The Civil War

Approximately 400 women fought on the battlefront during the American Civil War. (History.com Staff) The Civil War was a war fought on American soil between the Union, the North, and the Confederacy, the South. As the War began, most people believed it would be won and over quickly. However, the Civil War was long, difficult, and the deadliest war in American History. Women, both in the North and South, played tremendously important roles in the American Civil War.

At the beginning of the Civil War, women had a less hands-on role in the Civil War. Women began organizing aid societies at the start of the war. These organizations provided the troops with vital supplies. They canned food and planted gardens to keep the troops strong and healthy. Many women washed and sewed uniforms, knitted socks and gloves, and made blankets. Without these much needed supplies the women provided, troops would have had difficulty in the winter and many may have severely suffered and died from the harsh northern winters. As the war effort progressed, Women began to feel the need for a more active role. The United States Government the agreed to the establishment of the United States Sanitary Commission. The United States Sanity Commission’s main objective was to provide the Union with fifteen million dollars in supplies to assist in the fighting of disease by improving camp and hospital conditions. Even with the creation of the United States Sanitary Commission, women’s hunger to have a more operative role in helping the troops was not satisfied. (History.com Staff)

The founding of the United States Sanitary Commission helped 20,000 women of the Union work directly for the war effort. Most working class white women and freed and enslaved...

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..., an organization that provides emergency assistance and disaster relief inside the United States, and becomes its first president. At the age of 77, she worked at hospitals in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. Finally, April 12, 1912 she died at the age of 90 in Glen Echo, Maryland. Clara Barton was a humanitarian, feminist, and nurse whose efforts in the Civil War and throughout her life saved countless lives. (Yancey, Diane)

Works Cited

DeFord, Deborah. The Civil War. Milwaukee: World Almanac Library, 2007. Print.

Dix, Dorothy. Letter. 14 July 1862. TS. National Archives.

Dunne, Jemima, and Paula Regan, eds. The Civil War. New York City: DK Publishing, 2011. Print

History.com Staff. "Women in the Civil War." History.com. A+E Networks, 2010. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.

Yancey, Diane. Leaders Of The North and South. San Diego: American War Library, 2000. Print.