and nurturers; but in this case, they used their role as teachers, mothers, nurturers to rewrite the history of the South for generations to come.