Enduring Hardships and Gaining Social Independence

The Home Front Women faced many hardships Worry or grief for husbands, sons, brothers, fathers Shortages of supplies (e.g. food, clothing) Battles close to home

Challenges Faced by Southern Women Southern women “came into more direct contact with the horrors of war than did most Northern women” (Hillstrom, K. and L. C. Hillstrom, 2000) Shortages of food and supplies Substitutions for medicine, coffee, kerosene, shoes Most major battles took place in the South Women became nurses involuntarily, as homes were used as hospitals

Northern Women Coped by… … Getting jobs. Many factory jobs needed to be filled, since the men who worked them went to war. Many women also needed the income from such jobs …Forming Aid Societies. 7,000 + aid societies were formed in the North. U. S. Sanitary Commission raised money for medical supplies, trained nurses, and standardized health care Prior to the Commission, an “estimated 4 soldiers died of disease for every 1 in battle” (Women in the Civil War, 1999).

Nurses Women in both the North and South were motivated to become nurses to… Be near loved ones Compassion A sense of duty For the money For a sense of adventure

Challenges for Nurses Becoming a Nurse… In both the North and South, laws were enacted to allow women to become nurses Circular Order No. 8 (July 1862) Battlefield Conditions… Nurses in the South often had to continually move patients and hospitals in order to remain behind battle lines (Hillstrom, K, and L. C. Hillstrom, 2000)

Notable Nurses Dorothea Dix Union’s Superintendent of Nurses, Recruited competent nurses Mary Ann Bickerdyke Union nurse was the only woman (nurse) at the battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, caring for 1,700 wounded in a field hospital Sally Louisa Tompkins Ran a Confederate hospital in Richmond, where it is believed that she lost only 73 of her 1,333 patients (Women in the Civil War, 1999)

Spies Men didn’t believe women were capable of deceit, and would not be spies Women spies relied on their status as women for greater leniency if caught Women who were suspected of espionage were run out of town….even if there was no proof. These women were often innocent of the accusations (Hillstrom, K. and L. C. Hillstrom, 2000)

Famous Spies Elizabeth Van Lew-- “Crazy Bet” Pretended to be eccentric so that Confederate officials would think of her as harmless Helped Federal prisoners escape from Richmond, and provided the Union with information that helped Grant capture Richmond Rose O’Neal Greenhow— A Washington, D. C. socialite who used her social status to gain information from Union officials; she sent secrets to friends in the South Helped turn the First Battle of Bull Run into a Confederate Victory in 1861 (Hillstrom, K. and L. C. Hillstrom, 2000)

References Dix, D. L. (1999). Circular Order No. 8. In The Civil War. Woodbridge, CT: Primary Source Media. Hillstorm, K., and L. C. Hillstrom. (2000). Women in the Civil War. In American Civil War reference library (Vol. 3, pp ). Detroit: UXL. Women in the Civil War. (1999). In Women in America. Woodbridge, CT: Primary Source Media.