Women became an essential part of the Civil War. They took roles as nurses, spies, and even soldiers. Dorothea Lynde Dix (1802-1887) was an author, teacher, and a reformer. As a reformer, Dix created dozens of institutions for prisoners and mentally ill in the United States and Europe. She greatly helped improve the common people’s perception of these populations. During the Civil War, she helped with military hospital administration and worked as an advocate for female nurses. Dix gave up her time and volunteered to organize and outfit the Union Army hospitals in April 1861. As Superintendent of Women Nurses, Dix oversaw the entire nursing staff. She was the first woman to serve in such a high, federally appointed position. Her administrative skills were highly needed to control the flow of clothing and bandages as the war progressed. Army officials and female nurses were highly intimidated by her and were fearful of her. They eventually got Dix removed from her position in 1863. After being ousted, she returned to reforming the treatment of the mentally ill.
Dorothea Lynde Dix
Harriet Tubman (1820-1913) was a former slave who escaped slavery in 1849 at the age of 29. Harriet was passionate about saving other slaves from slavery. She began the Underground Railroad and helped lead over 300 slaves to freedom. Union officers recruited Harriet as a spy shortly after she volunteered to cook and be a nurse at a military hospital. She became the first woman to help lead a military expedition. She assisted Colonel James Montgomery plan a night raid to free slaves working at rice plantations along the Combahee River. Harriet and several black soldiers traveled up the river and freed around 750 slaves on June 1, 1863.
Harriet Tubman
Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) was a prominent American author who wrote over 30 books in her lifetime. She is greatly remembered for her book Hospital Sketches, which she wrote to home while serving as an army nurse during the Civil War. Growing up, her home was a stop on the Underground Railroad and this helped her realize the effects of slavery on these slaves. She wanted to help in any way she could. In December 1862, Alcott left for the Union hospital in Georgetown, outside of Washington, DC, to become a nurse. She had no formal training as a nurse and no formal training was required. The only requirements were to be sober minded, mature, and plain-looking.
Dorothea Lynde Dix was quoted as saying, “In a world where there is so much to be done, I felt strongly impressed that there must be something for me to do.” Dix began at the age of 39, and spent the next 20 years as a social reformer for the treatment of the mentally ill. When asked to teach a Sunday School class at a women’s correctional facility, Dix was appalled at the conditions, as well as the fact that many of the women weren’t criminals, but were instead mentally ill. This is where her crusade began. Her work had immediate results throughout the country, and the changes are still being felt even today.
Harriet Ross Tubman was an African American who escaped slavery and then showed runaway slaves the way to freedom in the North for longer than a decade before the American Civil War. During the war she was as a scout, spy, and nurse for the United States Army. After that she kept working for rights for blacks and women.
She volunteered and was soon appointed Superintendent of Union Army Nurses. Dix was responsible for all female nurses in the army and again was part of fighting for the privileges of women. Military officials doubted the credibility of females but Dix recruited more women and convinced the public that they could perform the job just as well as men (LeVert, 2005). Advocating for the rights of women became a trend for Dix. Just as she was part of the alternative opinions on the rights of the mentally ill, Dix also fought to make society understand that women should have equal rights. As Dix’s health continued to deteriorate, she retired and eventually passed away in 1887 after a 20 year span of hard work (Parry,
When first examining the documentation it is difficult to comprehend whether women were being patronized or treated too delicately; the fact of the matter is the average treatment of women during this era was radically different from society’s attitude toward men. It is also evident women exploited stereotypes to their advantage. Larry G. Eggleston explains the particular viewpoint of American society in Women of the Civil War as “Women were held with respect even though they were considered to be the weaker sex. Many women broke away from society’s traditional view of women when the Civil War began” (1). To avoid detection agents often manipulated social stigmas. Traditionally, Men were expected to join their countrymen upon the battlefield and women were to remain at home attempting to keep order. Some women were equally effective from their posts at home, while acting as scouts for their respected causes.
Primary Sources Online - The Civil War: Women and the Homefront - LibGuides at Duke University. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2017. National Women's History Museum Spies Exhibition. N.p., n.d. Web.
In the book Women in the Civil War, by Mary Massey, the author tells about how American women had an impact on the Civil War. She mentioned quite a few famous and well-known women such as, Dorothea Dix and Clara Barton, who were nurses, and Pauline Cushman and Belle Boyd, who were spies. She also mentioned black abolitionists, Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth, feminist Susan B. Anthony, and many more women. Massey talks about how the concept of women changed as a result of the war. She informed the readers about the many accomplishments made by those women. Because of the war, women were able to achieve things, which caused for them to be viewed differently in the end as a result.
Shortly after the Civil War began, both sides realized that they were running short on staffing for their hospitals. Usually, “A working woman was an object of pity or scorn in Victorian America.” (USAHEC.org). Women were usually devoting their lives to caring for their husband and children; creating a nice, clean home (The History Channel Website, 2013). If they did nurse, it was only in their homes and for their family members (Egenes, 2009). The Civil War was the first time that women really played an important role in a war effort (The History Channel Website, 2013). When they found out that each side was in need of nurses, women immediately started volunteering to “help the war efforts of their side” (Freemon, 1998). Most of the women focused on helping wounded and sick soldiers (Freemon, 1998). Women of all ages and social classes nursed both Union and...
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 from 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 first contribution of Harriet Tubman is that she served as a spy for the union army, because she wanted freedom for all the people who were forced into slavery not just the people she could help by herself. One day Tubman took one of the most dangerous and dramatic roles she helped Colonel James Montgomery plan to free slaves from a plantation along the Combahee River in South Carolina. They helped seven hundred and fifty Negroes into the free lines. The river is now known as the “Jordan River” it is the symbol of bondage and freedom. It is also a sign of significance of the military in America...
Harriet Tubman remained active during the Civil War. Working for the Union Army as a cook and nurse, Tubman quickly became an armed scout and spy. The first woman to lead an armed expedition in the war, she guided the Combahee River Raid, which liberated more than 700 slaves in South Carolina.
Harriet Tubman was a selfless woman, who devoted her life to save others. Many other slaves from the South escaped to freedom in the North like Tubman. Many of these people stayed where they were free, frightened to go anywhere near the South again. However, that was not Tubman, she was different. She wanted everyone to have the feeling of freedom that she had newly discovered. Harriet was known “to bring people of her race from bondage to liberty,” (S Bradford et al 1869). Harriet Tubman was known as a hero to lots of people during the Civil War.
...African Americans after the civil war Barton stepped in helping anyone she could. This to me is the way a nurse should feel in her heart. Wanting to be a nurse to be selfless and help individual get better or to console and stay with them to comfort them in their last moments. She is a true inspiration to nurses everywhere.
Harriet Tubman was a runaway slave from Maryland who became known as the "Moses of her people”. Harriet Tubman is widely known for developing the Underground Railroad which was used to get slaves North and Canada to freedom. She later became a leader in the abolitionist movement, and during the Civil War she was a spy with for the federal forces in South Carolina as well as a nurse (Tubman 1). With her countless contributions to the African American people at this time, Harriet Tubman single handedly altered hundreds of lives by doing what she believed was necessary.
Even from early on she “risked her life to lead hundreds of family members and other slaves from the plantation system to freedom” (“Harriet Tubman”). Once Harriet finally escaped, she felt that it was not enough. She became a conductor on the Underground Railroad and did her very best to give others a better chance at their lives’. For example, rather “than remaining in the safety of the North, Tubman made it her mission to rescue her family and others living in slavery [by] the Underground Railroad” (“Harriet Tubman”). Harriet was dedicating her life to this and took this problem to heart recognizing that everyone is equal and should never be discriminated. Harriet was faced with several challenges along the way such as having “never recovered from the damage done to her brain and skull [from her slave owner]” (“Harriet Tubman”) and also having a very large price on her head for being a fugitive slave. All of these trials shaped Harriet into a stronger, braver person as she watched her footsteps and never let go of her original motivation. Harriet Tubman played a very large role in U.S. history, slavery, and in almost everyone’s lives as she pushed to the end while suffering for the benefit of
As many as one hundred thousand slaves escaped using the Underground Railroad between the years 1800 and 1865; about three hundred of which would not have escaped without the leadership of Harriet Tubman. Tubman was inspired to change the world because of her traumatic childhood, and therefore served in the Union army, helped other slaves escape, and continued to assist others’ needs in her old age.