Essay On Women During The Civil War

Many women did want to join the army. To do so, they had to dress as a man. They usually wore long dresses, hoop skirts, and corsets. To pass as a man they had to wear trousers or breeches. They usually wore long hair, but to be in the army they had to cut it short. When they did they were thought to be a male. The next step was to enlist. They looked for the nearest recruiter while in disguise, and they usually enlisted as volunteers. The new recruit would be asked what their name was, their occupation, and how tall they were. In that time no one had personal identification such as; social security numbers, photo ID's, passports, or drivers licenses. You usually had to be eighteen to enlist, but people

" ‘I want something to do…' ‘Write a book,' Qouth the author of my being. ‘Don't know enough, sir. First live, then write.' ‘Try teaching again,' suggested my mother. ‘No thank you, ma'am, ten years of that is enough.' ‘Take a husband like my Darby, and fulfill your mission,' said sister Joan. ‘Can't afford expensive luxuries, Mrs. Coobiddy.' ‘Go nurse the soldiers,' said my young brother, Tom. ‘I will!' (Harper 14)." This is a dialog of Louisa May Alcott with her relatives. Miss Alcott, like many other African American women, helped serve in the Civil War. During the Civil War, Miss Alcott held a variety of jobs. Mainly working as a writer, she held positions as a nurse, teacher, and volunteered in

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

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

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

The Civil War altered the lives of women, in both the North and South, just as it altered the nation as a whole. Although it is irrefutable that both the North and the South felt the wrath of the war, the South encountered a unique set of troubles that caused the weight of the war to fall predominantly on Southern women. Attempting to understand the experiences of all Southern women during the Civil War does not come without its challenges. It is impossible to connect the stories and experiences of all Confederate women without generalizing their history. However, by narrowing the analysis to a singular concentration of middle and upper class

Since most of these women were poor wives, mothers, and daughters who were accustomed to doing housework, they were well suited for the positions. Soldiers although women were not allowed to serve at the time and join the military. Many women still served as secret soldiers during revolutionary war. Females often disguised themselves as men by cutting their hair, binding their breast with bandages and adopting masculine names. Their motivations for signing up vary but since most of these women were young, unmarried and poor.

The role of females (regardless of loyalties) shifted dramatically from household partners to that of logisticians, medical and intelligence. While we are provided the details of camp followers and sutlers which have been part of military life since time immemorial, women took on various roles that were not explicitly conceived of in the

The American Civil War was a time of great trial and tribulation for the American people. It forced individuals to choose a cause, and many families were torn asunder as they chose opposing sides. As the men marched off to war a small group of women prepared to wage a different kind of warfare. These women became an overlooked but deadly force using espionage and womanly wiles to gather military intelligence for their cause. They used whatever means they had at their disposal to enter into the confidence of men within the opposing side and gain their trust. Women during this period were often overlooked as insignificant and stationary. Women were meant to stay within the home and care for their families needs. However, these extraordinary women rose to answer a more imminent need. These brave women had a profound influence on their cause.

During the Revolutionary War, many women supported the war effort primarily in quartermaster roles working as cooks, laundresses, and nurses. Deborah Sampson impersonated a man of over a year in General Washington’s Colonial Army. She

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

This is a significant body of work that focuses on the historical facts about how these women had the courage to step into these roles, trying to not be found out by others. They could not be themselves, but had to consume another identity in order to survive. Hall has examined the gender lens thoroughly, depicting these women as going above and beyond the call of war. He discusses that some women’s identities were discovered, but others died with secret. Hall’s purpose is clear, his intent is to separate fact from

As men were recruited to fight the battle, there was an estimate that about 400 women who had to change their appearance, transform into men, cutting their hair short to fight alongside men on the battlefield. Sarah Rosetta Wakeman, an example of a young lady from New York who expressed some insights into why women joined the army, and told of daily life in the army through letters to her family. She changed her first name to Lyons and with her complexion was enlisted because it did not require a physical exam but only a firm handshake. Additionally, at that time, it was necessary for her to work to help her dad to buy food and clothes for the rest of her siblings. Consequently, she and other women that took the role both in war and piece, was not discovered until late in life or even in death.

The common thought of all men during the World Wars were that women and war were not compatible, for the two of them did not mix in any way. Regarding the men away at war, these men when injured needed

“As a group, women soldiers never told their own stories, so we went looking for the contemporaries who told their stories for them. In the course of looking for women soldiers, we encountered a variety of other women at the war front or disguised as men... While these women have fascinating stories of their own, they are not included here. Our work focuses solely on women soldiers regularly enlisted or commissioned in the army.” (2) Included in the chapters are the history of women in battle, their means of disguising themselves, and their motivation for becoming soldiers.