At age 15, Margaret ran a private school at the home in Algiers. With the beginning of the Civil War, the public schools were closed and remained closed for the year that the confederate army was in control, the reason being that there was no money with which to run them. When the federal authorities took control, however, they ordered the schools reopened and Margaret took the oath of Federal allegiance as a teacher in the 5th District (Algiers). She continued to teach throughout the war and beyond, in fact, up to two days before her wedding.
