Ω Women of the American Civil War

The struggle of the American Civil War was not only brother against brother, many women were also involved in important parts of the struggle. Women of the Civil War had many roles, large and small, some giving shelter, food, or directions to soldiers in the field, others acting as nurses, doctors, and some even acting as spies and infantry soldiers. It's estimated that as many as 400 women from both sides fought in the Civil War.

Below, in alphabetical order by role, is a listing of some of the most prominent, remarkable, and influential women to participate in the struggle to win the War Between the States. We have also included a short description of each women's role or action during the period.

The Ladies of Union Leaders

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Fanny Chamberlain, Julia Dent Grant, Mary Todd Lincoln, Ellen McClellan, and Teresa Sickles

The Ladies of Confederate Leaders

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Caroline Beauregard, Varina Davis, Mary Anna Jackson, Mary Anne Curtis Lee, and Sallie Ann Pickett

Female Doctors, Surgeons & Nurses

NURSES-barton-blackwell-pember-tompkins-walker.png

Clara Barton, Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, Phoebe Pember, Sally Tompkins, and Mary Edwards Walker

Soldiers
  • Mary Bell, acting as Tom Parker with Confederate Cavalry and Infantry in Virginia
  • Mollie Bell, acting as Bob Martin with Confederate Cavalry and Infantry in Virginia
  • Kady Brownell, Soldier for the 1st and 5th RI Infantry
  • Amy Clarke, acting as Richard Anderson with Confederate Cavalry and Infantry in Tennessee
  • Frances Clalin Clayton, acting as Jack Williams with MO artillery and cavalry units
  • Sarah Edmonds Seelye, acting as Pvt. Franklin Thompson with the 2nd MI Infantry
  • Annie Etheridge Hooks, Soldier and Nurse for the 2nd MI Infantry
  • Jennie Irene Hodgers, acting as Pvt. Albert Cashier with the 95th IL Infantry
  • Mary Galloway, soldier discovered by Clara Barton while wounded at Antietam
  • Sue Mundy*, purported Confederate Guerrilla in Kentucky, likely a man named Marcellus Clark
  • Belle Reynolds, Soldier and Nurse for 17th IL Infantry, Commissioned as a Major
  • Mary Scaberry, acting as Charles Freeman with the 52nd OH Infantry
  • Jane Short, acting as Charley Davis in the 2nd Missouri Infantry
  • Sarah Thompson, acting Courtier and Spy for Union Army in Tennessee
  • Loreta Janeta Velazquez, acting as Henry T. Buford in the Confederate Army
  • Sarah Rosetta Wakeman, acting as Lyons Wakeman in the 153rd NY Infantry
Spies
  • Mary Elizabeth Bowser, African-American "Slave" Union spy and courtier
  • Maria Isabella Boyd, Confederate spy in the Shenandoah Valley
  • Pauline Cushman, (born Harriet Wood) Union spy in Kentucky & Tennessee
  • Nancy Hart Douglas, Confederate spy and soldier in VA/WV
  • Antonia Ford, Confederate spy and courtier in the Fairfax Courthouse, VA area
  • Rose O'Neal Greenhow, Confederate spy and propagandist
  • Eugenia Phillips, smuggled Union military documents to Richmond
  • Emeline Pigott, Confederate spy in North Carolina
  • Laura Ratcliffe, spy and informant to Confederate Cavalry in the Fairfax, VA area
  • Elizabeth Van Lew, Union spy in Richmond Virginia
  • Mary Kate Patterson Kyle, supporter of the Confederate Coleman Scouts
Authors
  • Louisa May Alcott, author of Hospital Sketches and Little Women
  • Mary Chesnut, author of Mary Chesnut's Civil War a.k.a. A Diary from Dixie
  • Carrie Berry Crumley, author of A Confederate Girl: Diary of Carrie Berry, 1864
  • Emily Dickinson, American poet
  • Julia Ward Howe, author of the Battle Hymn of the Republic
  • Fannie Anne Kemble, author of Journal of a Residence in America
  • Sarah Morgan, author of The Civil War Diaries of Sarah Morgan
  • Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin
Former Slaves, Abolitionists, and Anti-Slavery Activists
  • Susan B. Anthony, anti-slavery activist & women's rights activist
  • Charlotte Forten, Northern African-American teacher of Southern slave children
  • Matilda Joslyn Gage, abolitionist, author and feminist
  • Harriet Jacobs, former slave turned abolitionist, and reformer
    • Author of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
  • Elizabeth Keckley, former slave, seamstress, and civil activist
    • Author of: Behind the Scenes: Or, Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House
  • Mary Ashton Rice Livermore, abolitionist and caregiver in U.S. Sanitary Commission
  • Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, African-American anti-slavery activist
  • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, abolitionist and women's rights activist
  • Laura Towne, abolitionist and teacher of emancipated slaves
  • Isabel Sojourner Truth, former slave and African-American anti-slavery activist
  • Harriet Tubman, former slave, conductor of Underground Railroad, scout, spy and nurse
Other Notable Women
This guide is a work in progress, and is intended to be as broad in scope as is possible. If you are aware of a Woman from the American Civil War period not currently listed above and you believe should be added, please let us know by posting the full name, role, and any additional information so that we can add the person to our list.

* as noted in the entry above, it is believed that Sue Mundy was actually a man named Marcellus Clark who was hanged as a Confederate Guerrilla fighter after being captured by Union soldiers in Kentucky.

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Candace Bailey’s exploration of the intertwining worlds of music and gender shows how young southern women pushed the boundaries of respectability to leave their unique mark on a patriarchal society. Before 1861, a strictly defined code of behavior allowed a southern woman to identify herself as a “lady” through her accomplishments in music, drawing, and writing, among other factors. Music permeated the lives of southern women, and they learned appropriate participation through instruction at home and at female training institutions. A belle’s primary venue was the parlor, where she could demonstrate her usefulness in the domestic circle by providing comfort and serving to enhance social gatherings through her musical performances, often by playing the piano or singing. The southern lady performed in public only on the rarest of occasions, though she might attend public performances by women. An especially talented lady who composed music for a broader audience would do so anonymously so that her reputation would remain unsullied.

The tumultuous Civil War years provided an opportunity for southern women to envision and attempt new ways to make themselves useful to the broader, public society. While continuing their domestic responsibilities, and taking on new ones, young women also tested the boundaries of propriety in a variety of ways. In a broad break with the past, musical ladies began giving public performances to raise money for the war effort, some women published patriotic Confederate music under their own names, supporting their cause and claiming public ownership for their creations. Bailey explores these women’s lives and analyzes their music. Through their move from private to public performance and publication, southern ladies not only expanded concepts of social acceptability but also gained a valued sense of purpose.

https://www.amazon.com/Music-Southern-Belle-Accomplished-Confederate-ebook/dp/B00AWL3F1S/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1489944322&sr=1-1&keywords=Music+and+the+Southern+Belle:+From+Accomplished+Lady+to+Confederate+Composer


Respectfully,
William
View attachment 127862
William, thank you for sharing this here! I had not heard of this book, and it sounds fascinating.

I'm a Jane Austen fan, and the description here of the way that "accomplished" young ladies in the antebellum South were expected to play the piano and entertain family and friends in the parlor reminds me a lot of their counterparts in Edwardian England.
 
@W. Richardson & @KansasFreestater - Are you familiar with Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, also nicknamed the "Black Swan?" The link below will give you a brief overview of her accomplishments. My husband and I recently visited Natchez, MS and had the pleasure of being entertained by a young woman doing a living history portrayal of her. We were seated in an antebellum parlor and her beautiful voice brought tears to my eyes. For a moment, I felt like I was transported back in time. I think we have a picture of the living history performer. If so, I'll ask @Southern Unionist to post it in this thread for me.
 
@W. Richardson & @KansasFreestater - Are you familiar with Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, also nicknamed the "Black Swan?" The link below will give you a brief overview of her accomplishments. My husband and I recently visited Natchez, MS and had the pleasure of being entertained by a young woman doing a living history portrayal of her. We were seated in an antebellum parlor and her beautiful voice brought tears to my eyes. For a moment, I felt like I was transported back in time. I think we have a picture of the living history performer. If so, I'll ask @Southern Unionist to post it in this thread for me.
Wow. What an amazing life!

Of course I was particularly pleased to see that my heroine helped her when she was in England. Harriet and husband Calvin were at that time touring England and Europe, where Harriet was received as a pop star. How awesome that she and Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield met.

That living history portrayal sounds like an amazing experience. Thank you for sharing your memory of it. I look forward to seeing a picture of the performer.
 
Are you familiar with Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, also nicknamed the "Black Swan?" The link below will give you a brief overview of her accomplishments. My husband and I recently visited Natchez, MS and had the pleasure of being entertained by a young woman doing a living history portrayal of her. We were seated in an antebellum parlor and her beautiful voice brought tears to my eyes. For a moment, I felt like I was transported back in time. I think we have a picture of the living history performer.

Please forgive the glare off the speck of dust on the lens, in a bad location. Sloppy photography.

DSC09643.JPG
 
The struggle of the American Civil War was not only brother against brother, many women were also involved in important parts of the struggle. Women of the Civil War had many roles, large and small, some giving shelter, food, or directions to soldiers in the field, others acting as nurses, doctors, and some even acting as spies and infantry soldiers. It's estimated that as many as 400 women from both sides fought in the Civil War.

Below, in alphabetical order by role, is a listing of some of the most prominent, remarkable, and influential women to participate in the struggle to win the War Between the States. We have also included a short description of each women's role or action during the period.

The Ladies of Union Leaders

View attachment 8304
Fanny Chamberlain, Julia Dent Grant, Mary Todd Lincoln, Ellen McClellan, and Teresa Sickles
  • Fanny Chamberlain, wife of Brigadier General Joshua Chamberlain
  • Libby Custer, wife of General George Armstrong Custer
  • Rose Adele Cutts Douglas, wife of Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas
  • Julia Dent Grant, wife to General U. S. Grant, future First Lady
  • Almira Hancock, wife of General Winfield Scott Hancock
  • Clara Harris, fiancé (and later wife) of Major Henry Rathbone, witness to Lincoln Assassination
  • Lucy Webb Hayes, wife to General Rutherford B. Hayes, future First Lady
  • Eliza Johnson, wife of Vice President Andrew Johnson, future First Lady
  • Mary Todd Lincoln, First Lady to President Abraham Lincoln
  • Ellen Mary Marcy McClellan, wife of General George B. McClellan
  • Helen Burden McDowell, wife of General Irvin McDowell
  • Margaretta Sergeant Meade, wife of General George Gordon Meade
  • Frances Adeline Seward, wife to Secretary of State William Seward
  • Irene Rucker Sheridan, wife of General Philip Sheridan
  • Ellen Ewing Sherman, wife of General William Tecumseh Sherman
  • Teresa Sickles, wife of General Daniel Sickles
The Ladies of Confederate Leaders

View attachment 8305
Caroline Beauregard, Varina Davis, Mary Anna Jackson, Mary Anne Curtis Lee, and Sallie Ann Pickett
  • Cornelia Armistead, wife of General Lewis Armistead
  • Caroline Deslonde Beauregard, wife of General P. G. T. Beauregard
  • Natalie Benjamin, wife of Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin
  • Varina Howell Davis, wife to President Jefferson Davis
  • Mary Ann Montgomery Forrest, wife of General Nathan Bedford Forrest
  • Mary Anna Morrison Jackson, wife of General Thomas Jonathan Jackson
  • Lydia McLane Johnston, wife of General Joseph E. Johnston
  • Mary Anne Randolph Custis Lee, wife to General Robert E. Lee
  • Maria Louise Garland Longstreet, wife of General James Longstreet
  • Pauline Mosby, wife of General John Singleton Mosby
  • Sallie Ann (LaSalle) Corbell Pickett, wife of General George Pickett
  • Flora Cooke Stuart, wife of General J.E.B. Stuart
Female Doctors, Surgeons & Nurses

View attachment 8306
Clara Barton, Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, Phoebe Pember, Sally Tompkins, and Mary Edwards Walker
  • Clara Barton, humanitarian and founder of the American Red Cross
  • Mary Ann Ball Bickerdyke, Northern nurse and caregiver
  • Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, first woman to receive a Medical Degree in the U.S.
  • Kate Cummings, Southern nurse and caregiver
  • Dorethea Dix, Superintendent of all Union Army Nurses
  • Isabella Fogg, Northern nurse and caregiver
  • Cordelia Perrine Harvey, Northern nurse and caregiver
  • Harriet Ward Foote Hawley, Northern nurse and caregiver
  • Jane Currie Blaikie Hoge, Northern nurse and nurse recruiter for the Union Army
  • Abby House, Southern nurse and caregiver
  • Juliet Opie Hopkins, Southern nurse and caregiver
  • Abigail Hopper Gibbons, Northern nurse and caregiver
  • Cornelia Hancock, Northern nurse and caregiver
  • Fannie A. Jackson, Southern nurse, caregiver to Union Army
  • Ella Palmer, Southern nurse and caregiver
  • Phoebe Yates Levy Pember, nurse at Richmond’s Chimborazo Hospital
  • Mary Jane Safford, Northern nurse and caregiver
  • Carrie Sheads, nurse to wounded near Gettysburg
  • Sally Louisa Tompkins, Southern caregiver
  • Joanna Fox Waddill, Southern nurse and humanitarian
  • Mary Edwards Walker, first female Surgeon in the U.S. Army & Medal of Honor recipient
Soldiers
  • Mary Bell, acting as Tom Parker with Confederate Cavalry and Infantry in Virginia
  • Mollie Bell, acting as Bob Martin with Confederate Cavalry and Infantry in Virginia
  • Kady Brownell, Soldier for the 11th and 5th RI Infantry
  • Amy Clarke, acting as Richard Anderson with Confederate Cavalry and Infantry in Tennessee
  • Frances Clalin Clayton, acting as Jack Williams with MO artillery and cavalry units
  • Sarah Edmonds Seelye, acting as Pvt. Franklin Thompson with the 2nd MI Infantry
  • Annie Etheridge Hooks, Soldier and Nurse for the 2nd MI Infantry
  • Jennie Irene Hodgers, acting as Pvt. Albert Cashier with the 95th IL Infantry
  • Mary Galloway, soldier discovered by Clara Barton while wounded at Antietam
  • Sue Mundy*, purported Confederate Guerrilla in Kentucky, likely a man named Marcellus Clark
  • Belle Reynolds, Soldier and Nurse for 17th IL Infantry, Commissioned as a Major
  • Mary Scaberry, acting as Charles Freeman with the 52nd OH Infantry
  • Jane Short, acting as Charley Davis in the 2nd Missouri Infantry
  • Sarah Thompson, acting Courtier and Spy for Union Army in Tennessee
  • Loreta Janeta Velazquez, acting as Henry T. Buford in the Confederate Army
  • Sarah Rosetta Wakeman, acting as Lyons Wakeman in the 153rd NY Infantry
Spies
  • Mary Elizabeth Bowser, African-American "Slave" Union spy and courtier
  • Maria Isabella Boyd, Confederate spy in the Shenandoah Valley
  • Pauline Cushman, Union spy in Kentucky
  • Nancy Hart Douglas, Confederate spy and soldier in VA/WV
  • Antonia Ford, Confederate spy and courtier in the Fairfax Courthouse, VA area
  • Rose O'Neal Greenhow, Confederate spy and propagandist
  • Eugenia Phillips, smuggled Union military documents to Richmond
  • Emeline Pigott, Confederate spy in North Carolina
  • Laura Ratcliffe, spy and informant to Confederate Cavalry in the Fairfax, VA area
  • Elizabeth Van Lew, Union spy in Richmond Virginia
Authors
  • Louisa May Alcott, author of Hospital Sketches and Little Women
  • Mary Chesnut, author of Mary Chesnut's Civil War a.k.a. A Diary from Dixie
  • Emily Dickinson, American poet
  • Julia Ward Howe, author of the Battle Hymn of the Republic
  • Fannie Anne Kemble, author of Journal of a Residence in America
  • Sarah Morgan, author of The Civil War Diaries of Sarah Morgan
  • Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin
Former Slaves, Abolitionists, and Anti-Slavery Activists
  • Susan B. Anthony, anti-slavery activist & women's rights activist
  • Charlotte Forten, Northern African-American teacher of Southern slave children
  • Matilda Joslyn Gage, abolitionist, author and feminist
  • Mary Ashton Rice Livermore, abolitionist and caregiver in U.S. Sanitary Commission
  • Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, African-American anti-slavery activist
  • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, abolitionist and women's rights activist
  • Laura Towne, abolitionist and teacher of emancipated slaves
  • Isabel Sojourner Truth, former slave and African-American anti-slavery activist
  • Harriet Tubman, former slave, conductor of Underground Railroad, scout, spy and nurse
Other Notable Women
  • Anna Ella Carroll, Northern political activist, pamphleteer, and adviser to the Lincoln administration
  • Olivia Langdon Clemens, wife of the author Samuel Clemens, a.k.a. Mark Twain
  • Dolly Harris, "Heroine of Greencastle, PA"
  • Mary Jackson, leader of the women participating in the Richmond Bread Riots
  • Laura Pender, Southerner, noted for running the Union Blockade near Wilmington, NC
  • Princess Agnes Salm-Salm, caregiver to Union soldiers
  • Emma Sansom, as a young girl aided CS Brig Gen Forrest to find a river crossing
  • Mary Surrat, tavern owner in Washington, DC, convicted as conspirator in Lincoln Assassination
  • Elizabeth Thorn, cemetery keeper of Evergreen Cemetery during the Battle of Gettysburg
  • Mary Virginia Ginnie (Jennie) Wade, only civilian killed during the Battle of Gettysburg
This guide is a work in progress, and is intended to be as broad in scope as is possible. If you are aware of a Woman from the American Civil War period not currently listed above and you believe should be added, please let us know by posting the full name, role, and any additional information so that we can add the person to our list.

* as noted in the entry above, it is believed that Sue Mundy was actually a man named Marcellus Clark who was hanged as a Confederate Guerrilla fighter after being captured by Union soldiers in Kentucky.
Good catches, I should know better. Updated!

Also, I'm going to split the "The Ladies of the Leaders" section into a Union/Confederate sections.

Might want to update Mary Edwards Walker to state that she is the ONLY Female Recipient of the CMOH.
Also, Kady Brownell was in the 1st RIDM not the 11th
 
I submit this lady’s name for inclusion on your Feminine Civil War Fame List. Despite 30 years spent as a slave of the same white man who gave life to Lizzie as her biological father, she went on to become a seamstress, writer and philanthropist of high renown. In 1855, she bought herself and a son who fought the Civil War. When she arrived in DC five years later, prominent white ladies asked Liz to be their personal dressmaker, including Varina Davis.

But Elizabeth declined in polite fashion as she’d rather “cast my lot among people of the North,” per her memoir. So, Ms. Davis was left with half-hearted promises to rejoin her in the south. Right after Abe’s inauguration, Liz accepted an invitation from Mary Lincoln. This gave a rare glimpse of inner politics with impact on Black slave victims. One offshoot was the Contraband Relief Association Liz founded to provide vital sustenance for the worst off among her subjugated population. As her memoir notes, “If white people give festivals to raise funds for the relief of suffering soldiers, why shouldn’t well-to-do colored people work to benefit suffering blacks?”

After the War, Elizabeth published her memoir entitled Behind the Scenes, or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House.

Elizabeth Keckley Sits Beside First Lady in 'Lincoln' Film IMAGE.jpg

Mrs. Keckley at far left, sits next to First Lady and President in “Lincoln”
IMAGE Credits: David James/DreamWorks Pictures and 20th Century Fox
Find more details at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/10/books/its-elizabeth-keckleys-year-in-civil-war-history.html
https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/keckley/summary.html
https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/elizabeth-keckley-businesswoman-and-philanthropist
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts...lave-turned-mrs-lincolns-dressmaker-41112782/
www.loc.gov/exhibits/civil-war-in.../elizabeth-keckley.html
 
List Updated Again to include missing links, broken links, and add Dr. Rebecca Crumpler as a new biography profile target.
 
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