She Went to the Field: Women Soldiers of the Civil War

She Went to the Field: Women Soldiers of the Civil War PDF Author: Bonnie Tsui
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1461748496
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
This exciting new volume profiles several substantiated cases of female soldiers during the American Civil War, including Sarah Rosetta Wakeman (aka Private Lyons Wakeman, Union); Sarah Emma Edmonds (aka Private Frank Thompson, Union); Loreta Janeta Velazquez (aka Lieutenant Harry T. Buford, Confederate); and Jennie Hodgers (aka Private Albert D. J. Cashier, Union). Also featured are those women who may not have posed as male soldiers but who nonetheless pushed gender boundaries to act boldly in related military capacities, as spies, nurses, and vivandieres ("daughters of the regiment") who bore the flag in battle, rallied troops, and cared for the wounded. Examining the Civil War through the lens of these women soldiers who fought in the conflict offers valuable insight on existing historical work. This volume will acquaint readers with these women, offering in-depth biographies and behind-the-scenes information. While drawing from recent academic work, Women Soldiers of the Civl War is a lively text geared toward the general-audience reader.

She Went to the Field: Women Soldiers of the Civil War

She Went to the Field: Women Soldiers of the Civil War PDF Author: Bonnie Tsui
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1461748496
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
This exciting new volume profiles several substantiated cases of female soldiers during the American Civil War, including Sarah Rosetta Wakeman (aka Private Lyons Wakeman, Union); Sarah Emma Edmonds (aka Private Frank Thompson, Union); Loreta Janeta Velazquez (aka Lieutenant Harry T. Buford, Confederate); and Jennie Hodgers (aka Private Albert D. J. Cashier, Union). Also featured are those women who may not have posed as male soldiers but who nonetheless pushed gender boundaries to act boldly in related military capacities, as spies, nurses, and vivandieres ("daughters of the regiment") who bore the flag in battle, rallied troops, and cared for the wounded. Examining the Civil War through the lens of these women soldiers who fought in the conflict offers valuable insight on existing historical work. This volume will acquaint readers with these women, offering in-depth biographies and behind-the-scenes information. While drawing from recent academic work, Women Soldiers of the Civl War is a lively text geared toward the general-audience reader.

I'll Pass for Your Comrade

I'll Pass for Your Comrade PDF Author: Anita Silvey
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780618574919
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 140

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Book Description
Sarah Emma Edmonds enlisted because she believed in the Union cause; Melverina Peppercorn joined to stay near her twin brother. Although women were not allowed to enlist as soldiers in the Civil War, many disguised themselves as men and fought anyway.

Behind the Rifle

Behind the Rifle PDF Author: Shelby Harriel-Hidlebaugh
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 1496822021
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
During the Civil War, Mississippi’s strategic location bordering the Mississippi River and the state’s system of railroads drew the attention of opposing forces who clashed in major battles for control over these resources. The names of these engagements—Vicksburg, Jackson, Port Gibson, Corinth, Iuka, Tupelo, and Brice’s Crossroads—along with the narratives of the men who fought there resonate in Civil War literature. However, Mississippi’s chronicle of military involvement in the Civil War is not one of men alone. Surprisingly, there were a number of female soldiers disguised as males who stood shoulder to shoulder with them on the firing lines across the state. Behind the Rifle: Women Soldiers in Civil War Mississippi is a groundbreaking study that discusses women soldiers with a connection to Mississippi—either those who hailed from the Magnolia State or those from elsewhere who fought in Mississippi battles. Readers will learn who they were, why they chose to fight at a time when military service for women was banned, and the horrors they experienced. Included are two maps and over twenty period photographs of locations relative to the stories of these female fighters along with images of some of the women themselves. The product of over ten years of research, this work provides new details of formerly recorded female fighters, debunks some cases, and introduces over twenty previously undocumented ones. Among these are women soldiers who were involved in such battles beyond Mississippi as Shiloh, Antietam, and Gettysburg. Readers will also find new documentation regarding female fighters held as prisoners of war in such notorious prisons as Andersonville.

They Fought Like Demons

They Fought Like Demons PDF Author: DeAnne Blanton
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 0807158569
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 439

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Book Description
Popular images of women during the American Civil War include self-sacrificing nurses, romantic spies, and brave ladies maintaining hearth and home in the absence of their men. However, as DeAnne Blanton and Lauren M. Cook show in their remarkable new study, that conventional picture does not tell the entire story. Hundreds of women assumed male aliases, disguised themselves in men’s uniforms, and charged into battle as Union and Confederate soldiers—facing down not only the guns of the adversary but also the gender prejudices of society. They Fought Like Demons is the first book to fully explore and explain these women, their experiences as combatants, and the controversial issues surrounding their military service. Relying on more than a decade of research in primary sources, Blanton and Cook document over 240 women in uniform and find that their reasons for fighting mirrored those of men—-patriotism, honor, heritage, and a desire for excitement. Some enlisted to remain with husbands or brothers, while others had dressed as men before the war. Some so enjoyed being freed from traditional women’s roles that they continued their masquerade well after 1865. The authors describe how Yankee and Rebel women soldiers eluded detection, some for many years, and even merited promotion. Their comrades often did not discover the deception until the “young boy” in their company was wounded, killed, or gave birth. In addition to examining the details of everyday military life and the harsh challenges of -warfare for these women—which included injury, capture, and imprisonment—Blanton and Cook discuss the female warrior as an icon in nineteenth-century popular culture and why -twentieth-century historians and society ignored women soldiers’ contributions. Shattering the negative assumptions long held about Civil War distaff soldiers, this sophisticated and dynamic work sheds much-needed light on an unusual and overlooked facet of the Civil War experience.

Women's War - Fighting and Surviving the Civil War

Women's War - Fighting and Surviving the Civil War PDF Author: Stephanie Mccurry
Publisher: Belknap Press
ISBN: 0674987977
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
The Civil War is remembered as a war of brother against brother, with women standing innocently on the sidelines. But battlefield realities soon challenged this simplistic understanding of women's place in war. Stephanie McCurry shows that women were indispensable to the unfolding of the Civil War, as they have been--and continue to be--in all wars.

Occupied Women

Occupied Women PDF Author: LeeAnn Whites
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 0807143952
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
In the spring of 1861, tens of thousands of young men formed military companies and offered to fight for their country. Near the end of the Civil War, nearly half of the adult male population of the North and a staggering 90 percent of eligible white males in the South had joined the military. With their husbands, sons, and fathers away, legions of women took on additional duties formerly handled by males, and many also faced the ordeal of having their homes occupied by enemy troops. With occupation, the home front and the battlefield merged to create an unanticipated second front where civilians-mainly women-resisted what they perceived as unjust domination. In Occupied Women, twelve distinguished historians consider how women's reactions to occupation affected both the strategies of military leaders and ultimately even the outcome of the Civil War. Alecia P. Long, Lisa Tendrich Frank, E. Susan Barber, and Charles F. Ritter explore occupation as an incubator of military policies that reflected occupied women's activism. Margaret Creighton, Kristen L. Streater, LeeAnn Whites, and Cita Cook examine specific locations where citizens both enforced and evaded these military policies. Leslie A. Schwalm, Victoria E. Bynum, and Joan E. Cashin look at the occupation as part of complex and overlapping differences in race, class, and culture. An epilogue by Judith Giesberg emphasizes these themes. Some essays reinterpret legendary encounters between military men and occupied women, such as those prompted by General Butler's infamous "Woman Order" and Sherman's March to the Sea. Others explore new areas such as the development of military policy with regard to sexual justice. Throughout, the contributors examine the common experiences of occupied women and address the unique situations faced by women, whether Union, Confederate, or freed. Civil War historians have traditionally depicted Confederate women as rendered inert by occupying armies, but these essays demonstrate that women came together to form a strong, localized resistance to military invasion. Guerrilla activity, for example, occurred with the support and active participation of women on the home front. Women ran the domestic supply line of food, shelter, and information that proved critical to guerrilla tactics. By broadening the discussion of the Civil War to include what LeeAnn Whites calls the "relational field of battle," this pioneering collection helps reconfigure the location of conflict and the chronology of the American Civil War.

Women on the Civil War Battlefront

Women on the Civil War Battlefront PDF Author: Richard Hall
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
Drawing on a wealth of regimental histories, newspaper archives, and a host of previously unreported accounts, Hall shows that women served in more capacities and in greater number-perhaps several thousand-than has previously been known. They served in the infantry, cavalry, and artillery and as spies, scouts, saboteurs, smugglers, and frontline nurses. From all walks of life, they followed husbands and lovers into battle, often in male disguise that remained undiscovered until they were wounded (or gave birth), and endured the same hardships and dangers as did their male counterparts.

Great Women of the Civil War

Great Women of the Civil War PDF Author: Kirsten Schefelton
Publisher: Capstone
ISBN: 1491407190
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 33

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Book Description
"Describes key women involved in the American Civil War, including workers of the Underground Railroad, spies, abolitionists, and battlefield nurses"--

Under the Guns: A Woman's Reminiscences of the Civil War

Under the Guns: A Woman's Reminiscences of the Civil War PDF Author: Annie Wittenmyer
Publisher: Library of Alexandria
ISBN: 1465503366
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 255

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Book Description
In preparing this little volume for publication, no attempt whatever has been made to record, as facts of history, the military movements of the army during our recent Civil War. The great captains, who led the Union forces through the terrible conflict from Fort Sumter to Appomattox, have already covered, to a large extent, the military history of the war. My purpose has been simply to bring out in connection with these great military events, with which they were so intimately connected, a few of the many incidents and heart histories that were crowded into my own life, from April 20, 1861, to Nov. 23, 1865. The stories and reminiscences in this book are true to life, every one of them. They are told just as they occurred, without any attempt at literary embellishment; and most of them can be substantiated by living witnesses. Camps and hospitals were established near my own home in Keokuk, Iowa, early in April, 1861. I began at once my ministrations to the sick in these newly established hospitals, and, during my daily visits, closed the eyes of the first Iowa soldier who died in the war. From that time on till the close of the war I was actively engaged all along the lines. I was loyally and generously sustained by the women of Iowa; was elected by the Iowa Legislature sanitary agent of the State; was commissioned by Iowa’s grand old war governor, Samuel J. Kirkwood; was furnished by Secretary Stanton with a pass to all parts of the field, and government transportation for myself and supplies. This official order of Mr. Stanton’s was supplemented by the following charge:— “It is especially enjoined upon all officers to furnish this lady every facility in carrying out her generous purposes, it being shown that she is worthy of great respect.” I had also the co-operation of the Sanitary and Christian Commissions, and the chief medical officers and government officials, so that I had unusual facilities for doing good. I was greatly indebted to General and Mrs. Grant for sympathy and aid. When Mrs. Grant was at her husband’s headquarters the place was a haven of rest for me, and a welcome always awaited me. Indeed, Mrs. Grant would have joined me in the work, but her husband was afraid her strength and sympathies would be overtaxed. During these brief visits I learned to appreciate the unselfishness and noble qualities of General Grant, and the strength and purity of his character; and the loveliness and sterling worth of Mrs. Grant, and her wifely devotion. I was also under great obligations to General John A. Logan, who was ever ready to aid me. When it was almost impossible to get from Bridgeport to Chattanooga, he sent me up in a little steamer which he loaded with my supplies. Later, I met Mr. Orson, the president of the United Telegraph Association; and General Logan introduced me with such kindly appreciative words, that without a hint from either of us, he filled out an order allowing me “to telegraph free to the end of the war.” I still have that little order in my possession. It is due our brave soldiers that I should say that I felt as safe in their midst as I would have done in my own home, even though at times I was the only woman in the midst of an army of twenty thousand fighting men, as was the case at Milliken’s Bend, after the repulse of General Sherman at Haines’ Bluff. Not one impertinent or rude word was ever spoken to me in all those years. No purer or grander army ever marched to the music of fife and drum than the army that stood for the defence of our flag and the unity of our government from 1861 to 1865. A woman could walk in their midst in white, and a little child would have been as safe as in its mother’s arms. As I was all along the lines from Vicksburg to Petersburg, and was on some of the bloodiest battle-fields, and as I followed Sherman’s army along the fiery lines from Chattanooga to Atlanta, I necessarily had to pass through many perils, and witness many exciting scenes. A few of these stories I have now thought best to publish.

Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33d United States Colored Troops

Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33d United States Colored Troops PDF Author: Susie King Taylor
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : African American women
Languages : en
Pages : 142

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Book Description