Women of the Civl War
As we honor our Civil War ancestors for their sacrifice and service, we honor not only the veterans who served, but also the families waiting for them at home, hoping for news of the victory that would end the war and bring the soldiers home again. A major source for war news at the time was the publication Harper’s Weekly. Civil War era issues are on line, and are a valuable resource for understanding the lives and times of people in a nation under siege.
The role of women during the conflagration, is often perceived as waiting, “keeping the home fires burning”, and sacrificing their husbands and sons. However, many women made important contributions of their own toward the preservation of the union and the abolition of slavery. Click on the links below to find out more about their efforts.
In 1861, Julia Ward Howe traveled to Washington, D.C. with her husband, who was dispensing supplies to Union soldiers. Upon hearing the popular army song “John Brown’s Body", she wrote the lyrics for the famous "Battle Hymn of the Republic" to be set to the same tune. Published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1862, the song served as an inspiration to Union soldiers fighting against slavery. Howe's work is now considered an anthem for freedom, and in 1908, Julia Ward Howe was the first woman to be elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, was inspired by her distress at the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. That book, published in 1852, brought the evils of slavery to the attention of the American Public and helped to bring humanitarian concern about the welfare of enslaved people to the political forefront. In fact, on meeting Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1862, Abraham Lincoln has been quoted as saying "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that started this Great War!"
Harriet Tubman, a runaway slave herself, was a well known “conductor” of the Underground Railroad. During a ten year period, she personally escorted more than 300 slaves to freedom. In the years preceding the war, she was an activist for the abolition movement. During the war she served the Union as a spy. Harriet Tubman was so threatening to the South that by the end of the war the South was offering a $40,000 reward for her capture.
Clara Barton was concerned about the preparedness of the Army Medical Department at the outset of the war. She lobbied army bureaucracy until permitted to bring medical supplies and care to the battlefield. At the battles of Cedar Mountain, Second Bull Run, Antietam and Fredicksburg, she became known as the “Angel of the Battlefield”. After the war, she helped with efforts to identify the 13,000 unknown Union dead at Andersonville Prison and launched a nationwide campaign to identify missing soldiers. Later, Clara Barton went on to found the American Red Cross, an organization chartered to provide humane services to all victims during wartime under a flag of neutrality
Dr. Mary Edward Walker was denied a commission as a medical officer at the outbreak of the war. Undaunted, she volunteered and was the first female surgeon in the US Army. A field surgeon at Union front lines during the Battles of Fredericksburg, Chattanooga and Chickamauga, she was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for her service during the Civil War. She is the only woman that has ever been awarded that honor.
