Women in the Civil War

by Larry G. Eggleston

  She became a prominent gynecologist and obstetrician in London. Dr. Blackwell also became a respected author with the publication of several books on health and education.

  She died in 1910 at the age of 89. She had helped pave the way for nursing to become a socially accepted and honored profession for women. Her contributions to American medicine were enormous.

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  Women Crusaders

  Many brave women, both Union and Confederate, volunteered to do their part to ease the pain and suffering of the Civil War. Many of these women distinguished themselves as nurses, humanitarians, authors, social reformers, abolitionists, organizers, and administrators. Several of these extraordinary women are discussed in this chapter, but most of the brave women who volunteered their services remain unsung heroines.

  Dorothea Dix—Reformer

  In April 1861 after Fort Sumter was fired upon, a reformer from Massachusetts went to Washington to organize and supply women nurses to the Union army. She was told that it was an impossible task and the government would not allow her to do it. Her name was Dorothea Lynde Dix. She was born in 1802 and was 59 years old when the Civil War began. Her grandfather was Elijah Dix, a prominent Boston physician.

  Even though Dorothea Dix was not a nurse, she was well known as a social reformer. She crusaded for the better treatment of the insane and had helped establish many state hospitals for their care and treatment. She began her crusade for the insane in 1840 when she wrote a very influential document about the treatment of the insane and presented it to the Massachusetts legislature.

  During the 1850s she visited Florence Nightingale and toured hospitals throughout Europe and the Crimea. She returned well qualified for her future service to the army.

  Dorothea was told that her reason for going to Washington, D.C., in April 1861 was a waste of time, as the government only used male nurses in military hospitals. To overcome this opposition she hastily organized 75 women nurses and made a protest march in Washington, demanding that the government allow women nurses to help care for the wounded and sick Union soldiers.

  The government relented and Secretary of War Simon Cameron accepted Dorothea Dix’s offer of help. He appointed her as Army Superintendent of Nurses. Her duties were to assist in organizing army hospitals, recruiting nurses, and supplying nurses to the surgeons as needed. The Surgeon General ordered that at least 30 percent of all hospital jobs would be staffed with women. This was to quell the surgeons’ opposition to having women nurses.

  Dorothea Dix established very strict rules for hiring nurses. Applicants had to be plain in appearance and at least 30 years old. Applicants with hoop skirts were rejected, jewelry was not acceptable, and no one with romantic ideas about hospital work would be accepted. These harsh rules were short-lived because after the Battle of First Manassas/Bull Run the need became so great that she began to accept anyone who was willing to work.

  She also established strict rules for those nurses who were initially hired. Women nurses would not be allowed to reside in the camps or accompany regiments on the march. Those who applied for nursing service and were highly accredited were required to have certificates from two physicians and two clergymen of good standing, and forward the certificates to Dorothea Dix who would then return a certificate accrediting them for service in any military hospital in the United States. These strict rules were also short-lived.

  As the war proceeded and the amount of sick and wounded began to rise dramatically, many other women and organizations as well as the army nursing corps helped. These other women’s groups included soldiers’ wives, vivandieres, local women from the areas of battle, and the U.S. Sanitary Commission.

  After the war, on September 1, 1865, Dorothea Dix resigned as Superintendent of Nurses. However, at her own expense she continued to work for another 18 months helping individual soldiers and their families deal with the stress of recovering from the war.

  Dorothea Dix spent the next 15 years working for better treatment of the mentally ill. She retired in 1882 at the age of 80. She died in 1887 at the age of 85.

  She did not want to be remembered for her Civil War years, but her service to the Union was invaluable and she was duly honored in 1985 when she was featured on a special United State postage stamp.

  Harriet Beecher Stowe—Abolitionist and Author

  President Lincoln referred to Harriet Beecher Stowe as the little lady who caused the Civil War.

  Harriet Beecher Stowe was born in Connecticut. Her father was a minister and her mother died when Harriet was only four years old. The Beecher family was prosperous and well thought of in the community. They had several Negro servants to take care of the home and the children.

  In 1832 the family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where Harriet’s father accepted a position as head of a new theological seminary. Harriet married the school’s professor of biblical literature, Mr. Calvin Stowe, in 1836.

  Harriet and her husband raised six children over the next 14 years. In 1849, their infant son died of cholera. After the loss of her own son, she stated she began to understand the suffering of slave mothers forcibly separated from their children.

  Harriet and her husband moved to Maine in 1850 where he took a position at Bowdoin College. Because Calvin’s health was not good, Harriet began to worry that some time in the future they may find themselves without an income. To compensate for this potential problem, she began writing to earn extra money and hopefully gain financial independence.

  Her first effort was a collection of short articles entitled The Mayflower, which was not successful. She was not deterred by this initial setback and continued to write.

  Harriet became emotionally inspired by the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. This new law, which was written by Senator James M. Mason of Virginia, allowed slave owners the right to seek runaway human property in any state or territory. No warrant was required to retrieve human property and a third party could be used to capture the runaways.

  Harriet began composing a set of four episodes of a story called Uncle Tom’s Cabin, or Life Among the Lowly. The editors of the anti-slavery magazine National Era in Washington began printing the episodes one at a time. The story was such a success that readers demanded more episodes. She ended up writing 45 episodes over the next 10 months.

  The complete novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1852 and was an instant success. It sold over one million copies in the first year and was translated into over a dozen different languages. The book had a great influence on the abolitionist movement and rallied millions to the cause. The characters—Uncle Tom, Simon Legree, Little Eva, and Eliza— soon became household names.

  As a potential abolitionist weapon the book inspired the nation and huge financial donations began to pour in for the anti-slavery movement. The book was a best seller in the North. The hard line Southerners called it a “filthy Negro novel.”

  Publication of the book made Harriet Beecher Stowe an international celebrity, an honor she used to raise large sums of money for the anti-slavery movement. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published at a time when the nation was already divided over the issue of slavery. The dispute was more than a question of whether slavery was right or wrong; it was also over the control of the destiny of the nation as it continued to grow and new states were being added. Both sides of the issue argued when new states such as Missouri, Texas, Kansas, and Nebraska were being accepted into the union whether they would be free or slave states.

  Those arguing in favor of slavery were the minority of Southerners yet were very influential. By 1850 only 25 percent of Southern whites had slaves. These slaveholders were mostly wealthy farmers who considered slavery a means of gaining wealth as well as a status symbol. They supported slavery with the excuse that abolition would destroy the Southern way of life.

  Harriet Beecher Stowe had a great influence on the way society thought about slavery. When President Lincoln called her into the White House after the Civil War b
egan, he commented as he was introduced to her, “So you are the little woman who wrote a book that started this big war.”

  She was later invited to Washington when President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Once it was signed those attending the celebration began to chant “Harriet Beecher Stowe.” She stood up and accepted her applause.

  Julia Ward Howe—Author and Social Reformer

  Her desire to help in the war effort and the fact that she thought she had nothing to offer troubled Julia Ward Howe. However, she used her talent for writing prose and poetry to arouse patriotism and instill confidence and hope into the many battle-weary soldiers and Union prisoners of war. Her song “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” was a great contribution to the war effort.

  Julia Ward Howe was born in New York City in 1819 and was the daughter of a prominent New York banker. She was a writer, lecturer, reformer, abolitionist and an advocate of women’s suffrage. She married Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, who was 17 years her senior. He was born 1802 and was a prominent Boston philanthropist and abolitionist.

  Julia and her husband edited the abolitionist newspaper Commonwealth. She was the first woman to be elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

  Early in the war she was visiting Washington, D.C., and arranged for a trip across the Potomac to visit one of the Union army camps. While she was visiting a battle began. As the Confederates advanced toward the camp, she and her party were forced to go back to Washington. During her visit to the camp she had noticed soldiers singing the song “John Brown’s Body.” On the way back to Washington she began to sing some of the lyrics when one of her companions asked her, “Why don’t you write more suitable words to that song?”

  While staying at the Willard Hotel in Washington that night she again heard a column of Union soldiers singing “John Brown’s Body” as they passed by the hotel. She awoke early the next morning and while still half-asleep, she lay in bed and began to change the words to the song. She forced herself out of bed to jot down the lyrics lest she fall asleep again and forget them.

  She went back to sleep and when she woke she found that she had written a very nice poem which required very few changes. That day she showed the poem to Massachusetts’s governor John A. Andrew, who was with her on her tour of some of the army camps in and around Washington. The governor encouraged her to publish the poem. She found only one publisher who was interested and she sold the poem for $4 to The Atlantic Monthly magazine.

  The poem appeared in print in 1862 at the time when the Western Campaign was getting underway and General Grant was preparing his assault on forts Henry and Donelson. The poem was published and sheet music was also printed and made available. It was an instant success and became very popular with the troops as they marched.

  The song instilled patriotism, confidence, and spirit into the battle-weary soldiers. It also was sung by the prisoners of war at Andersonville and Libby Prisons, and gave the mistreated and weak prisoners a ray of hope and determination to survive.

  Julia Ward Howe, with her gift for writing poetry, made an incredible contribution to the war effort. “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” became the Union’s theme song and aroused patriotism and confidence among the soldiers.

  Julia Ward Howe died in 1910 at the age of 91.

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