Women's Role In The Civil War Essay

Rather it be experiencing extreme passion to discover the world, patriotism and determinism to fight for their beliefs, or simply a desire to help, many women joined the Civil War. As an amazing step of progress in history, these heroes effectively challenged traditional values

If the women’s secret had been discovered, the soldiers did not do much except send the women back home. Some women treated soldiers who were wounded or sick coming from the battlefield, and they supplied the men with the equipment and other necessities they would need on the field. During the Civil War, Columbus, Mississippi became a well-known hospital town, taking in hundreds of the wounded. Women offered to become spies for the Confederacy to help the military gain useful information about the opposing side, and men did not commonly consider women, such as Rose O’Neal Greenhow capable of doing acts such as spying. Some Southern Democratically-involved women turned their noses from the Northern women in disgust, thinking it unbecoming to be around Republicans, and they continued this attitude for quite some time. But not all Southern women wanted the war, and they did not want to be rude to the “enemy”. One woman, Sarah Morgan, who had been treated well by the enemy said, “Fine, noble-looking men they were. One cannot help but admire such foes! . . .” In these cases where the enemy showed such acts of kindness, many Southern women felt respect and sympathy towards the Union soldiers. Though many of these opportunities for new roles for women opened up during the war, most women stayed at home and took care of their house and children.

Women in the Civil War were important because they played important roles. They played as nurses, spies, and some even disguised themselves as soldiers. The women could only play one of these roles. For example they can only be either a spy or nurse or a soldier. They can’t be two like a spy and a nurse.

One such woman was Harriet Tubman, who was a female war spy. She was a former slave, and the head of the Underground Railroad, which freed more than 300 enslaved people. Before being a spy, she worked as a cook for the Union army until they decided to recruit her. She was a very active woman in the war. Harriet Tubman “became the first woman in the country’s history to lead a military expedition when she helped Col. James Montgomery plan a night raid to free slaves from rice plantations along the Combahee River”(smithsonian). There were also memorable women on the confederate side of the war. A famous confederate woman, who went by the name of Rebel Rose, played a significant role during the war. Her birth name was Rose O’Neal and she used her outstanding social fluidity to get intel and pass it down the right channels to the confederate army. Even under house arrest, Rebel Rose still got her messages out. Women spies were sneaky during the war, usually using their charm to gain information for their side. Sometimes, they would even sneak weapons and supplies to the troops “To smuggle goods such as morphine, ammunition or weapons, they often attached them to the frame of their hoop skirts or hid them in baskets, packages and even inside dolls.””(civilwarsaga). Women in the civil war were not just useful in hospitals, but also excelled with undercover assignments as

Vast majority of women who participated in Revolution are camp followers, they took up the familiar domestic chores of cooking, cleaning, laundering, and providing nursing care. Women were meant to do basic stuff, because it was their prescribed gender role during the Revolution. However, women did risk their lives by sheltering soldiers, sometimes burn their crops or destroy any valuable property to prevent the enemy from taking/using them. Even though women could not be soldiers, during the war emergencies, whoever can fight will fight, the prescribed gender roles were totally ignored. In September, seven months before Lexington, women and male participated in arming for war; they rolled cartridges of powder and shot for the tens of thousands of militiamen. Individually, Deborah Sampson, a woman who dresses like a man, disguised her selves as men to enlist as soldiers. She fought for the US military for the entire revolution. In addition, women such as Mary Ludwig and Margaret Corbin, were known as “Molly Pitchers” would take over the firing line if men fell wounded. These women broke the gender boundaries dramatically. They were recognized as female veterans of combat, proved their ability, bravery on the battlefield during the American

Furthermore, some women enlisted in the armies disguised as males, others found they could contribute their service to the war through acting as scouts. For those women that enlisted, changing their dress was only a small fraction of the work required to blend in to their brigade. Hiding all feminine characteristics including the ways, in which they walked, talked, sat, and acted was necessary to avoid detection (Eggleston 2). An abundance of radical periodicals and writings intended for a female audience emerged at the beginning of the war (Endres 32). With ample encouragement women found it within their interests to take an active role in the fight. Some, including Elizabeth Van Lew, simply desired for the feuding between the regions to end and found espionage to be their contribution (Kane 235). In “Companions of Crisis: The Spy Memoir as a Social Document”, Curtis Carroll Davis depicts the female scouts perceiving their duty to their country to be through espionage. Surprisingly, men, including fathers and other patriarchal figures, actively sought the help of their female kin to play an active role in the war through espionage. For instance, the father of Antonia Ford encouraged his daughter to entertain and extract information from Union officers on behalf of the Confederate cause (Eggleston 97). The passion for liberty was undoubtedly just as

Everyone thinks that men where the only ones in the war, but that is not all true. In the civil war there women and men. Although women where not allowed to be in the war many disguised themselves as men to fight. Every women who went into the war had there own reasons, but most women went to the war to stay close to their love ones. It was discovered that women where in the war when they where cleaning the battle field and they discover a women dressed as a man. That is just one case of finding them an estimate of female soldier in the war is between four hundred and seven hundred and

“There were just shy of 400 documented cases of women who served as soldiers during the Civil War, according to the records of the Sanitary Commission.” (Brown, 2012)

When the American Civil War began on April 12th, 1861, over 3 million Union and Confederate soldiers prepared for battle. Men from all over America were called upon to support their side in the confrontation. While their battles are well documented and historically analyzed for over a hundred years, there is one aspect, one dark spot missing in the picture: the role of women in the American Civil War. From staying at home to take care of the children to disguising themselves as men to fight on the battlefield, women contributed in many ways to the war effort on both sides. Though very few women are recognized for their vital contributions, even fewer are

The Civil War were extremely affected the lives of American women. Many handful are disguised as men and jointed the fight, over served aspies and nurses. Many women took the role at home after their husband , brother, and father, were at the war. Thousands of women were enslaved began transition to freedom, beginning new lives surrounded by the war.

During the Civil War, women accepted the generally male occupation of nurses. Nursing was one of the most significant ways that women contributed to the war. It is estimated that over 3,000 women volunteered as nurses during the Civil War. According to Women in the Civil War, “so many women eagerly volunteered for the job, they earned a nickname from the press, Florence Nightingales”. Until the Civil War, women rarely worked as nurses outside the home. Whether on the side of the Confederate or the Union women took care of the wounded the best they could. Huge causalities on both sides meant everyone was directly affected by the war, even those living far from the battlefields. In many places in the South, where most of the fighting took place, every available building became hospitals, and women

On the eve of the Civil War, most ladies in the United States lived in provincial ranges and frequently performed depleting, physical work in and around their homes. It is little ponder, then, that a few ladies, in the same way as other men, jumped at the open door for enterprise by volunteering to battle when the Civil War broke out. Around 250 female Civil War officers have been reported by students of history, and there were without a doubt more. They participated in each real fight; at the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862, for instance, no less than six ladies battled, including Confederate Loreta Velazquez, who had additionally been at Fort Donelson. Most female troopers signed up with a male relative or life partner. Like male warriors, ladies were propelled by an assortment of elements. Notwithstanding the hunger for experience and the longing to go with their friends and family, ladies served out of devotion to a cause and out of the need to acquire cash for their families. Most female fighters stayed undetected as ladies unless they were injured or

When you hear women in the civil war, what do you think? Some people think can that really be, women are not meant for war, all they are needed for is cooking and cleaning and taking care of their children. Well everyone who stereotypes women of that is wrong, because just like men women did have some part of the civil war. Although they may have not fought in the war, they did help with the recovery of the injured men so that they can go back and fight in the war. Being a union nurse is not the only way they were apart of the war, some women did things that went down in history. Just like Harriet Tubman, who made history because she was the creator of the Underground Railroad. She was not the only women who was part of the army and made a

As of the mid-19th century and on was when African Americans and women were beginning to gain somewhat equal rights or were still disputing them. It is also well know that both have suffered in vastly different manners, but in some cases are very similar in certain struggles. African American men and women had to survive the terrors of the Ku Klux Klan in the southern states, managing life with the Black Code looming over their every move. They were basically fighting for something that a lot of people take for granted, their right to live as a regular citizen. White women on the other hand had their fair share of discrimination as well, when it came to labor, labor organizations and, equal wages.

After four years of seemingly endless battle between a divided nation, more than 600,000 people were killed. These lives, however, were not given in vain. Had it not been for the American Civil War, abolition may not have been carried out. The nation might have remained divided. Women might have remained confined to their roles as the "homemakers." Although the Civil War was fought in hopes of preserving the nation and ridding it of slavery, another war raged on within the depths of this war--the women's war. Serving as nurses both in the hospital and on the battlefields, women came to know a whole