Roles of Women in the American Civil War

The American civic war was, as all struggles are, affected not completely by the tame force fighting on the strifefield, but by the wo hands who served on the piazza front, in army hospitals, and occasionally next to work force on the battlefield. save as women influenced the war, the war sortd the world in which the women lived. The womens rights exercise began curtly in the beginning the polite War, and move through and through the war, growing stronger as women were touched(p) by the war, and longed for rights equal to men. Women supported men by donating supplies to the effort in twain the northwest and the southernmost.Women served as soldiers, functioned in military hospitals, and spied to discover precious schooling to charge their homeland. Women were a very valuable resource during the war, and the war was very influential on the focus women lived their lives in America. Before the Civil War, womens roles in America were changing. Economic modernization caused the production of items antecedently made by women to occur outside of the home. In some cases, families needed women to work for wages in or out of the home. i In almost cases, however, the men left for work darn the women stayed at home to scat to the house and raise the children.This caused the existence of separate spheres. ii With this shift in production, the decide of the home changed. Mothers were the source of honor and nurturing for the children. When families became much centered on love and affection, midle class families started having fewer children. iii This, in turn, caused women to be able to be more outicious in society, since they were not constantly expecting or nursing a newborn. iv In the early and middle 1800s, women moved out of the home and into the world sphere.M any unmarried women had little chance of being planters, and they were not hired in the city. v Most comm moreover, women worked from the home. Occupations that as well ask place outside of their home were traditionalistic feminie roles of seamstress, laundress, or nanny. few women were able to acquire jobs in retail, and women with larger homes could open a boardinghouse. vi Women (and children) worked in factories for wages and served humanity, and were generally overlooked by others. vii In the North, the manufacturing of cloth items much(prenominal) as clothing moved from the home to factories.Northern women increasingly could purchase thred, cloth, and clothing, while the South had fewer factories, so clothing was made in the home. viii grey women did not question their place in society and admired the traditional way of life on their plantations. ix With fewer children and much less work at home, families sent their children to crop more, and the public education system changed. The school became responsible for education and fond skills. Women became more involved in the training system, and most teachers were women. Because of this, women need ed to be educated, too. x Women found work as schoolteachers because the environs was safer and more comfortable than a factory. xi Other women worked as private music, dance, or art tutors. They did, however, make low salaries. Though women found employment as teachers and in factories and shops, they longed for a traditional family life. xii Education was military positioned different in the North and in the South. In the North, women were expected by intelligent and independent drop out thinkers, while grey women were expected to use their intellect to make polie chat and support their lady same(p) character. xiii Increasingly during the Antebellum period, women learned how to read. More families possess books and taught their children how to read. xiv Wealthy families may assume had private libraries, from which daughters could read a compartmentalisation of literature to harbour intellectual abilities. xv Though more women learned to read, numerous Southern women dwe lled illiterate some white women could not even deliver their own name. xvi Young women often preffered romantic novels that described a delusion life out of her reach, which caused parents to encourage solid, factual literature.Surprisingly, women were interested in schooling the things men learned, and yearned for an education equal to that of their husbands and brothers. xvii Unfortunately, the advancement of education for Southern women was uttermost behind that for Northern women, and was only available to the rich, leaving poorer girls from farming families impression more ignorant and belittled. xviii Women in the North were becoming increasingly active in the public arena, and hungered for a ordinate in government. Previously, women persuaded their husbands on honorable ground and raised moral citizens now they began taking a tand for themselves, language to legislators about their concerns. xix The most common way that women participated in society was by serving w ith churches and conjunctioning temperance and antislavery societies. xx round women delivered political tirades, denounced officials, gave advice on military strategy from the lecture platform, or participated in violent public demonstrations these were the ones that degraded the public. xxi One of the most well-known femal lecturers during the civil war, Anna Dickinson, delivered speeches on the conflict between the Union and Confederacy. xxii Her skills brought overwhelming popularity, fame, and wealth for some time, but her eccentricity and fair awakely nescience of business caused her time in the spotlight to be limited. xxiii Since many women rung against slavery, many men put on that the emancipation of slaves would pull them from the public eye, and exert them back in the home. xxiv Many women, however, quietly expressed their opinions through in the flesh(predicate) writings and private conversations. The war was a very personal event, so women were individually af fected by the choices made by their political leaders.In both the North and the South, women criticized leaders and blamed them for the heartbreak of the time. xxv As women became increasingly assured of and opinionated about national politics, they yearned more and more for a say in the election of governing officials. xxvi The first broad attempt to hand womens suffrage was at the Seneca Falls convention in 1848. approximately two hundred Americans gathered here, led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, to discuss womens rights. xxvii They drafted and approved the Declaration of Sentiments, which outlined faults in the masculine-dominated American government, and called for a change.Unfortunately, men continued to claim that a fair sexs place was in the home, not politics, and no state would make a law allowing women to select until several decades later. xxviii While the womens rights movement gained speed in the North, the South prided itself on avoiding issues of feminism. Some Sou thern women visited the North and attended meeting of womens right activists, and noted that they disliked the mixing of races and equality of sexes promoted. xxix Louisa McCord attacked Northern movement for femal suffrage, claiming that it took away feminity from women.She said women should display their opinion in society only through their male counterparts, not by giving public speeches and choose in elections. McCord stated that The true woman . . . preferred caring for her family to tinkering with constitutions. xxx Some women may have agreed with female superiority, but were too frightened of change to bring their thoughts forward. xxxi Women worked to supply materials to their armies. The United States Sanitary Commission was created only weeks aft(prenominal) the beginning of the war by Henry Bellows.He cooperated with Dorothea Dix, who was also working(a) on forming a nursing corps, but Bellows did not exigency to work with her. Through the course of the war, Norther n women worked to provide valuable materials to aid soldiers in war. xxxii Some soldiers were accompanied by their wives, who aided soldiers. They worked doing laundry, cooking for soldiers, nursing soldiers in emergency situations, or counseling soldiers during this traumatic time. xxxiii These women often cared for the men and boys as if they were her own sons.Many groups of soldiers claimed a woman as its mother figure, and continued to include and honor her long after the war. xxxiv While it was easier for a woman to enter the army with a husband and not be questioned too intensely, women who chose to help soldiers independently were often critisized by the public. xxxv Many women demonstrated their patriotism by dressing as men and fighting in the army. withal more women thought and wrote, wishing that they could be allowed to fight aboard their male counterparts. xxxvi Regulations prevented some from attempting to join, others wrote to generals asking permission to volunteer to fight, and there were women who united battle as a confrontation was occuring, bypassing official hitch altogether. xxxvii The physical psychometric test was a barrier for females while some were not able to join because of this, other doctors lied on womens behalf to allow them to join. Still others coupled without a physical examination or even official enlistment (women may have joined soldiers and began fighting during a skirmish or battle). xxxviii Women joined for many different reasons to be with husbands, brothers, or fathers (though some enlisted secretly, against the wishes of relatives) to pass away home for the money or adventure patriotism and some, to escape the oppresive social restrictions placed on women in that day and age. xxxix While some joined with family members, others risked the end of family communications by joining. When Ellen Goodridge informed her father that she would fight alongside her fiance, her father disowned her. xl Young women dreamed of changing the world, of doing something important, and joining the army could be their chance.They looked up to figures such as Joan of Arc, and wanted to achieve that kind of glory. xli The view of peoples enlistment choices varied by gender. While men were looked down upon if they did not fight alongside their brothers, women recieved the same social handling if they did join the army. xlii Women obviously faced difficulties menstruation, concealing their figure, and the fact of voice and lose of facial hair. To deal with thease complications, women found privacy as many little men did and posed as adolescent boys, who often made their way into the regiments. xliii To enhance their masculine reputation, women learned to act like men by playing cards, smoking cigars and chewing tobacco , drinking, and swearing. xliv One thing that helped women maintain their disguise was the fact that no soldier expected to find a woman in the ranks men were not looking for them, so it was eas ier to remain unnoticed. xlv Wounds and hospital treatment was the most common way for a womans gender to be discovered. xlvi Unfortunately, a womans sex was sometimes uncovered before she even set foot on the battlefield Sarah Collins and bloody shame Burns, for example. xlvii Collins, who was of very good health and could have easily borne the hardships incident to a soldiers life, was an orphaned adolescent living in Wisconsin who enlisted with her brother. xlviii She was detected by the was she put on her habilitate and stockings before being able to support the Union next to her brother. xlix Mary Burns, also a Northerner, joined to be with her significant other from Michigan. l She was arrested in Detroit, also before fighting next to the man with whome she enlisted. liThese women fearlessly performed any task asked of them, and fought bravely in a situation where society assumed women would not be able to function, much less fight like the man standing next to her. lii Wome n soldiers readily performed any task tending(p) to them, just as if they were a male soldier. It was not uncommon that soldiers were pulled off of the field and asked to work in hospitals. liii Some women joined for medical service of process directly. liv Volunteers retrieved maimed from the battlefields and nursed patients as they waited for a surgeon. Women were usually untrained, and had to follw strict regulations.Many soldiers died solely from disease caused by new exposure to the ranks, and thousands died on the battlefield after being left unaided. lv Across the Confederacy, societies were formed to gether supplies and volunteers that were sent to Virginia to help wounded soldiers. Women learned to dress wounds efficiently, where they may have fainted at the sight before the war. lvi Soldiers and generals were hungry for information about the fence side. Women sometimes gained insight from Federals through casual conversation, but others were sent north to spy and bring information to Jefferson Davis or General Robert E.Lee. Women carried notes filled with information hidden in hams or in the folds of their skirts. lvii Some hid in conspicuous places and acted as faithful members of the opposing side, others rode out after midnight to deliver information to officials. This was sometimes dangerous work soldiers shot these women from afar to stop them from delivering secret plans or other information. lviii As citizens of America, the war undoubtedly impacted women. With the absence of men not experienced previously in America, womens roles shifted ramatically, in and out of war. When men left, women took their place, and that change could not be reverted when the war was over. The result of the American Civil War emancipation also altered womens home life. i pack M. McPherson, Ordeal by Fire The Civil War and Reconstruction ( impertinent York McGraw Hill Companies, Inc. , 2001), 19. ii McPherson, 19. iii McPherson, 20. iv McPherson, 20. v Geor ge C. Rable, Civil Wars Women and the Crisis of Southern Nationalism (Chicago University of Illinois Press, 1989), 26. vi Rable, 27. vii Mary Elizabeth Massey, Women in the Civil War (Lincoln University of Nebraska Press, 1994), 153. viii Rable, 27. ix Rable, 30. x McPherson, 20. xi Rable, 28. xii Rable, 29. xiii Rable, 18-19. xiv Rable, 17. xv Rable, 17. xvi Rable, 18. xvii Rable, 17-19. xviii Rable, 20-22. xix Jeanie Attie, chauvinistic Toil Northern Women and the American Civil War (Ithaca and London Cornell University Press, 1998), 46. xx James L. Roark, et al. , The American Promise A History of United States, 2nd ed. (Boston and New York Bedford/St Martins, 2002), 380. xxi Massey, 153. xxii Massey, 154. xxiii Massey, 154-55 xxiv Massey, 161. xxv Massey, 161. xxvi Michael P. Johnson, ed. , Reading the American Past Selected Historical Documents, Volume I To 1877, tertiary ed. (Boston and New York Bedford/St. Martins, 2005), 225-26. xxvii Johnson, 225-26. xxviii Roark, 380. xx ix Rable, 15-16. xxx Rable, 16. xxxi Rable, 16-17. xxxii Attie, 78. xxxiii Massey, 78. xxxiv Massey, 78. xxxv Massey, 78. xxxvi DeAnne Blanton and Lauren M. Cook, They Fought Like Demons Women Soldiers in the Civil War (New YorkVintage Books, 2002), 25 xxxvii Blanton, 25-28. xxxviii Blanton, 25-28. xxxix Blanton, 30-32. xl Massey, 80. xli Massey, 78. xlii Blanton, 30. xliii Blanton, 46-50. xliv Blanton, 52-53. xlv Blanton, 57. xlvi Massey, 80. xlvii Massey, 80. xlviii Blanton, 33, 56. xlix Massey, 80. l Blanton, 31. li Blanton, 124. lii Francis Butler Simkins and James Welch Patton, The Women of the Confederacy (Richmond and New York Garrett and Massie, Incorporated, 1936), 80. liii Blanton, 65-66. liv Blanton, 65-66. lv Simkins, 82-83. lvi Simkins, 82-83. lvii Simkins, 82-82. lviii Simkins, 82-82.