Drug smuggling dolls during the Civil War
artdaily.com
artdaily.com
Taking the only available information from the article--that being the two doll's names--I did the first thing I could think: Search the roster of soldiers during the Civil War to see if there the names 'Nina' and 'Lucy Ann' have any significance. Turns out there are only two matches for those names, both of which who are (possibly) females.
A. First we'll look at 'Nina.'
1) Only name who came up with this search was Nina Casting.
1a) Nina was a Confederate
1b) Nina was enlisted as a Private in the company E, 42nd Infantry based out of Alabama (1862-1865).
1c) 42nd Infantry only known battle which involved casualties was a 7 day battle in Resaca, Georgia of May 1864.
1d) 42nd Infantry mustered out almost exactly one year after the GA battle in April 1865.
1e) Final location of Nina Casting is unknown.
B. Next we have Lucy Ann.
1) She is matched to the only known name of Lucy Ann Cox.
1a) It is noted that Lucy Ann was following her husband James Cox.
1b) Lucy Ann's enlistment is listed as "Laundress." This is due to her responsibilities being "doing laundry for the regiment and sharing the toils, dangers and privations."
1c) Lucy Ann was enlisted in the A company, 30th Infantry of Virginia with her husband enlisting in April 1861.
1d) After 3 years in his enlistment, James was wounded and had his thumb amputated in June 1864.
1e) James Cox deserted his company on Feb 14 1865.
1f) Lucy Ann Cox died on Dec 17 1891.
[0] All information is sourced from the The American Civil War Research Database