Women and the Civil War

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Women and the Civil War

• By Courtney Dahl

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Women Soldiers

• With the start of the Civil War came the
  recruitment of men in to the Union and
  Confederate armies. Fathers, husbands, sons, and
  brothers all left their women forgotten at home.
  Women, feeling neglected and alone, wanted to
  support the war effort and be with their husbands
  so many disguised themselves as men and enlisted
  in the military.

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How did they do it?

• Because of the poor health examination
  standards, women could easily be allowed in to
  the army and would use cloths to bind their
  chests as well as padding around their middles to
  appear more muscular. Because women were
  registered under male names, it is unclear how
  many women soldiers there really were. A rough
  estimate is around 400 while some say the number
  was many times larger than that. Women were
  represented in all three main branches of the
  army (infantry, cavalry, and artillery), a
  surprising number of them advancing through the
  ranks to become sergeants, and in some cases
  officers, until wounded, killed, or being found
  out through some other extreme circumstance. Many
  women were even discovered because their
  mannerisms gave them away. The way they tied
  their shoes or wrung out a dish towel were all
  tell tale signs of their true gender.

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Civil War Nurses

• Approximately two-thousand women in the Union
  and the Confederacy served as volunteer nurses
  during the Civil War. Seeking direct involvement
  in the war, women dedicated their time to caring
  for the wounded and the sick on and off the
  battlefield.

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The Angels of the Battlefield

• In the beginning men were outraged at the very
  thought of women working as nurses in the Civil
  War. They thought it inappropriate for women to
  see male naked bodies and to be surrounded by the
  gore of the battlefield. But women went right on
  tending to the sick and experienced firsthand
  amputated limbs, mutilated bodies, disease and
  death. Some of their daily duties included
• Tending to and cleaning wounds
• Administering medications
• Comforting the dying
• Searching for wounded on the battlefields
• Assisting doctors during operations
• Writing letters for the soldiers
• Talking to soldiers and building up moral
• Transporting and delivering supplies
• Overseeing sanitary conditions at various
  facilities

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Important Nurses in the Civil War

• Dorothea Dix and Clara Barton were two of the
  most influential nurses in that they led a
  national effort to organize a nursing corps to
  care for the war's wounded and sick. Dorothea Dix
  was already known for her work in improving the
  care for the insane but for the war effort, she
  began to recruit women to serve as nurses in the
  Army Medical Bureau. Clara Barton, determined to
  help in any way she could, took care of the
  wounded soldiers who returned to Washington but
  eventually had the opportunity to work on the
  front lines of battle. After the war, Clara
  Barton became the founder of the American Red
  Cross.

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Civil War Women in Espionage

• Women proved to be quite valuable when it came
  to spying for both the Confederacy and the Union.
  Their coy and gentle nature did not make them an
  easy suspect and many men would not be caught
  dead interrogating a woman. Women would often
  seduce the soldiers in to giving out information
  or often be at the right place at the right time
  and overhear useful information. The fashion of
  the time period proved to be useful as well. The
  large hoop skirts were convenient for hiding not
  only messages but goods and packages as well.
  Some women even hid letters in the center of
  their bun hairdos!

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United States Sanitary Commission

• For the women looking to support the war effort
  but not wanting to hide goods under their skirts,
  sponge bathe an amputated leg, or dress like a
  man, the United States Sanitary Commission was
  born. In 1861, President Lincoln reluctantly
  signed the bill making the institution an
  official agency. He believed that the support
  from women was not needed and would just be an
  annoyance. He would soon be proved wrong when the
  volunteer work of thousands of women would result
  in cutting the disease rate of the Union Army in
  half and raising around twenty-five million
  dollars in support of the Northern war effort.

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What exactly was the U.S.S.C.?

• The United States Sanitary Commission allowed
  women to really get involved in ensuring the
  comfort and safety of their soldiers. Women
  tirelessly asked neighborhoods for donations,
  worked as nurses, organized kitchens in the
  camps, ran hospital ships, knitted socks
  gloves, sewed blankets uniforms, baked food,
  and organized Sanitary Fairs that raised millions
  of dollars worth of goods and funds for the
  Federal army. Warehouses were set up to repack
  and send out all of the goods being shipped in by
  mothers, daughters, aunts, and sweethearts who
  had joined together in thousands of ladies aid
  societies all throughout the North. Sanitary
  agents scrutinized the camps, inspecting the
  living conditions and the hospitals and set
  standards for the hiring of medical personnel.
  After the war, the USSC worked with Union
  Veterans to secure their bounties, back pay, and
  apply for pensions.

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Lets Sum It All Up Shall We?

• The women of the Civil War were revolutionaries
  that shattered the boundaries and limits placed
  on them by society in order to help in every way
  possible. They deserve a huge amount of
  recognition for their contributions to the Civil
  War and without their efforts, the Civil War
  might have been drastically different.

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Sources
http//www.forttejon.org/ussc/ussc.html
http//americancivilwar.com/women/
http//scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/greenhow/1863-07-2
0/1863-07-20.html
http//userpages.aug.com/captbarb/femvets2.html
http//www.hallrichard.com/civilwomen.htm
http//www.civilwarhome.com/civilwarnurses.htm
http//www.dtsk8.org/6_8/8/Civil20War20Webpage-R
S/indexcivil.html