Women In The Civil War

Mary Surratt’s position pointed out the changing roles of women in society, particularly during the Civil War where women not only served as nurses but also as soldiers, spies, abolitionists, wearing pants in public. Women particularly working in espionage posed a dilemma for Union soldiers and federal officials. Did they treat them like they would a man? Or did they deserve special treatment because of their

What’s Your Role? “In Analysis: the Role of Women During the Civil War” Laurel Thatcher Ulrich once uttered, “Well-behaved women seldom make history.” Laurel was a professor at Harvard University and an author. This is very crucial during The American Civil War. The Civil War lasted from 1861-1865.

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 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

In a time when great uncertainty and chaos permeated throughout the United States, the Civil War necessitated the involvement of millions of Americans. Among those millions, women found themselves in conditions that had been previously unknown to them. Louisa May Alcott’s Hospital Sketches, written in 1863, exemplifies a Northern woman's changing role in society as she enters the previously unchartered territory of war. New conditions aside, one cannot argue that the Civil War solved gender inequality in the United States. How, then, was the Civil War simultaneously a step forward and a step backward for Northern women? The Civil War indeed broadened the scope of a Northern woman’s position in society militarily, professionally, and politically. However, as shown by Hospital Sketches protagonist, Tribulation Periwinkle’s, position as an army nurse, those opportunities did not extend outside the domestic sphere to which women had been confined since the creation of the United States.

The diaries and letters left behind by Southern women are the greatest asset in understanding the experiences of the “Confederate woman.” Of course not all Southern women shared identical experiences, the gravity of the war effected women differently largely due to geographic locations, age and social status. However, by tracing specific themes through historical scholarship, Confederate diaries, and letters, it becomes easier to conceive that Southern women took on the heaviest burdens of the war. The first theme consist of Southern women’s entrance into the political discourse of the secession crisis and the subsequent war. The second theme consists of the initial

The Civil War altogether influenced the lives of American ladies. A modest bunch camouflaged themselves as men and joined the battle. Others served as spies and nurses. Numerous more tackled new parts at home after their spouses, siblings, and fathers reacted to the invitation to battle. A large number of oppressed ladies started the move to flexibility, starting new lives in the midst of the revulsions of war. By war's end, the amazing loss of life of roughly 620,000 officers had left endless ladies in grieving. Contrasted with past eras, American ladies in general had enhanced their instructive standing, secured extra lawful rights, and procured more noteworthy access to made merchandise by the mid-1800s. Ladies had taken part conspicuously

About 150 years ago, one of the biggest wars in America’s history ended. Many people were involved in the American Civil War, including some that weren’t commonly talked about. Among those people, there were slaves, free blacks, women, and immigrants who fought or helped majorly in this war on both sides. Free African Americans would risk their lives to fight for the Union, while slaves would try to escape to the Union from the South to be able to fight. Women would be an immense help with nursing and other pivotal jobs like that. Even immigrants would help in some way. There were many minorities in the Civil War who helped in various ways and had an immense impact on the outcome of the war.

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.

The Civil War was a conflict fought between the North and the South in the United State over the abolition of slavery. More than three and a half and four million men served in the militaries for both sides and more than six hundred thousand died in the conflict. However, some see this war as “the white men’s war” because many white men from north and south fought to display their manhood and for what they believe. They shaped how a man should view their own masculinity and how to prove their manhood by combat. This conflict not only changed many African American lives, it also revolutionize how females view their gender role, in a given culture, masculine and feminine is closely related to men and women, but since many men went to fight in

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.

As the United States was continuing recovering from the Civil War and embracing the expansion of the West, industrialization, immigration and the growth of cities, women’s roles in America were changing by the transformation of this new society. During the period of 1865-1912, women found themselves challenging to break the political structure, power holders, cultural practices and beliefs in their “male” dominated world.

Women, regardless of the opposition, were determined to support their armies and their beliefs even on the battlefield. The North and South armies of the country were fighting without proper organization from their respective governments, leading women to volunteer to help their men in whatever manner they could. Contributing to the war effort, women were “responsible for much of the clothing, feeding, and nursing of the soldiers.”18 Women would cook and do the laundry for the soldiers, working in camps away from the battlefield. Other women would provide comfort for the dying soldiers, nurturing the wounded and staying with the men who were dying until their last moments. Their efforts were to offset the fact that the wounded men were separated from their loved ones and “represented domestic tranquility in the midst of armed conflict.”19 Women were not prohibited from nursing injured soldiers because it was “not yet a profession requiring special training…care of the sick and injured was traditionally a female skill”20. Nursing was not the only important contribution that women provided during the war. They also worked within their communities to make up for the men who had left to fight in the war, managing homes and plantations,

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

Breaking down gender barriers and ideology in which women are weak. War was a stepping stone for feminist on gaining women’s suffrage. At the beginning of the civil war Elizabeth Cady Stanton decided to postpone their agenda during the war and concentrate their energy on other activities to gain more recognition (Frost, Cullen 136). They decided to help in the civil war as nurses, soldiers, and other jobs which women before that time wouldn’t have worked.