Women+and+the+War

=Women and the War = Essential Questions: ** 1. What duties did women serve in the Civil War? 2. Name two famous women who served in the Civil War and what they did as their service. **Overview: **
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 * ** Women were a very important resource in the Civil War. They had many jobs. These included acting as a spy or scout, fighting on the battlefield as a soldier, and helping the wounded as a nurse. **
 * ** Contrary to what many people believe, there were fewer nurses than any other field in which women worked in the War. This means that most women wanted to be a soldier or spy instead of a nurse. Because of this, hospitals were not well-staffed enough to have both nurses in the field and in the actual hospital. When nurses were on the field, they risked being shot by the enemy just to help soldiers who were already wounded. **
 * ** One of the bravest nurses in the Civil War was Clara Barton. She was nicknamed “The Angel of the Battlefield” for saving so many soldiers from the actual field. **
 * ** Another famous nurse is Mary Ann Bickerdyke (Bik-er-dike). She had a nickname of “Mother” because she treated each patient like her own child. At Fort Donelson, Mary searched the field at midnight to find freezing soldiers to save. This is her most famous act of kindness. **
 * **All in all, women served in the Civil War whether the men wanted them to or not. It was a good thing they did because they helped serve the Union in so many ways. Women being a spy, soldier, or nurse was considered normal during the War. Thank you girls for doing your part <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 108%;">. **

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**Spies and Scouts**

=== The Civil War was fought over a wide span of territory in the United States. Spies were needed to provide critical information on troop movements. Women spies could easily be less suspected of being a spy than men. A Confederate spy, Mary Ann Pitman of Tennessee, often cross the Union lines by pretending to be a loyal citizen who had information that she would only give to the commanding officer. Once inside the lines, Pitman had little trouble persuading young staff officers to show her the defenses and positions of troops and fortifications. ===

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 * Women Soldiers** <span style="color: #560606; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 108%;">

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 * When the start of the Civil War was announced, it aroused martial passions in women as well as men. Many women who wanted to join the army did not because it was a man’s business. Though women were not allowed, it became easy to enlist. All a woman needed to do was cut her hair short, wear male clothing, pick an alias, and find the nearest recruiter. In the mid-nineteenth century, individuals did not carry personal identification, and most lacked a birth certificate. All recruits were subjected to a physical examination. The pressures to quickly fill regimental ranks cancel reasons to reject a volunteer. Physicians generally looked only for reasonable height, at least a partial set of teeth and a presence of a trigger finger. Jennie Hodges of the Ninety-fifty Illinois Infantry (AKA Albert Cashier) showed only her hands and feet to the examiner.**

** Women soldiers were significant given the strict boundaries of acceptable female behavior, appropriate attire, and the customary gender division of labor. Many of the women served in the military for many reasons including a desire to accompany their husbands, brothers, or other loved ones. Some were for patriotism, adventure and opportunity. If a female soldier was discovered, they would most likely be dismissed but some were able to be undiscovered. <span style="color: #560606; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 120%;"> **


 * <span style="color: #3b1971; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">Nursing

<span style="color: #391c69; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 108%;"> More than 20,000 women took nursing and relief work during the Civil War. The men they serve preferred female nurses than male nurses. Hundreds of women serve in makeshift hospitals before the Confederate Congress authorized their work and granted them wages. Dorothea Dix was appointed by the Union surgeon to superintend an office of female nurses in the beginning of June 1861. Dix appointed more than three thousand white women to nursing positions until Surgeon General William Hammond authorized surgeons to make appointments in October 1863. In the beginning of the war, opponents of women’s service in military hospitals discouraged would-be nurses from volunteering.

Nursing covered a wide range of duties including cleaning hospital wards and transport vessels, bathing soldiers, distributing food and medicines, cooking and doing laundry, and dressing wounds or assisting at amputations. Some nurses took on the ex officio role of clerics, performing deathbeds conversions and administering last rites. Those who nurse the enemy occasionally persuaded the men to renounce their sectional allegiances and join the other side.

Female nurses and surgeons sparred over patients’ diet and treatment. Women would fuss over that surgeons would not treat the wounded as individuals because of sheer quantity. When at the battlefield, nurses refused to give up on men who are at the brink of death while surgeons believed were unnecessary.

By the end of the Civil War, hundreds of women could claim the status of veterans, having served four years or more. By the 1880s, former nurses began to lobby Congress for pensions. Dozens of women recognized for extraordinary service had been pensioned by special acts of Congress in the 1860s and 1870s. By 1892, legislators approved a twelve dollar monthly pension for nurses who can prove that they served for six months. Although veteran nurses despise this policy because cooks and laundresses, mostly black and working-class women, were ineligible including southerners. **

media type="custom" key="5635787" width="98" height="98" align="right" <span style="color: #1c6709; font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 144%;">__Clara Barton__ <span style="color: #1c6709; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> (1821 - 1912)

Barton wanted to serve the soldiers in the battlefield. She hoped to come as close to a soldier as possible. Barton had filled a warehouse of food and medicine. Moving with the soldiers throughout Virginia and Maryland, she aided the wounded and dying at Cedar Mountain, Second Bull Run, Chantilly, South Mountain, Antietam, Charleston, and in the Wilderness campaign. When Barton was at Cedar Mountain in August 1862, she had to wait until the came to the rear to be treated. Refusing, she moved onto the battlefield after the fighting subsided, accompanied with two civilian helpers, she saw soldiers in the brink of death. The soldiers were suffering from sunstroke, dehydration, and shock. Barton cooked meals, washed wounds, help the soldiers dress, and assisted surgeons with their tasks for over two days. Clara Barton was nickname, “Angel of the Battlefield.” When she was giving a wounded soldier a drink of water, a bullet passes through her sleeve of her dress and struck the soldier dead. With the battle raging on, she continued providing aid to the wounded. Throughout the Civil War, many soldiers believe that Barton’s courage had no limits <span style="font-family: Impact,Charcoal,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">.

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Works Cited
 * binoculars. N.d. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2010. <http://blogs.southtownstar.com/schorsch/binoculars.jpg>.
 * Clara Barton. N.d. biography resource center. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2010.
 * Hawk, Alan J. “Military Hospitals: American Civil War.” ABC CLIO. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2010.
 * Mary Ann Ball Bickerdyke. N.d. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2010. <http://search.creativecommons.org/?q=Bickerdyke&sourceid=Mozilla-search>.
 * nurses. N.d. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2010. <http://www.lib.usm.edu/~spcol/exhibitions/nurse.jpg>.
 * Woodworth, Steven E., ed. Women on the Battlefield. Vols. Volume 1. 2008. Detroit: n.p., n.d. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 11 Mar. 2010.