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Women's Role In The Civil War Essay

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During the civil war women played very important roles. Many disguised themselves as men to join the army and fight and others served as spies and nurses. They even took over their husband’s jobs and took on new roles at home after the men had left for war. Most women kept these roles after the war had ended because their husbands or sons had died in the war. By the time the war war ended, approximately 620,000 men had died. American women in the North were involved in numerous efforts such as temperance, the abolition of slavery, the colonization of former slaves, and the improvement of prisons. At the start of the war many women, like many men, had wanted to fight for their side but were not allowed. Approximately 250 women who had disguised …show more content…
Mary Ann Pitman was one of these spies. Mary like many female spies were not thought to be soldiers by many men and were able to obtain useful information from the enemy. Women hid messages within their hoop skirts, corsets, and parsons. Many achieved fame during the war and continue to be well know today, including Harriet Tubman, Belle Boyd Rose Greenhow, and Elizabeth Van Lew. Some, like Mary Frances who had spied and smuggled for the confederacy, shied away from the fame after the war. Nursing was a role in the war that many associated with women due to the fame of Clara Barton, who was a nurse and the founder of the American Red Cross. Nurses had difficult jobs, the women had to demonstrate they could do the job. They also had to prove the could work in such a dangerous environment. Civil War nurses did much more than change bandages, tend wounds, and dispense medicine. They also served meals, did laundry, and wrote letters for soldiers. Barton archived distinction when she refused to wait until injured soldiers had been brought to the rear of the battlefield, she nursed them were they had

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