A Women's Perspective of the Civil War

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For a long time, the Civil War was the most glorified and “cleaned for the purpose of propaganda” conflict in world history. The war was fought between celebrated generals Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant, whose armies fought for grand and noble principles and were never guilty of any of the heinous war crimes perpetrated by other armies. The inclination to depict the Civil War in this glorified manner strengthened over time until the process of converting the Civil War from hell on earth to a sacred cause systematically destroyed the anguish that the war created. The war the women on both sides of the conflict experienced underwent a comparable change because it reminded the victims of their suffering. Unfortunately, some historians have been too worried about correcting the evils committed against women during the Civil War to look at the reasons why the war and its suffering have been sanitized. Focusing on the woman’s point of view during the Civil War, especially the African American woman’s point of view, meant focusing on misery. By removing women from the overall picture of the Civil War, historians could ignore the misery and create a more affirmative representation of the Civil War. Until recently, the most basic historiographies of Civil War women were made of three parts. These included Northern women and the lasting consequences of their participation in the Civil War; Southern women, their encouragement or non-encouragement of the Confederate government and military, and their responsibility for the advancement of the Lost Cause; and African American women, whose experiences were a bit difficult to describe for lack of personal accounts. In 1938, in Women’s Life and Work in the Southern Colonies – one of the... ... middle of paper ... ...Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970. Silber, Nina. Gender and the Sectional Conflict. Chapel Hill, NC: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 2008. Spruill, Julia Cherry. Women's Life and Work in the Southern Colonies. Chapel Hill, NC: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1938. Baker, Jean H. "Reviews of Books: United States." American Historical Review 102 (1997): 191-2. DeCredico, Mary A. "Scarlett Doesn't Live Here Anymore." The Alabama Review 56 (2003): 65-67. Fox-Genovese, Elizabeth. "Rich White Southern Women." Nation 236 (1983): 370-2. Matthews, Jean. "Adam's Rib." Canadian Review of American Studies 2 (1971): 114-124. "Recommended Reading for CWTI Elementary Program Participants." Colonial Williamsburg. http://www.colonialwilliamsburg.com/History/teaching/TIParticipantGuide/Images/Recommended_Reading_Elementary_11.pdf (accessed October 17, 2011).

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