Women\'s Contributions to the American

Women's Contributions To The American Civil War

The American Civil War was a war between brothers, cousins, friends and neighbors, and many of these were women (Women pp). Military records, diaries, and history books show that women contributed a great deal to the war effort by serving as vivandieres, women who provided food, provision and liqueurs to the soldiers, and as sutlers, peddlers who sold goods to military units in the field (Women pp). Women also served as nurses, soldiers and even spies (Women pp). Historical records verify that over eighty women were either wounded or killed at various battles during the War Between the States, and that an estimation of more than four hundred women served in the Civil War on both sides, not counting the thousands who served as nurses (Women pp).

Emma Edmonds was one such woman who not only succeeded in remaining in the army for several years, but was also eminently successful as a Union spy, all the while impersonating a man (Sara pp). Born in 1842 in Nova Scotia, Emma had a very difficult early life due to her father's wrath because she was not born a boy (Sara pp). To counter his temper, she did all she could to prove that she was in fact a boy underneath her femininity, however, when she could no longer take his abusive treatment, Emma fled to the United States and settled in Flint, Michigan (Sara pp).

When the first call for Union enlistments went out, Emma cropped her hair, got a man's suit of clothing, took the name of Frank Thompson and tried to enlist (Sara pp). After four attempts, she finally succeeded and was sworn into the Union Army - it should be noted that during this era there was no medical examination for enlistment, enlistees were merely asked questions (Sara pp). On April 25, 1861, Emma Edmonds, alias Frank Thompson, became a male nurse in the Second Volunteers of the United States Army, and after training in Washington, D.C., her unit was sent south to become part of McClellan's campaign in Virginia (Sara pp). When a Union agent working for McClellan was caught and killed, Private Frank Thompson volunteered to become a spy for campaign (Sara pp). She studied everything she could find on weapons, tactics, local geography and military personalities, and when interviewed for the position, so impressed the staff that she was immediately given the position (Sara pp).

Prior to her first mission, Emma, (Private Thompson), had to devise a disguise so as not to alert the Confederates of her real mission (Sara pp). She decided to enter the Confederacy as a black man, and assisted by the wife of the local chaplain, she used silver nitrate to darken her skin to the point that the doctor she worked for in the hospital did not recognize her (Sara pp). Once on the Confederate front, donned in men's clothing and a black minstrel wig, and using the assumed name of 'Cuff,' Emma was first assigned to work on the ramparts being built to counter McClellan and then moved to the kitchen where she learned about the size and moral of the army, and weapons available, including the 'Quaker guns' - logs painted black to look like cannons from afar (Sara pp). On the third day she escaped and returned to the Union side and delivered the information to McClellan, then returned to her duties as a male nurse (Sara pp). A few months later, Private Thompson was again asked to infiltrate the Confederate lines, yet this time she dressed as a fat Irish peddler woman named Bridget O'Shea (Sara pp). Once again she was successful in gaining admittance to the Confederate camps, where she sold some of her wares and garnered as much information as she could (Sara pp). While returning to the Union camp, she was wounded in the arm, but managed to elude the Confederates (Sara pp).

While serving under General Sheridan Emma again went behind enemy lines as Cuff, and also as a black mammy doing laundry where she had access to officers' clothing and was able to obtain official papers which she brought back to the union side (Sara pp). Emma also served under General Burnside, where she assumed the role of a young man with Southern sympathies named Charles Mayberry and once again was successful infiltrating enemy lines (Sara pp). While serving under General Grant, Emma became ill with malaria and in order to keep her identity secret she left camp to recover in a private hospital in Cairo, Illinois (Sara pp). After recovery she planned to rejoin her unit, however, she discovered that the name of Private Frank Thompson was on a list of deserters, so she went to Washington and worked as a nurse until the end of the war (Sara pp). As Thompson, Emma had accomplished eleven successful missions (Sara pp).

After the war, Emma wrote her memoirs titled 'Nurse and Spy in the union Army' and gave all the profits from her popular book to the U.S. war relief fund (Sara pp). She then returned to Canada and in 1867 married Linus Seeyle and returned to the U.S. And raised three sons (Sara pp). Although happily married, Emma brooded over being branded a deserter, so she petitioned the War Department for a full review and on March 28, 1884, the House of Representatives passed House Bill Number 5335 validating Mrs. Seelye's case (Sara pp). On July 5, 1884, Congress granted Emma Edmonds, alias Frank Thompson, an honorable discharge from the army, plus a bonus and veteran's pension (Sara pp). Emma died on September 5, 1889 in La Porte, Texas and is buried in the military section of Washington Cemetery in Houston and in honor of her duty and devotion she is the only female member of the organization formed after the Civil War by Union veterans, the Grand Army of the Republic (Sara pp).

Clara Barton, born in 1821, began her work in the Civil War in April 1861 (Clara pp). After the Battle of Bull Run, she established an agency to obtain and distribute supplies to wounded soldiers and in July 1862, gained permission to travel behind the lines, eventually reaching some of the grimmest battlefields of the war and serving during the sieges of Petersburg and Richmond (Clara pp). Clara was a true humanitarian, delivering aid to soldiers of both the North and South (Clara pp). After the war, she became a popular and widely respected lecturer and in 1881 she established the American Red Cross, and served as its director until her death (Clara pp).

When Clara was sixteen, phrenologist Lorenzo Fowler encouraged her to become a teacher to cure her shyness (Clara pp). She taught in a small Massachusetts town for ten years and later while teaching in a private school in Bordentown, New Jersey, recognized the need for free education, set up one of the first free public schools in the state (Clara pp). In 1854, she moved to Washington, D.C. And became the first woman to work at the Patent Office (Clara pp).

When war broke out between France and Prussia, bringing hardship to many French civilians, Clara joined the relief effort and in the process was impressed with a new organization, the Red Cross, which was created in 1864 to provide humane services to all victims during wartime under a flag of neutrality (Clara pp). Upon returning to the United States, Clara began petitioning the government to establish an American Red Cross and finally in 1881, at the age of 60, the government recognized the Red Cross to provide aid to natural disasters (Clara pp). She continued to do relief work in the field until she was well into her seventies, however, she was not a strong administrator, and due to political feuding at the American Red Cross, she was forced to resign as president in 1904 (Clara pp). Clara Barton never married and died in 1912 at the age of ninety and is buried less than a mile from her birthplace in Oxford, Massachusetts (Clara pp).

Pauline Cushman was an actress who spied for the Union secret service and military intelligence in Louisvill, Kentucky and Nashville, Tennessee (American pp). On a mission behind Confederate lines, Pauline was captured and sentenced to death, however, she was left behind when Bragg's forces withdrew from Shelbyville, Tennesse and she was later resuced by the Union Army under General Rosecrans (American pp).

Sarah Wakeman served as a Union soldier under the names Edwin Wakeman and Lyons Wakeman (Sarah pp). She left home in 1862 to find work in Binghamton, New York, and realizing that she could ear more money as a man, disguised herself and took a job as a boatman on a coal barge (Sarah pp).

During a trip upriver, she came in contact with soldiers of the 153d New York, who, believing she was a man, encouraged her to enlist (Sarah pp). On August 30, 1862, Sarah joined the regiment as Lyons Wakeman and for the next nine months performed guard duty in Alexandria, Virginia (Sarah pp). Sarah's first filed duty occurred in February 1864, when the 153d marched 700 miles to join the Red River campaign in Louisiana (Sarah pp). As the campaign was nearing the end, Sarah was stricken with dysentery and died in the Marine Hospital of New Orleans on May 22, 1864 (Sarah pp). Her identity remained undiscovered for more than a hundred years, until the letters she had written home during the war surfaced (Sarah pp). She had left behind a ring, on which was engraved her regiment and name (Sarah pp). She is buried in Louisiana in a grave marked Lyons (Sarah pp).