Octavia Harby Moses

Octavia Harby was the daughter of Rachel Mordecai and Isaac Harby, famed poet, dramatist, newspaper editor and advocate of Reform Judaism. Among her aunts were Mary Olivia Lucas Harby and Caroline De Lichtfield Harby, like her brother Isaac, a poet and active supporter of the Reformed Society, who, raised Octavia and her siblings when they were orphaned when Octavia was six.

In 1839, Octavia married Andrew Jackson Moses, son of Isaac Clifton Moses, with whom she had seventeen children, fourteen of whom lived to maturity. After the eleventh child was born, Andrew wrote in the family bible, “Heaven spare her and make her the last one.” They raised their family in Sumter, South Carolina.

Despite their intense bonds of family, Octavia and Andrew split over the question of secession during the lead up to the Civil War: she avidly supported it, while her husband opposed. Once hostilities commenced, Andrew would serve in home guard, while their five oldest sons all went off to fight for the Confederacy. Octavia organized a sewing society to make uniforms and worked with the Ladies Aid Society, which sent provisions to troops and hospitals. Her son Horace, who would later marry Emma Solomons Harby, was captured and another son Perry wounded. The day Lee surrendered to Grant, her eldest son Joshua was killed in battle at Fort Blakely. The war, even after its conclusion, continued to dominate her thoughts and efforts. In 1869, she founded and served as president of the Ladies Monumental Association, raising funds for a memorial honoring the Confederate soldiers who died at Sumter. In a poetic lament, “Exhortation,” Octavia wrote:

 

Oh, Land of the South, be thy soil ever sacred!

Enriched as it is by the blood of the brave,

To thee our love, to thy foes our hatred,

Thou birth-place of Heroes! Of Martyrs, the grave!

Octavia Harby Moses

c. 1840