Womens Roles in the Civil War

Women played an active role in the civil war. A handful disguised themselves as men and served as soldiers; some went to the front as nurses, relief workers, and “daughters of the regiment”; and countless women contributed from home front. North and south women kept farms and families together, provided supplies to the men in the field, and conveyed information as spies. Women and their families made great sacrifices during the grueling war. As mothers, daughters, sisters, and wives, women prayed for safe return of their loved ones. Most women and men were shocked by the wars terrible death and destruction. Mourning became common place.

Within the confederacy, many women’s world turned upside down. Some families struggled to get enough to eat after soldiers took what they needed from farms. Enslaved sought their freedom behind union lines and created n3ew lives for themselves. Many white women became refuges, fleeing the fighting or union occupation.

Born on December 25, 1821, in oxford Massachusetts, Carissa Barton was educated at home and began teaching at the age of 15. Barton is remembered as the founder of the American Red Cross. Her only prewar medical experience came when for 2 years she nursed an individual brother. Barton organized a relief program for the soldiers, beginning a lifetime of philanthropy.

In 1912 the women named “Moses” was born into slavery in Maryland forty years before the civil war began. Harriet Tubman escaped her own “chains” in 1849 to find a safe haven in Philadelphia,