Prescott Library: U.S. Civil War, 1861-1865, 7th Grade History: Women and the war effort on the home front and on the battlefield

Women and the War Effort

Articles from our databases

Women in the Civil War
When the Civil War began in the spring of 1861, the leaders of the women's movement, particularly Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) and Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902), faced a dilemma. Should they stop organizing for the vote, the ownership of property, child custody, and other rights? Or should they continue to pressure legislators while the nation was struggling for its very survival?
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"Women in the Civil War." Women in America. Woodbridge, CT: Primary Source Media, 1999. American Journey. U.S. History in Context. Web. 15 Oct. 2015.
Clara Barton
After the battle of Bull Run, she was greatly impressed by the stories she heard regarding the suffering on the field, due in part to lack of supplies. With characteristic independence, she advertised in the Worcester Spy for provisions for the wounded. They came pouring in, and she established a distributing agency.
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"Clara Barton." Dictionary of American Biography. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1936. U.S. History in Context. Web. 15 Oct. 2015.
Belle Boyd
Although most scholars agree that Boyd made important contributions to the Shenandoah Valley campaigns, some of the dramatic details of her memoir, Belle Boyd, in Camp and Prison, are still controversial.
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"Belle Boyd." Encyclopedia of the Confederacy. Ed. Richard Nelson Current. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993. U.S. History in Context. Web. 29 Oct. 2015.
Dorothea Dix
Dorothea Lynde Dix (1802-1887) was an American reformer whose pioneer efforts to improve treatment of mental patients stimulated broad reforms in hospitals, jails, and asylums in the United States and abroad
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"Dorothea Lynde Dix." Encyclopedia of World Biography. Detroit: Gale, 1998. U.S. History in Context. Web. 29 Oct. 2015.
Women Spies (History.com)
On August 23, 1861, the infamous Confederate spy Rose Greenhow was placed under arrest in Washington, D.C. One of hundreds of women who served as spies for either side during the Civil War, Greenhow is believed to have contributed to the South’s victory at the First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas).
Mary Elizabeth Bowser
While in the Davis household, Bowser spied on the Confederate president. Jefferson Davis and his aides, underestimating the intelligence of their black servants, often spoke about military and government matters while Bowser served them dinner. Davis, assuming that none of his servants could read, also left official papers around the house.
Confederate military spies
The Confederate spies who were successful at their missions and never bragged about their successes remain largely unknown. We know the most about those spies who either were caught in the act or talked at some point about their wartime experiences.