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
Fanny Chamberlain, Julia Dent Grant, Mary Todd Lincoln, Ellen McClellan, and Teresa Sickles
Caroline Beauregard, Varina Davis, Mary Anna Jackson, Mary Anne Curtis Lee, and Sallie Ann Pickett
Clara Barton, Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, Phoebe Pember, Sally Tompkins, and Mary Edwards Walker
* 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.
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
Fanny Chamberlain, Julia Dent Grant, Mary Todd Lincoln, Ellen McClellan, and Teresa Sickles
- Mary Richmond Bishop Burnside, wife of Major General Ambrose Burnside
- 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
- Catherine Mary “Kate” Hewitt, fiancé of Major General John F. Reynolds
- Ellen Ewing Sherman, wife of General William Tecumseh Sherman
- Teresa Sickles, wife of General Daniel Sickles
- Ellen Maria Hutchison Stanton, wife of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton
- Nadine A. Lvova Turchin, wife of Brigadier General John Basil Turchin
Caroline Beauregard, Varina Davis, Mary Anna Jackson, Mary Anne Curtis Lee, and Sallie Ann Pickett
- Caroline Deslonde Beauregard, wife of General P. G. T. Beauregard
- Natalie Benjamin, wife of Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin
- Elizabeth Brooks Ellis Bragg, Wife of General Braxton Bragg
- Varina Howell Davis, wife to President Jefferson Davis
- Lizinka Campbell Brown Ewell, wife of Lt. General Richard S. Ewell
- Mary Ann Montgomery Forrest, wife of General Nathan Bedford Forrest
- Frances Rebecca Haralson Gordon, wife of Major General John Brown Gordon
- Mary Anna Morrison Jackson, wife of General Thomas Jonathan Jackson
- Eliza Griffin Johnston, wife of General Albert Sidney Johnston
- 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
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.
- Dr. Rebecca Davis Lee Crumpler, first African-American woman to earn 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, Florence Nightingale of the South
- Only woman to be awarded the Confederate Medal of Honor
- 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
- Susie King Taylor, first Black U.S. Army nurse, as well as a school teacher
- Sally Louisa Tompkins, Southern caregiver
- Joanna Fox Waddill, Southern nurse and humanitarian
- Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, first female Surgeon in the U.S. Army
- Only female Medal of Honor recipient
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Mary Jane Green, founded the first Confederate Cemetery in Georgia
- Dolly Harris, "Heroine of Greencastle, PA"
- Anna Marie Hennen Hood - post-war wife of Former C.S. General John Bell Hood
- Julia Laura Jackson, Daughter of Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson
- Mary Jackson, leader of the women participating in the Richmond Bread Riots
- Laura Keane, Actress and Theater Manager, present at the Lincoln Assassination
- Laura Pender, Southerner, noted for running the Union Blockade near Wilmington, NC
- Sarah Childress Polk, former First Lady living in Tennessee & Widow of U.S. President Polk
- Clara Harris Rathbone, wife to Major Henry Rathbone, and witness to Assassination of President Abraham Lincoln
- 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
- Nadine A. Lvova Turchin, first woman to unofficially command a U.S. military regiment while her husband was sick
- Mary Virginia Ginnie (Jennie) Wade, only civilian killed during the Battle of Gettysburg
* 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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