Women on both sides of the civil war organized relief efforts; in the north the women's efforts soon became a national organization, the United States Sanitary Commission, which performed a critical role in providing food and medical services for the soldiers.
Conflict over issues of how much control the federal government should have over the states, industrialization, trade, and especially slavery had increased tension between Northern and Southern states. After Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860, 11 Southern states succeeded from the Union and set up an independent government, the Confederate States of America. These events led to the outbreak of the Civil War, a brutal, bloody, four-year conflict that left the South defeated and ended slavery at the cost of more than half a million lives.
A lot of women were left to run plantations while their husbands were away at the war. Many of them were very unhappy about this, and petitioned the Confederate government to let their husbands come home. Some women found themselves having a hard time trying to perform household chores that had always been done by slaves (Hart, 128). Women who were left with plantations were often struggling to manage, especially if, as sometime happened, their slaves ran off. In some parts of Georgia, it was reported that there was only one able-bodied white man in a ten-square-mile area. Slaves quickly took advantage of the situation, reducing the pace of their labor, disobeying orders, leaving their farms to visit with friends and relatives (http://www.civilwarhome.com/slavery.htm).
Women in the north and south both played an important role during the Civil War. Women were tired of staying in their homes all day cleaning and working for their husbands and kids. Even though women weren’t allow to join the army that didn’t stop them from trying. Many women disguised themselves as men and enrolled in the army. They were frustrated by their limitations in society. Women were becoming more active and many became spies or soldiers (Massey, 2). Women who were in or near the Army Camps were subject to careful scrutiny and were suspect, particularly if they were there at odd times, unescorted, or acted in anyway eccentric. Some women felt as though it was their wifely duty to follow their husbands into the war.
Sarah Emma Edmonds served in the Union Army during the Civil War. She was a master of disguise and was thought to be a man by all her comrades. Sarah called herself Frank Thompson, dressed as a man and traveled the countryside selling Bibles. On May 25, 1861, she enlisted as a private in the Second Michigan Infantry as Frank Thompson. She was known to disguise herself as a female Irish immigrant selling apples to the troops, a rebel guard and also a black youth calling herself Ned. Sarah took many personal risks to gather information (http://www.essortment.com/all/sarahemmaedmon_rcbd.htm).
The women who had served as spies or engaged in espionage were taking a great risk. Spies might tie up papers in their hair to get information to the other side. It was expected that ladies should be treated as ladies so they believed it very easy to move information or even contraband goods through enemy lines. Soldiers were instructed to search ladies attempting to pass through the lines for messages and contraband items such as weapons or quinine (Massey, 3). Several hundred women joined their husbands, sons or brothers working to help them. Most of the spy networks were employed with men by the Government. Many people did not like the idea of women doing a man's job, so the women made up their spy networks. They made good operatives because they were less conspicuous than men (http://www.east-buc.k12.ia.us/98_99/CW/spies/title.htm).
Among the most famous spies are Bell Boyd, Elizabeth Van Lew, Sarah E. Thompson, and Rose O’ Neal Greenhow. Bell Boyd was a spy for the Confederate side. She had a total of six publicly renown arrests, but even behind bars she passed union secrets to an operative she knew only as "C. H." (http://asms.k12.ar.us/classes/humanities/amstud/96-97/civwarwomen/women.htm).
Also, Elizabeth Van Lew was probably the best spy for the union army. She was thought of as a "harmless eccentric." However, Van Lew E. Thompson managed to plant a spy among Jefferson Davis’ own servants. Sarah provided information to the Union, which led to the capture of a Confederate General, in one case. Rose O’Neal Greenhow was one of the most renowned spies of the Civil War. She spied on behalf of the Confederate army. Greenhow was also imprisoned for her efforts in supplying the Confederate side with information concerning the Union army. Despite her imprisonment, she also managed to get information to the Confederates. She spied so successfully that she was credited with winning the battle of Manassas.
Women were the backbone of medical care for wounded soldiers. Often a single doctor would care for the more serious cases, while nurses, would care for the sick and wounded. Along with caring for men they had formed groups like the Sick Soldier's Relief Society, this group would meet to make bandages and knit socks to send out to the troops. They would manufacture the necessary supplies such as ammunition, uniforms, and other necessary. Northern women also had organizations like, the Sanitary Commission, which performed a critical role in providing food and medical services for the soldiers. June 1861, it was decided that Dorothea Dix would be appointed Superintendant of Army Nurses by order of President Lincoln and Secretary of War Cameron.
Nurses generally worked 12 hour shifts in a ward of at least 40 sick or wounded soldiers. They would be responsible for cooking the diet and feeding the soldiers, washing the soldier’s faces and hands, writing letters for the soldiers, dispense medications as ordered by the surgeons and if especially trusted by the surgeons could change bandages. The long hours and work load would often cause even the strongest of nurses to become ill. Some even died.
During the Civil War at least 3,000 women held paid nursing positions in the north and south, and thousand of others worked as volunteers. There were women doctors serving in the war as well. The first and only woman to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor was surgeon Mary Walker. She showed her bravery under fire at Gettysburg and a number of other battlefields by saving the lives of hundreds of Union soldiers.
Southern women took up different task. Their task consisted of piece work, sewing shirts and coats. Lucy Davis, a southern woman, wrote her brother Eugene a letter, in July 1861, in the letter she describes how busy the women are. She also mentions to him that she and two others have been sewing the shirts that she was mailing with the letter. Women would also do dangerous work like pack cartridges at the arsenal, some were killed in explosions. Many women in the south worked as private contractors.
The Civil War was a turning point for women who lived in the north and south. Women made many great contributions to the war. To quote the book “Women in the Civil War" by Mary Elizabeth Massey, they were "lept from their sphere’s". Women found themselves taking on new responsibilities and roles, rising to the occasion and becoming the better for it.
Taneah Martin-Allen March 16, 2009
Works Cited Page
Primary Sources:
1. Basker, James and Justine Ahlsrtom, e. I Take Up My Pen. New York: Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, 2008.
2. Basker, James, ed., Why Documents Matter. New York: Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, 2007.
3. Massey, Mary Elizabeth. Women in the Civil War. First. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Pr, 1994.
Secondary Sources:
4. Post, Charity. Women in The Civil War. 12 Mar 2009
5. "Slavery In The Civil War Era." Slavery In The Civil War Era. 24/11/05. 11 Mar 2009
