Women's impact on the American Civil War

Civil War Women

Women in the Civil War

The Civil War is often remembered as a war that pitted brother against brother, and father against son. There are, of course, some conspicuously absent members of the house divided in these description of the war. There were certainly sisters, mothers, and daughters in addition to the brothers, fathers, and sons on both sides of the war, and doubtless these women made contributions to the war as well. their stories, however, are not told with either the regularity or the sense of importance that the male's tales of battle are, which could very well lead some to question exactly what the role of women in the United States' Civil War was, and how essential they were to both sides of the effort. there is no shortage of information available on the subject to any who are willing to look, and even a cursory examination of these resources reveals how truly essential women were for both the Confederacy and the Union, and most importantly for the young soldiers regardless of which side of the Mason-Dixon line they hailed from or fought for.

During the time of the Civil War, women were still politically impotent in the United States. A great deal of the groundwork for the suffrage movement was actually laid in the nineteenth century, and indeed the Civil War helped to bolster many of these activities by providing other causes to help draw attention to the wider issues women faced (ACW). As far as a political effect on the war however, women exerted it in the only limited way available to them -- they formed aid societies, primarily to care for wounded or sick soldiers, but also to raise funds to support the war effort in both the North and the South, and to both procure and make clothing to keep soldiers warm (ACW).

The primary role women are known for during the Civil War, however, is the direct care they provided to wounded soldiers in both the North and the South. Clara Barton, the founder of the Red Cross and one of the first true American nurses, is one figure that stands out prominently in this regard, but there are others who were also instrumental in effecting better care for the wounded. Mary Anne Bickerdyke, a trained nurse and activist, is almost single-handedly responsible for ensuring sanitary and healthy conditions in several military hospitals throughout Illinois, earning high praise from doctors that initially regarded her with no small amount of suspicion and ridicule (Stein 43). She and Barton were just two of many women who dedicated themselves to similar pursuits during the war, not to mention the many more who might not have been as politically active but who nonetheless were primarily responsible for bringing soldiers back to health.

Not all women played such traditionally feminine roles in the Civil War, however. Both the North and the South had notable female spies; ladies of a certain class simply wouldn't have been heavily scrutinized, nor would it have been thought that they would have any knowledge of essential strategic and political information. This allowed Washington, D.C. socialite Rose O'Neal Greenhow to continue spying for the Confederacy throughout the duration of the war, earning her a place as one of the most productive and renowned spies for the South in the war, male or female (Duke). The North had its spies as well; Sarah E. Thompson continued recruiting for the Union and providing information on Confederate movements around her home in Tennessee even after her husband's death (Duke).