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Women During The Civil War

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For Civil War women in the 1860s it was predictable wisdom that a “woman’s place is in the home,” but the Civil War challenged this view. There were many women who played an important role in the Civil War. It is normal to think the Civil War was a man’s fight. However during the war, many women challenged the role of the women and took on different roles. While the men marched off to war, the women had to work hard and try to provide for their families. Women became doctors, spies, nurses, couriers, and even soldiers. Both the Union and Confederate armies did not allow the enlistment of women. The women soldiers assumed the role of the man. By disguising themselves as a man, they took up arms and charged into battle (Blanton, 1993, p. 1). It is estimated that about four hundred women disguised their selves to be men and fight in the war (Righthand, 2011). Each of these women had their own reasons to fight, some did it for the salary to support their families, others for the loyalty to the cause, and some just for the excitement. In the words of Sarah Edmonds Seelye, also known as Franklin Flint Thompson of the 2nd Michigan Infantry: I could only thank God that I was free and could go forward and work, and I was not obliged to stay at home and weep. Seelye holds the honor of being the only woman to receive a veteran 's pension after the war (as cited in Smith, 2014 para. 4). At the beginning of the war, there few trained nurses in the civilian life and none in the

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