Essay On The Role Of Women In The Civil War

When the Civil War commenced on April 12th, 1861, more than 3 million Union and Confederate soldiers geared up for battle. Men from all over America were appointed to go support their side in the war. While their battles are often historically analyzed, well known, and greatly documented, there is one aspect that rarely gets attention: the role of women in the American Civil War. The lives of women were drastically affected by the Civil War. Several disguised themselves as men to be able to join the battlefield. From remaining at home to take care of their children to serving as nurses and spies, women contributed a lot to the war. In comparison to previous generations, women of America have established additional legal rights, advanced their …show more content…
Initially, both North and South military administrations discouraged women from taking care of the wounded. Nursing was tough and usually grisly, therefore women had to demonstrate that they could do the job. In addition, they had to validate that they could perform within a dangerous and disorderly environment filled with male strangers. Plenty of northern women who worked as nurses did so below the guidance of a civilian establishment organized to care for the union wounded, the United States Sanitary commission. From changing bandages to dispensing medicine, the nurses of the civil war had a lot to offer. They distributed supplies, cooked and served meals, worked the laundry, and wrote letters to the soldiers. The founder of American Red Cross achieved eminence when she declined to wait until wounded soldiers had been taken to the end of the battlefield but instead nursed them where they had collapsed. Missing bullets at the battles Antietam and Fort Wagner, she was recognized as the “Angel of the Battlefield” and was selected superintendent of the nurses in the Army of the James in June 1864, despite her disapproval of the military’s strategy of the