THESIS
STEPPING OUT OF THE VICTORIAN MOLD THE LIVES OF WOMEN DURING THE CIVIL WAR
Samantha Baine Lanier
May 2012
In partial fulfillment of the requirements
For the Degree of Master of Arts in Exhibition Design
Corcoran College of Art + Design
Washington DC
13
Samantha Lanier Table of Contents
Exhibit Mission Statement 2 Target Audience 3 Teaching Points 4 Site Location 5-6 Exhibit Content Outline 7-10 Visitor Experience Narrative 11-63
Chapter 1 Before The War 13-15
Chapter 2 Reaction 11-15
Chapter 3 Take Action 16-24
Chapter 4 Helping Others 25-39
Chapter 5 In Charge 40-51
Chapter 6 Changing Roles 52-59
Chapter 7 Impact 60-61 Research Plan 62 Bibliography 63-64
Mission Statement
The Civil War brought new unforeseen challenges, uncertainty, heartache, and different roles to women in a changing nation. Stepping out of the Victorian Mold, the lives of women during the Civil War unveils their lives and tells their story regardless of status, race, or location.
Lanier 2 Target Audience
Stepping Out of the Victorian Mold, The Lives of Women During the Civil War will
primarily target visitors who are already interested in the Civil War and have an understanding of its history. It will also target school children and women of all ages.
Lanier 3 Teaching Points
• Women’s domestic, work, and social responsibilities changed during the Civil
War.
• Regardless of status, race, North or South, the Civil War affected almost all
women on some level.
• The role of women changed during the Civil War taking them from the private
world into the public world
Lanier 4 Site Location
The American Civil War Center of Historic Tredegar
Location: 500 Tredegar Street, Richmond VA 23219
The Center is in downtown Richmond, Virginia. It is an ideal location due to the fact that it is near what was previously the border dividing the
Union and the Confederacy. Interstate 95 runs directly through Richmond, which is one of the main interstates from Maine down to Florida. This gives travelers the opportunity to easily stop and visit the museum while traveling from one destination to another.
Lanier 5 Why:
The mission of the Center correlates with the mission of this exhibit:
“The mission of The American Civil War Center is to tell the whole story of the conflict that still shapes our nation.”1
They tell equally the story of the Unionists, Confederates, and the African
Americans. This fits with my mission to tell the story of women from all sides of the war. While the center focuses on the war itself and how its events shaped the nation, this exhibit will add to that story by showing what life was like for the women left to fight a different battle on the home front.
1 " American Civil War CenterAmerican Civil War Center At Historic Tredegar In Richmond, Virginia.." American Civil War CenterAmerican Civil War Center At Historic Tredegar In Richmond, Virginia. n.d
Lanier 6 Exhibit Content Outline
Before The War
• Women had fears of what was going to happen to them, their loved ones, their livelihood, and
the country if and when the war broke out. Women wrote about their fears and concerns of the
impending war.
• Quotes will introduce the visitor to some of the women in the exhibit
• Women from all over the North and South were experiencing effects from the war
Reaction
• When the men left for the war, they left behind their wives, mothers, and daughters. Women
were put in new situations and dealt with them differently.
• Response to husbands, sons, and fathers leaving for war
• Role of women questioned by men and themselves
• Start of women going from the private domestic to the public realm
Take Action
• Women who responded by taking action to the situations they faced
during the war.
• Elizabeth Van Lew and Mary Elisabeth Bowser
- Spies for the Union Army and helped soldiers escape
• Dorothea Dix
- Recruited female nurses for the Union; 3,000 nurses served under her
Lanier 7 • Martha Broyles Royce and daughters Betsy and Sally
- When caught spying on the Union, they had to pack up what belongings they could
and leave their home. They traveled hundreds of miles during the war as refugees, only
to come home to a demolished house.
Helping Others
• Women who helped in the war effort either on a small or large scale, primarily
on a volunteer basis.
• Clara Barton
- Started volunteering as a nurse. Her project for finding missing soldiers helped 20,000
Union soldiers families know what happened to them and where they were buried.
• Harriet Douglas Whetten
- One of thousands of volunteer nurses under Dorothea Dix. She helped the soldiers as
best as she could with other volunteer nurses.
• Esther Hill Hawk
- A doctor who went down South to help as a teacher for black Union troops and new
freed slaves.
• Rebecca Primus
- A free educated African American who after the war went down to Baltimore to teach
the newly freed slaves. She wrote to her friend, Addie Brown, who was also a free
African American during the war.
• Amanda Davis
- A young teenager of 14 when the war broke out living on the coast of Maine. She
wrote to a Maine soldier during the war, her letters gave him something to look forward
to while away at war.
Lanier 8 Women In Charge
• Women who took charge during challenging times
• Annie Wittenmeyer
-Organized the Keokuk Ladies’ Soldiers’ Aid Society and later developed other
organizations that employed women
• Ella Gertrude Clanton Smith Thomas
- Came from a life of luxury living on a plantation but went through many changes
during and after the war. After the war she had to go to work as a teacher to help
support her family. She became an active member in the women’s suffrage movement
taking charge of her areas organization.
• Rose O’Neal Greenhow
- A spy for the Confederacy who was given credit for winning the battle of Bull
Run. She gave her life for the war cause.
Changing Roles
• Women whose roles changed during the war
• Mary Lee Curtis
- Her home was taken over by the Union army and ransacked; it became what is now
Arlington Cemetery
• The Haven Sisters
-Sisters living in the North and the South faced different situations and challenges over
the years
• Mary Ann Webster Loughborough
Lanier 9 - Lived in a cave during part of the Civil War when she fled to Vicksburg, Mississippi to seek refuge only to find a long and horrific battle taking place in the city. Her husband, a member of the Confederate army was part of the battle that she witnessed.
Lanier 10 Chapter 1: Before the War
When entering the exhibit, visitors will first meet a handful of women from the
Civil War. The visitor will get a sense of who they are from entries of their diaries, journals, letters, or stories about their lives before the war. This will give the visitor an introduction to what life was like for these women, and the fears they had of the anticipated war. They are from different parts of the country and different walks of life. It sets the stage that this exhibit is not about feuding sides, wealthy or poor, black or white, but what life was like for these women during the Civil War.
The women that are in this beginning section represent the different sections throughout the exhibit. The visitor will be reunited with them, and learn about who they are, what they did, and how the war changed their lives. Below is a list of quotes that will be used, not necessarily in this particular order.
“….but what use is there in my dwelling upon such trivial matters when there is so much hanging over our heads. Fanny there is now no doubt but that we are two different nations. You cannot imagine the deep concentrated feeling that exists here. In N. Orleans the excitement is intense and it is increasing every day. The Governor of Louisiana has his proclamation written, although it is not out yet, to call an extra session and even the Bell men all say the state is doomed to follow the others.”2
-Ellen Haven Pugh to her sister Fanny Haven, November 15, 1860
“We have risked all, & we must play our best for the stake is life or death. I shall always regret that I had not kept a journal during the two past delightful & eventful years. The delights having exhausted themselves in the latter part of 1860 & the events crowding in so that it takes away one’s breath to think about it all.”3
- Mary Chestnut, February 18, 1861
2, Kathleen, Langdon-Haven McInerney. Dear Nell: the true story of the Haven sisters : based on the Haven-Pugh letter collection. United States: Kathleen McInerney, 2009, 45. 3 C.Vann, Woodward and Elisabeth Muhlenfeld. The Private Mary Chestnut, The Unpublished Civil War Diaries.,New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984, 3.
Lanier 11 “Indeed we are now in the midst of what all of us have read of-thought of- and dreamed of before, but never realized- A revolution-There are very many I very much fear who do not realize it now. Are not fully awake to the importance of the crisis that is upon us. This war has been forced upon us without reason, without law or pretext unless it is to force us to a state of vassalage- and shall we submit to this?”4
- Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas, July 13, 1861
“I look out upon the same beautiful landscape-the same blue sky, the same floating clouds- the face of nature is unchanged-nothing there indicates that the darkest page in our country’s history is now being written in lines of blood! But I turn and one glance on the face of man reveals the terrible certainty of some dark impending war.”5
- Clara Barton, April 19, 1861
“The accounts were received with frantic rejoicings, and bets were freely taken in support of Mr. Seward's wise saws - that the rebellion would be crushed out in thirty days. My heart told me that the triumph was premature. Yet, O my God! how miserable I was for the fate of my beloved country, which hung trembling in the balance!”
- Rose O’Neal Greenhow6
4 Ella Gertrude Clanton,Thomas and Virginia Ingraham Burr. The secret eye: the journal of Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas, 1848-1889. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1990, 185. 5 Stephen B.Oates, A woman of valor: Clara Barton and the Civil War. New York: Free Press, 1995. Print 6 Rose, Greenhow. My Imprisonment and the First Year of Abolition Rule at Washington: Electronic Edition. London: Richard Bentley, 1863, 17.
Lanier 12 Chapter 2: Reaction
Wives, mothers, and daughters had different reactions to their husbands, fathers, and sons leaving them for the war. Most felt it was their patriotic duty to support them and their political leanings. Women documented the war by writing in diaries, journals, and letters. When paper became unavailable in Richmond, Virginia the women pealed the wallpaper off the walls to write to their men.7 Regardless of being for the Union or Confederacy, women feared what was going to happen and how long the war was going to last. The roles of women were questioned when they had to step into different ones due to all of the men leaving. Before the war, women’s roles were mostly in the private, domestic life. While some women were in such roles as teaching and a very small amount in government work, women primarily did not have involvement in business, commerce, or politics. Nina Silber’s Daughters of the Union,
Northern Women Fight the Civil War discusses how these changes affected many women in the North, and how they started to discover these new roles.
“The evidence is subtle: a mother’s growing attentiveness to local politics, a wife’s heightened interest in reading war news, a sister’s new concern for the plight of other soldiers and soldier’s families. As they gave up their men for the fight, many Northern women began to carve out a new political mentality in which they became aware of their own duties to the nation-state. They learned to step, albeit tentatively, beyond the domestic circle to consider the national and ideological dimensions of the conflict.”8
In addition to forming our nation, the Civil War brought women from the private domesticity to the public realm. Due to the war, women started stepping into these
7 Susan, Campion. "Journal of the American Institute of Conservation." JSTOR 34.2 (1995): 129-140. JSTOR. Web. 15 Oct. 2011, 130. 8 Nina, Silber. Daughters of the Union: northern women fight the Civil War. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2005. Print, 28.
Lanier 13 roles that needed to be filled. A lot of men had left their work and home to participate in the war. Shirley Gage Hodges makes a point reminding everyone of the emotion that goes along with the war. In her article The Importance of Women in the Civil War by saying “We need to always remember for every man who endured the rigors of the
Civil War, someplace there was perhaps a mother, sister, wife or sweetheart who worried and grieved for him.”9 Many women experienced the Civil War differently, and almost all women were affected by the war. Some stepped out of their traditional
Victorian roles and jumped into action. Others learned how they could help in the war effort. Some stood from afar and saw how the effects of the war would change their lives forever.
This was a trying time for our young Country. Women had to not just become part of the public world, but also become individuals. They had to learn how to rely on themselves and take on the challenges that they faced. For some women this was a devastating and trying time, while for others it was an opportunity to break the traditional roles that they had before the war began.10
Many women wrote about their experiences through diaries, journals, letters, and memoirs. These personal stories are the common thread through the exhibit letting you step into their lives. Through the exhibit visitors will meet women who fit into four different reactions to the war: Take Action, Helping Others, Women in Charge, and Changing Roles. It will be a look into what life was like from a variety of women who had different experiences. Through these different scenes, the visitor will be able
9 Shirley Gage, Hodges. "The Importance of Women in the Civil War." The Global Gazette [Milton] 2 Dec. 2006: n. pag. The Global Gazette . Web. 13 Sept. 2011. 10 Alexis Girardin, Brown. "The Women Left Behind: Transformation of the Southern Belle, 1840-1880”Historian 62, no. 4 (2000): 759-778. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1540-6563.2000.tb01458.x/abstract (accessed October 20, 2011,766.
Lanier 14 to have a visual idea of how they lived, whether it be stepping into their home, office, or even wagon to get a sense of their lives.
There will be artifacts such as the women’s china, silver, clothing, letters, diaries, and other objects that help the visitor not only have a real visual of the objects, but to help tell the story. Graphic elements such as maps, charts, photographs, and illustrations will be used as well. The use of technology will be limited, but used when it helps the visitor understand or learn in a way that is more impactful. Different techniques and effects will be used depending on what works best for the visitor to learn and understand the story that each of these chapters is telling.
Lanier 15 Chapter 3: Take Action
In Take Action the visitor will meet women who reacted to the Civil War by jumping into roles and reacting to situations that the war brought them. Martha
Royce did it not by choice but by force. Elizabeth Van Lew and her former slave Mary
Elisabeth Bowser voluntarily spied for the Union, yet risked their lives by doing so.
Dorothea Dix applied her domestic skills to the Union cause by organizing nurses for the fallen soldiers. A lot of women took action during the war, and almost all did it purely out of volunteerism and a call to service. There were different levels of action taken and from all types of women.
The women represented in this section come from different parts of the country and social classes. They each had a unique experience and reaction to the war. For
Martha and her daughters it was the journey of their travels. In the end they had lost almost everything and had to start again from nothing. Mary Elisabeth risked everything in her mission and stayed loyal to her former owner Elizabeth Van Lew.
Van Lew gave up everything for the action that she took during the war. She not only spent her inheritance, but also became a social outcast in the community that lasted the rest of her life. Dorothea Dix pushed to have women nurses when she saw the great need despite meeting with resistance from the men.
A quote from S.H.M Byers author of Iowa in War Times puts into perspective that it was not just the men on the battlefield that had an impact on the war:
“Iowa had two armies serving the nation- the great column, 78,000 strong, of boys in blue at the front, and that other army of men and women who furnished the muscles of war here at home. . . Nations are not saved by muskets alone, but by the great,
Lanier 16 strong hearts that beat in one impulse, but in the loyal duty that lies nearest, and without visible reward.”11
In this section, the visitor will see what these women’s lives were like. For
Martha Broyles Royce and her daughters the visitor will see how they had only a wagon’s worth of belongings that they were able to take with on their miles of journey through the south. For Elizabeth Van Lew, the visitor will get a feeling of what her home was like during the war, horse included. The visitor will see ways in which Mary
Elisabeth Bowser was able to hide secret messages from the Confederate White House.
Martha Broyles Royce and daughters Betsy and Sally
Martha Broyles Royce faced many challenges during the Civil War. Her husband Moses was gone for most of the war fighting for the Confederacy. When the
Union army started to make its way into their town of Franklin, Tennessee, Martha grew concerned. The unwelcomed visitors made use of her house while there, and
Martha was under close watch because she was under suspicion of being a spy. She counted how many troops went by from the window of her bedroom.
In 1862, fighting in and around Franklin grew more frequent. The Royce house lay directly in the battle path causing a great scare to Martha and her two young daughters, Betsey and Sally. The Broyles women found themselves having to make their way down to the cellar while dodging bullets that were piercing through their house. “The air was full of smoke and dust and strange noises, and the cries and shouts of men mingled with the rushing sound of horses’ hooves. “The horrid din of
11 Elizabeth D, Leonard,. Yankee women: gender battles in the Civil War. New York: W.W. Norton, 1994. Print, 51.
Lanier 17 war” which she had once thought of only as a figure of speech, became in that hour a grim reality to her”12
After this battle, with Union soldiers still living in their house and eating their food, a general told them that they had to leave Franklin due to Martha’s role as a spy.
Within a matter of days, Martha had to sell many of their belongings, pack what necessities and valuables they could, and give the family portraits to a trustworthy neighbor, hoping that when they returned, these irreplaceable items would still be intact. Martha and her daughters travelled 295 miles to her parent’s plantation in
Greenville, Tennessee. Before they departed, Martha cautiously packed a pistol Betsey had found in the yard that was left behind by a soldier. Martha, using what knowledge she had of it, took it apart and hid the different pieces in what they had packed. This included parts in between sugar cookies, a loaf of bread, and potted shrimp.13 Martha and Sally had to leave most of their belongings behind, allowed to take one toy each and one to share. Children were affected by the war just like adults except Betsey and Sally probably did not understand the full circumstances of the war and why they had to leave their toys behind. Throughout their journey these young girls had to be brave and deal with grownup situations. The two dolls and tea set they chose to take with them would comfort them in their journey.14
While en route to Greenville, they experienced their first taste of being refugees having to depend on others for a place to stay and food to eat. This was the first of these experiences, but it definitely was not the last. Martha and the girls made it to
12 A genteel spy: the inspiring odyssey of Martha Broyles Royce and her family during the Civil War. Rockvale, TN: Two Peas Pub., 2010. Print, 30. 13 A genteel spy: the inspiring odyssey of Martha Broyles Royce and her family during the Civil War. Rockvale, TN: Two Peas Pub., 2010, 41. 14 A genteel spy: the inspiring odyssey of Martha Broyles Royce and her family during the Civil War. Rockvale, TN: Two Peas Pub., 2010, 39.
Lanier 18 her parents’ house where, in December of 1863, a letter arrived from Moses saying that he was to be executed from false charges of guerilla warfare. Below is the letter that Martha received. For all she knew this might have been the last letter she would ever see from her husband, and, even worse, he may have already been killed.
“Dear Wife,
I have been tried on a charge of guerilla warfare, have been adjudged guilty, and am now under sentence to be shot. The date of my execution has not been fixed. It is needless to tell you that I am innocent of the charge. I have only been a scout. I enclose a photograph of myself, which I was allowed to have taken, attended by a guard. You are not likely to forget my looks, but the children are.
May the Lord have you in his keeping. Farewell.
Faithfully your husband,
Moses Royce”15
Martha read this and immediately stepped into action. She knew she had to get to Richmond, Virginia to speak to Confederate president Davis to try and save him.
Martha traveled 325 miles to Richmond on treacherous roads, and at one point crossed a bridge that grown men would not attempt. She did this knowing it was the only thing she could do to save her husband, and there was no turning back. When
Martha reached Richmond, she was able to tell her story and word was spread to stop the execution of her husband. She might not have been the sole reason that the execution did not happen, but she knew she had to try and help regardless. When
Betsey asked her mother about her journey, Martha responded with:
“Sometimes, Betsey, it is better to just go ahead and do it. You can’t allow your fears to get in the way. I had to save your father and that’s what kept me going. I also knew in my heart the good Lord was with me and would protect me.”16
15 A genteel spy: the inspiring odyssey of Martha Broyles Royce and her family during the Civil War. Rockvale, TN: Two Peas Pub., 2010. Print, 73. 16 A genteel spy: the inspiring odyssey of Martha Broyles Royce and her family during the Civil War. Rockvale, TN: Two Peas Pub., 2010. Print, 80.
Lanier 19 Moses eventually escaped prison from the Union army and made his way to
Greenville. The reunited family made plans for a long trip back to Franklin. While money was very scarce, and having only few personal items left along with the clothes on their back, they started on their way home. When they reached Franklin, all that was left was the lot where their house once stood on. The Royce family had to start over again from nothing. However, Martha was luckier than some women during that time period; even though she lost her home she did not lose a loved one from the war.
Elizabeth Van Lew and Mary Elisabeth Bowser
Elizabeth Van Lew put everything she had into being a spy for the Union army.
She was a well to do single woman in Richmond, Virginia. She came from a respectable family where they made their money from her father’s stores. When he passed away, Elizabeth and her mother freed all of their slaves, as slavery was something that Elizabeth was always against. When the war began Elizabeth jumped into action for the Union risking her life, home, family, and livelihood for the cause.
She spent her entire inheritance on helping Union soldiers escape, feeding prisoners, etc. One way that she was able to limit suspicion towards her was to draw attention to herself by walking around and acting crazy. People began to ignore her which is exactly what she wanted. Elizabeth was able to go around and not have people questioning what she was doing. In doing so she became known as “Crazy Bet”.17
Elizabeth requested the help of one of her former slaves, Mary Elisabeth
Bowser, for her mission. Mary was in Philadelphia where Ms. Van Lew had sent her to be educated. This is an interesting relationship in that Elizabeth cared enough about her freed slave that she sent her to be educated. The other intriguing aspect is that
17 Elizabeth L, Lew, and David D. Ryan. A Yankee spy in Richmond the Civil War diary of "Crazy Bet" Van Lew. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1996, 10.
Lanier 20 Mary came back to Richmond during the war when she had no obligation to do so.
This says something about Elizabeth as a person and the respect that Mary must have had for her.
Through Elizabeth’s connections, she arranged for Mary a position at the
Confederate White House under President Jefferson Davis. While there, Mary was a servant who attended to normal housekeeping duties. What no one there knew, including the other servants, was that Mary knew how to read and write and had a photographic memory. Mary would listen in on conversations during dinner and read anything that was lying around. Nobody suspected her because she was able to do this without drawing any attention to herself. Once she got home she would write down everything she could so it could get passed on to the Union army.18
Mary risked everything to do this for the Union army. She took on the challenge that Elizabeth asked of her and succeeded by being able to pass on valuable information. Mary did this without wanting anything in return. It is hard to believe that there were many other African American women who would do something like this. Here she was, a free woman, educated in the North, return to the South, and spying in the President’s house.
Elizabeth had some interesting ways of getting her secrets to the right people, and she was successful at it because none of her messages were ever discovered by the wrong people. For instance her paper messages could only be read after dipping the paper in milk. Another was hollowing out an egg and slipping a message inside.
18 Gibbs Magazine"Mary Bowser." In God We Trust and other Poems. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Oct.
Lanier 21 When looking at a basket full of eggs, no one would have thought one would be holding information that would benefit the Union army.19
Elizabeth and Mary were big contributors to the spy effort for the Union. Ms.
Van Lew did experience similar fears that a lot of women left at home also encountered. For example, there was a time that Union and Confederate troops were going through her area and taking anything and everything they needed or wanted.
Elizabeth found herself putting her one and only horse in the study with the curtains drawn to keep it from being stolen.
“…we spirited him into the dwelling house, spread straw upon the study floor, and he accepted at once his position and behaved as though he thoroughly understood matters, never stamping loud enough to be heard, no neighing. This was his hiding place several times, sometimes for a week together.”20
This one horse was their main mode of transportation. It would have been difficult financially and logistically to get another horse if hers was taken.
After the war, Elizabeth’s spying had greatly altered the rest of her life. She spent almost her entire inheritance, and had to work after the war to support herself and her mother. She was considered an outcast to Richmond society. She was never convicted of spying, but everyone around there knew that she had been involved.
After the war, employment was hard to find for Elizabeth who then needed the income.
Luckily, Generals who Elizabeth helped fought for her to get a job at the post office.
There is very little known of what happened to Mary after the war. Her messages were destroyed by the government, more to protect her than them. In 1995
19 B Garrison, Webb. Amazing women of the Civil War. Nashville, Tenn.: Rutledge Hill Press, 1999. Print, 118.. 20 Elizabeth L, Lew, and David D. Ryan. A Yankee spy in Richmond the Civil War diary of "Crazy Bet" Van Lew .Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1996, 49.
Lanier 22 Mary was inducted into the U.S Army Military Intelligence Corps Hall of Fame in Fort
Huachuca, Arizona where they gave her credit for her work:
“Ms. Bowser certainly succeeded in a highly dangerous mission to the great benefit of the Union effort. She was one of the highest placed and most productive espionage agents of the Civil War.”21
Dorothea Dix
Dorothea Dix was a persistent woman who changed nursing in the army during the war for the Union. Before the Civil War only men were nurses in the army and this sometimes meant men who did not want to be nurses were assigned that duty.
Dorothea changed that when she saw the need for more nurses during the war, saying that there was going to be more bloodshed then the men would know what to do with.22 She was, at first, turned away but started collecting supplies for the soldiers.
Eventually she was granted her wish and started recruiting women. Superintendant of Women Nurses was the title that was given to her. Dix was very specific about what kind of woman she wanted to volunteer.
“No women under thirty need apply to serve in the government hospitals. All nurses are required to be plain looking women. Their dresses must be brown or black, with no bows, no curls, no jewelry, and no hoop-skirts.”23
The reasoning was that she did not want these women to be a distraction to the men.
They were solely there to do their job and that was all; there was not time or room for flirting or inappropriate behavior. Nina Silber makes the point in Daughters of the
Union that Dix had to be cautious of this new environment that women were entering.
21 "Mary Bowser." In God We Trust and other Poems. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2011.
Lanier 23 “For women to succeed in this new role, there could not be even the slightest hint of impropriety, even if the impropriety stemmed more from male attitudes than female impulses. Women who entered these new public arenas found their sexuality was one of their main points of identification, and they were forced to take extra steps to prove their skills and ability.”24
This scenario presents itself in multiple situations with women in general throughout the Civil War. It was a changing time not just for the country, but for women as well.
They were suddenly placed in these new situations dealing with experiences that altered the stereotypical Victorian mold that society was accustomed to.
At first all of the army nurses were strictly volunteers, but then due to financial strain they were paid. The money helped, but it was not on the same level that men were receiving at the time. Men still were not happy with Dix and her female nurses in their space. Dorothea ran an efficient and tight ship which sometimes made situations difficult when trying to collaborate with the men.
When the war was almost over, Dorothea left her position and went back to doing her work for the insane asylums that she had started before this journey. She, like Elizabeth Van Lew, used her own funds to help with the war effort. Dorothea even went to the extreme of renting a second house in Washington to house the supplies that were rapidly accumulating. Dix stepped into action leaving behind what her true passion was, helping the mentally ill. She knew that this was an important time where she had to step up and be of what service she could for the Union.25
24Nina, Silber. Daughters of the Union: northern women fight the Civil War. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2005, 114 25 Webb B, Garrison.. Amazing women of the Civil War. Nashville, Tenn.: Rutledge Hill Press, 1999. Print, 193-201.
Lanier 24 Chapter 4: Helping Others
Helping Others tells the stories of women who reached out and helped those in need. Many women did not help to gain something in return, but simply to volunteer and help the cause. Some women spent the rest of their lives helping others from their work during the Civil War, while others volunteered during the hardest times and went back to their lives afterwards. Either way, they were going beyond what was typical of women of the time.
One example of how the visitor will experience Helping Others is by stepping into the office of Clara Barton and seeing the thousands of letters that she received during the war. Seeing just how many letters Clara received and the impact her organization had during the war will give visitors an understanding of how important she was.
Clara Barton
Many people know Clara Barton as the woman who started the American Red
Cross, but this tells the story of Clara Barton whose work had a large impact on the
Civil War. Clara Barton was an extraordinary woman who devoted her life to helping others. Even before the war, she was a woman who was out in the public sphere. In
1854 when she moved to Washington from Massachusetts she got a job at the U.S
Patent Office as a confidential secretary, the first woman to be employed by a government department.26 Even during the war, there were very few women who worked in government offices, the Patent office, U.S Mint, and the Treasury
26 Ida Husted, Harper . "The Life and Work of Clara Barton." The North American Review 195.678 (1912): 701-712. jstor. Web. 28 Oct. 2011, 702.
Lanier 25 department, were where women were employed. By the end of the war, the Treasury department had over 450 women working at it.27
When war broke out she immediately started to think of what she could do to help. Like many other women Clara volunteered as a nurse. This experience would shape the rest of her life. Clara went to the battle fields and helped the wounded soldiers, which before had been a place that was a man’s domain. She worked relentlessly on the battlefield to try and save as many lives as she could. Many men were saved because of her efforts. From Clara’s work in the fields, she started to receive letters from wives and family members of soldiers to see if she knew where they were and if they were alive. These letters prompted Clara to start “The Search for
Missing Soldiers” organization in Annapolis, Maryland.
Clara received support from President Lincoln for her mission of finding the missing soldiers. This was significant not just because it was the President, but it was male support. Throughout all of her work before and during the war, Clara constantly had to deal with men who were unsure of how to deal with her. Usually women were not involved in these situations. She received a letter that Lincoln wrote expressing his support:
“To the friends of missing persons: Miss Clara Barton has kindly offered to search for the missing prisoners of War. Please address her at Annapolis, Maryland giving name, regiment, and company of any missing prisoner.”28
News started to spread of Clara’s mission through newspapers and by word of mouth.
When she reached Annapolis she had over three hundred letters waiting for her.
Realizing that this was going to be a daunting task, she enlisted help from others.
27 Nina, Silber. Daughters of the Union: northern women fight the Civil War. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2005, 79. 28 Stephen B, Oates. A woman of valor: Clara Barton and the Civil War. New York: Free Press, 1995. Print, 304.
Lanier 26 After some time, her station in Annapolis was closing, Clara decided to continue her mission back in Washington. She went to then President Johnson for financial help because she could not sustain the expense of everything, which also included spending her own money on supplies. Clara used her experience from working in the government on writing to obtain these necessities. She was able to get her lists of missing men printed by the Government printing office and her postage paid for as well. A list of fifteen hundred names was first sent out, and after that thousands of letters started to come in. These letters were a mix of people telling her the whereabouts of soldiers, while others were letters from deeply concerned wives, mothers, and other family members hoping Clara could help them know what had happened to their men.29
In 1864, Clara received a letter from Dorence Atwater who had been at the
Andersonville prison camp in Georgia. He had secretly been keeping a list of soldiers who died there and where they were buried. Clara again had to go through the government to get permission to go there and access the situation. This time, when dealing with Edwin Stanton, the Secretary of War, she got a positive response right away. She and a team of men were on their way down to Georgia to identify almost thirteen thousand soldiers who died there. Clara wrote to a friend of the mission saying:
“If at once shall be my privilege to gaze over that crowded field of hidden graves where sleep the 13,000 dead of my country’s loved and lost, and witness the fast fading mounds giving place to the lettered tablet which shall tell something of the tale of the prison-sealed lips beneath could not utter, and feel that the hallowed earth which covers these remains may yet receive a mother’s tear or a sister’s kiss, it will be one of the happiest and saddest hours of my whole life.”30
29 Stephen B Oates. A ,woman of valor: Clara Barton and the Civil War. New York: Free Press, 1995. Print 30 Stephen B Oates. A ,woman of valor: Clara Barton and the Civil War. New York: Free Press, 1995. Print, 317.
Lanier 27 Unfortunately, her journey there was not a peaceful one. Captain Moore, who was almost 15 years younger than her, did not approve of a woman taking part in this type of activity. He “could not tolerate a woman intruding on a man’s work.”31 Regardless, she kept working, knowing that her work was helping those have closure by understanding what happened to their loved ones.
In 1997, Clara’s office for the missing soldiers was discovered in downtown
Washington, D.C, at 437 7th Street, when demolition of the building was scheduled. A construction worker found hundreds of documents and signs from Clara’s office lying in the attic. The GSA’s Preservation office was contacted to take a look at what was found.
“In delighted amazement we literally crawled through a thick layer of historical papers, publications, and clothing, all dating from the mid to late 1860’s, none later than 1868.”32
This unexpected discovery will help in preserving Clara Barton’s mission and success, and also serve as a reminder of women’s contribution to the war.
On an episode of PBS show “History Detectives”, a letter to a Union family from
Clara Barton was the subject of authentication. Bill Kruczeck, an Indiana man, in
Indiana had bought some old books at an estate sale and discovered the letter. It was a letter written to J. Blair Welch in Pennsylvania letting them know that Israel Brown had died in Florence, South Carolina. It was signed by Clara Barton, or they thought.
Further investigation led to the discovery that it was in fact a letter from Clara’s office of missing soldiers, but it was not her signature. Elizabeth Brown Pryor points out that the mission of the office was to put together information that was sent to them to find out about these soldiers that were on missing soldiers lists or from loved ones
31 Oates, Stephen B.. A woman of valor: Clara Barton and the Civil War. New York: Free Press, 1995. Print, 318. 32 Scott, Gary. "Clara Barton's Civil War Apartments." Washington History 13.1 (2001): 24-31. Print, 27.
Lanier 28 who wrote in. There could easily be over one hundred letters a day. Clara kept notebooks of as many soldiers as she could. The detectives were able to find out that
J. Blair Welch and Israel Brown were neighbors. Clara’s office had contacted Welch to let them know that Brown had died and where he was buried. This is just one of thousands examples of how Clara’s work during the Civil War helped. 33
Harriet Douglas Whetten
Harriet Douglas Whetten was educated and came from a fine family background in Staten Island, New York. She was a volunteer nurse and part of the United States
Sanitary Commission during 1862. Miss Dorothea Dix was in charge of the
Commission and assigned Harriet her position. From Harriet’s one letter that she discusses Miss Dix, it appears that she liked and approved of her. In her letters she describes what life was like for a woman nurse who had not experienced anything like the situations that she was thrust into because of the war. Harriet was not as vigorous in her volunteer work as Clara Barton, but she still represents one of the
3,000 female volunteer nurses that helped the Union army. Her letters are addressed to Kate and Hexie; who these women are and what relation they have to Harriet is not known.
On May 8th, 1862 she writes to Kate about what she has been experiencing on the boats that she and two other nurses have been staying on while traveling to different locations. The arrangements on the boat are not glamorous, and probably more rugged than what Harriet is used to.
33 Michelle, Feuerlicht and John Kin "Season 8/Episode 4.". History Detectives. PBS. 19 July 2011. Web. Transcript, 4.
Lanier 29 “I slept last night with my carpet bag for my pillow and this morning had not a drop of water to wash my face till 1 o’clock when I managed to hire a contraband to bring me a pail, but this did not occur till I had been all over Yorktown and seen I will tell you whom.”
“I tell you it is real life without any varnish, this.”34
Obviously, the women had to make do with what they have and realize that this was going to be hard work. On May 19, 1862 she writes to Hexie about one of the other nurses, Mrs. Strong. It appears that Mrs. Strong was not a woman who under any other circumstances would have been in this type of situation.
“Mrs. Strong is a fashionable New York woman, the last person you would have expected in such an expedition, but she has done very well in the way of ordering and arranging. She is rather too fine a lady to make a good nurse, and touches things some-what too much with the tips of her fingers, so that the actual nursing in our ward falls chiefly on me.”35
Even though Harriet does not think that Mrs. Strong would make a good nurse, she still has some skills that she can apply. Mrs. Strong was probably using her domestic organizing skills to help the situation. Her apparent status also points out, that, women from all different classes were volunteering and trying to participate in the war effort in some way. Some women’s homes were used in the war effort as well.
Harriet writes to Hexie on May 30th, 1862 about a house that they used in Virginia where the owners were not there.
“I felt sorry for the poor young woman who thought herself obliged to leave her pretty home, and although there is but little furniture left in it, there was enough to show that they were people of refinement & taste- some very handsome copies of our old favourite books, Lyra, Germanica, Two Years Ago, some of Ruskin’s books were lying in a heap in the garret, and before the window stood Mrs. Lee’s easel & chair, making me think of “Paradise” of the North Shore.”36
34 Douglas Whetten, Harriet , and Paul H. Hass. "A Volunteer Nurse in the Civil War: The Letters of Harriet Douglas Whetten." The Wisconsin Magazine of History Winter 1964: 131-151. Print, 135. 35 Douglas Whetten, Harriet , and Paul H. Hass. "A Volunteer Nurse in the Civil War: The Letters of Harriet Douglas Whetten." The Wisconsin Magazine of History Winter 1964: 131-151. Print, 139. 36, Harriet , Douglas Whetten and Paul H. Hass. "A Volunteer Nurse in the Civil War: The Letters of Harriet Douglas Whetten." The Wisconsin Magazine of History Winter 1964: 131-151. Print, 141.
Lanier 30 Harriet expresses sympathy for the woman of the house because she understood that this woman had to leave what life she had behind. Who knows where she went, or if and when she ever was able to come back to her home that was being invaded by unwelcomed strangers.
Harriet dealt with many gruesome realities of the war in being a nurse. She had to stay strong and try to do her best to help the soldiers some on their deathbeds.
In a letter written on June 14, 1862, she refers to a man who came in very badly hurt.
She stayed with him by his side until he finally passed away. She provided him with as much comfort as she could.
“we knew that he was mortally wounded, and then we expected to go to New York and hoped he would be able to see his wife. He asked me not to leave him, and thank God I was able to be with him till the last. In the intervals of his insensibility from chloroform which was given to him to subdue the spasm he would put out his hand and take mine. He sent a message to his wife, and we read to him as he could hear it, a few verses from the Testament.”37
Harriet is yet another example of thousands of women in the North and South who helped thousands of men during the war. The occupation of nursing was primarily held by men, but during and after the war women had a larger presence.38
This is another example of women stepping into roles they normally would not. Due to so many men in the war, and the amount who were injured during battle made it necessary to have women there to help. Even upper class women of the Confederacy joined the cause and put themselves in position they never dreamed of entering. They
37, Harriet , Douglas Whetten and Paul H. Hass. "A Volunteer Nurse in the Civil War: The Letters of Harriet Douglas Whetten." The Wisconsin Magazine of History Winter 1964: 131-151. Print, 144. 38 "New Georgia Encyclopedia: Women during the Civil War." New Georgia Encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Aug. 2011.
Lanier 31 did it because they wanted to be useful and help the cause, even if it went against everything they stood for previously.39
Esther Hill Hawk
Esther was a well-educated woman and, after marrying John Milton Hawk became one of the very few female doctors in the country. She went to the same school that Elizabeth Blackwell had attended. Even before the Civil War, Hawk was against slavery. Mr. and Mrs. Hawk moved to Florida from New England to teach. It was in Florida where she helped others outside of her normal role and taught African
Americans, which was illegal at the time. When the war started, John was a surgeon for the Union army. Esther wanted to be with him and help out in any way that she could. When the opportunity came for her to go to Florida she did so. While there she used her skills as a doctor, but she was primarily a teacher. She would teach anyone who was willing to learn. There were a lot of soldiers who had never been given the opportunity until then to learn how to read and write. Esther took pride and joy in her work seeing the happy faces that she was able to reach. One young girl told Mrs.
Hawk how excited she was to be able to write to her old mistress and tell her how harsh she was to her. Esther writes about Sarah in her diary: “Sarah shows more bitterness in speaking of her old mistress than I have ever seen in any of them. She says- “I’ll always hate her ‘cos she never give me ‘nuff to eat, not it ‘spile when she don had ‘nuff-“ and the greatest incentive which she has taken to learn. . . “40
39 Drew Gilpin, Faust. Mothers of invention: women of the slaveholding South in the American Civil War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996. Print, 93. 40 Esther Hill, Hawks and Gerald Schwartz. A woman doctor's Civil War: Esther Hill Hawks' diary. Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, 1984, 69.
Lanier 32 Esther enjoyed teaching, but she also sometimes wanted to go back to her own life. At one point in her diary she questions if she is doing the right thing, and whether or not her services would be better elsewhere.41 While in Florida, she had to find living accommodations that had not been burned down by the Union army, which sometimes meant the bare minimum for a dwelling. Food rations were also sparse at times. When she injured herself on a horse, spraining her hip, her students continued to bring her treats while she had to stay in bed. On February 24th, 1865, she wrote:
“The children bring me a great many flowers, and indeed they bring me a great many other things. I think something has been brought me for every meal since I have been confined to my room; of their stores they bring me the best –God bless them!- how I love their little black faces!”42
Esther also started sewing classes for the women in the area with ten dollars given to her by a friend and fellow worker, Christopher Roberts, who was a member of the American Union Commission. She experienced racism first hand when white women would not attend because there were African American women there. Mrs.
Hawk was trying to teach them a valuable skill and they let their prejudices get in the way of that. It was a different scene compared to one she experienced while nursing earlier, where an injured white soldier let an African American soldier be treated before him because his injury was more severe.
Mrs. Hawks left Florida to go to Charleston, South Carolina at the end of
March, 1865. When leaving, she had an emotional goodbye with the children, along with the rest of the town. It shows the impact she was having on these people’s lives, and that they cared and respected her that much. After a year’s time, she returned to
41 Esther Hill Hawks, and Gerald Schwartz. A woman doctor's Civil War: Esther Hill Hawks' diary. Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, 1984, 71. 42 Esther Hill Hawks, and Gerald Schwartz. A woman doctor's Civil War: Esther Hill Hawks' diary. Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, 1984, 115.
Lanier 33 Florida leaving behind the comforts of Charleston. There was a lot of hesitation to whether or not she should return. On December 11, 1865 she writes in her diary:
“We are so comfortable here- and it would be so nice to have a quiet winter! But as that is among the impossible I must make up my mind to roughing it again. . . . but I must go to Florida anyway and there circumstances will determine the next step.”43
Upon her return to Florida, Esther found the place she left was not the same from when she returned. There seemed to be less children involved with the school and the teachers there were not focused on curriculum. She was surprised to see such a decline in attendance and after sitting in on classes realized that the teachers were a large part of that. Esther, disheartened, returned to New England to go back to her medical practice. She had spent a lot of time and energy trying to help the free
African Americans and soldiers. While at first she was successful, her mission was unfortunately not continued by others. Regardless of how others took over her work,
Esther had an impact on those that she was able to reach.
Rebecca Primus and Addie Brown
Rebecca and Addie were free African Americans living in Connecticut during the
Civil War. They both were literate; Rebecca had more education than Addie. At times they were living in the same town, but more often they were apart and wrote letters to each other. These letters show what their lives were like during the war. Surprisingly
Rebecca and Addie did not mention very much about the war in their correspondence.
They wrote about the African American troops in their town coming home from war, and occasionally mentioned a family that had lost a loved one to the war.
43 Esther Hill Hawks, and Gerald Schwartz. A woman doctor's Civil War: Esther Hill Hawks' diary. Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, 1984, 228.
Lanier 34 Addie spent her life working primarily as a laundress for an all girls school before getting married. After the war, Rebecca moved to Maryland to teach the recently freed slaves. The majority of the letters she wrote is about her work as a teacher and trying to build a school house. While there, she had a large impact on the community and specifically her students. Through this process it was not just
Rebecca trying to raise money, but it was a community coming together to help the future of their children.
It is during the time that Rebecca spent in Maryland where she experienced racism more than ever before. In June of 1866, Rebecca wrote to her family and Addie about the death of well respected colored man in the town who was murderd by a white man. She expressed her thought on the behavior of some of the people in the town: “There are some very lawless fellows in these towns and there is nothing too bad for them to do to a colored person. I trust something like justice will be given to the black man one of these days, for some are persecuted almost as badly now as in the days of slavery.”44
While these unfortunate instances did occur, it is not to say that was the majority of everyone in Maryland. When raising money for the new school, one man went to his former owner to ask for supplies and got a supportive donation. Rebecca writes of this event in March of 1867:
“Mr. Thomas has begged two trees from his former master for the sills, which he very readily gave & spoke very much in favor of the school among the col’d people.”45
44 Rebecca Primus, Addie Brown, and Farah Jasmine Griffin. Beloved sisters and loving friends: letters from Rebecca Primus of Royal Oak, Maryland and Addie Brown of Hartford, Connecticut, 1854-1868. New York: Knopf :, 1999, 128. 45 Rebecca Primus, Addie Brown, and Farah Jasmine Griffin. Beloved sisters and loving friends: letters from Rebecca Primus of Royal Oak, Maryland and Addie Brown of Hartford, Connecticut, 1854-1868. New York: Knopf :, 1999, 183.
Lanier 35 It was very important to Rebecca that there be a physical schoolhouse for them to use. It was not just a building for these people, but it was a symbol of the changing times. She had Addie and her family hold a bizarre fundraiser in Connecticut to help raise money. The bizarre was a success raising almost $200. The school was finally completed and gave an education to African American children in the area until it closed in 1929.46 Rebecca dedicated herself to being a teacher and helping others.
Unfortunately, Addie died at the age of 28 in 1870.
Esther and Rebecca are two examples of women who after the war decided to become teachers. Many women during the war took up teaching as a job when their husbands or family members left for the war, and they needed to start making an income. They came from very different backgrounds, but both strived for a common goal which many women during and after the Civil War attempted to achieve. In some areas the statistics showed a large jump from before the war, after the war, and today in the ratio of women to men. In North Carolina for example, before the war only 7% of women were teachers, after the war it was almost 50%.47 This trend continued over the next 150 years when in 2000 the percentage of women teachers in the state was
70%48
46 Rebecca Primus, Addie Brown, and Farah Jasmine Griffin. Beloved sisters and loving friends: letters from Rebecca Primus of Royal Oak, Maryland and Addie Brown of Hartford, Connecticut, 1854-1868. New York: Knopf :, 1999, 269. 47 Faust, Drew Gilpin. Mothers of invention: women of the slaveholding South in the American Civil War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996, 82. 48"The Careers of Public School Administrators: Policy Implications from an Analysis of State-Level Data | RAND." RAND Corporation Provides Objective Research Services and Public Policy Analysis. http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9054/index1.html (accessed November 26, 2011).
Lanier 36 Amanda Davis
Amanda Davis was fourteen years old and living on the coast of Maine when the
Civil War began in 1861. She came from a modest farming and fishing family.
Amanda’s story is told through a collection of letters to her that were found in a barn.
The letters are primarily from two of her cousins, Pauline Spear and Sophie Mathews, who lived a few towns over from Amanda. There are also letters from her brothers, one who was not in the Union army, but a fisherman who worked during the war; her other brothers did go to war and there are letters they wrote while he was away. These letters help give an idea of what life was like during the war in Maine where there was not any actual action from the war, but there was still an impact from its effects.
Pauline and Sophie wrote about what they heard and knew about the war along with what was going on in town, and the effects that the war had on it. One of their repeat concerns was the lack of boys in town and that they were never going to be able to marry. They write about their efforts of sewing circles and charity fundraising that the towns were holding which were typical all over. In 1864, Pauline’s brother, a
Union soldier, died which pained her deeply. In a letter to Amanda she writes of her loss.
“we are glad to get G home but I tell you it was a sad welcome to what we expected when he left as I tell you it was a sad welcome to have him brought home and not see him no one knows anything about it but those that have had them die away it was the hardest part of all I saw the box he was in he is in the tomb now. I miss him at home and everywhere I go.”49
A lot of people in the small towns of Maine had young men go off to war, and like so many other small towns all over the country, many did not return. Pauline and
49 Courtney MacLachlan,. The Amanda letters: Civil War days on the coast of Maine. Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, 2003, 127.
Lanier 37 Sophie write about the boys being gone in a typical young girls’ way, however there was the very serious side of their brothers and fellow classmates never coming home.
Amanda also received several letters from a soldier David S. Crockett who had put an advertisement in the local newspaper asking for a lady to write to him.
“If some young lady wishes to address a few lines to a young soldier for the purpose of making the dull hours of camp-life seem more pleasant, one who is willing to correspond for amusement and pleasure, will please address Henri May”
-Portland transcript, February 26, 186450
This is an example of an advertisement that David and other soldiers would have put in the newspaper. This does not appear to be any kind of romantic relationship, simply Amanda trying to help a young soldier who was probably homesick, and wanted to know that someone back home cared. Amanda writing to David is her way of helping with the war effort and specifically trying to help a soldier. In her first letter she writes addressed to Friend of Uncle Sam
“….while doing so I chanced to see your advertisement and thinking that if it could be by any of my means that a soldier could be amused I considered it a duty and therefor concluded to perform it. For I think that they must have lonesome hours.”51
There is not a lot to go off of from the limited amount of information that the correspondence between Amanda and David through these letters that did survive.
Amanda saw it as her duty to help this gentleman out, even if it did seem like a small role, yet still important. David Crockett did survive the war, and afterwards he was
50 Courtney MacLachlan, The Amanda letters: Civil War days on the coast of Maine. Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, 2003, 129. 51 Courtney MacLachlan, The Amanda letters: Civil War days on the coast of Maine. Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, 2003, 130.
Lanier 38 married and had children.52 Amanda experienced the war from afar yet still felt effects from it. She helped in ways that she could, which was to help David Crockett.
52 hildren, 1850 they were in Sandy River Plantation with six. "Some Civil War Soldiers of Northwest Maine." OoCities - Geocities Archive / Geocities Mirror. http://www.oocities.org/barbour1048/CWsoldiers.htm (accessed November 26, 2011).
Lanier 39 Chapter 5: In Charge
In Charge tells the story of women who took on a primary role of different situations that before the war would have been held by men or not created at all.
These women are great example of seizing and opportunity to take the reins and lead.
One way the visitor will experience In Charge is through the story of Annie
Wittenmyer by seeing what the “Diet Kitchen” looked like and the process that she designed to help the wounded soldiers. The visitor will see the type of organization she had to do for the program by the lists of supplies that she requested and how many food rations were needed for this to be successful. Another example is by learning about the cipher that Rose O’Neale Greenhow developed for her spy ring.
Annie Wittenmyer
Annie Wittenmyer was in Keokuk, Iowa when the Civil War began. Her husband had passed away prior to the war starting leaving her with a very comfortable lifestyle. Annie had been doing volunteer work before the war broke out, so it only seemed natural to volunteer for the war effort. A society called “The Keokuk Ladies’
Soldiers’ Aid Society” was formed and Annie was named as corresponding secretary.
The goal for the society was to provide the aid and supplies that the soldiers were not getting from the government. Once they were established, they reached out to other aid societies to try and work together. If they all did, the thought was it would provide better service for their men at war.
Wittenmyer, being the strong woman she was, was nominated to go out to the hospitals and in the fields to see what was really needed. The society felt strongly that
Lanier 40 a woman should do this, being the natural domestic caretakers that they were, she would know best what was really needed. The women were working hard and successfully aiding the soldiers, which was their one and only goal. Then the state started their own society which greatly upset the women. The state’s society consisted mostly of men who were getting paid for their work. This went against a lot of what the ladies society was doing, they were doing all of this at that point on a volunteer basis not expecting to get anything out of their hard work. 53
Elizabeth Leonard gives a great scenario to the situation in Yankee Women,
Gender Battles in the Civil War:
“As long as men and women functioned within their own theoretical “spheres” of activity (men in the public and women in the private), questions of style did not arise. In other words, no man challenged a woman’s caretaking and context of her own household or even her immediate community. By crossing over into men’s “sphere”, however, by taking her skills out into the larger public realm – specifically the realm of war – a woman automatically elicited criticism.”54
The women kept working hard and fighting for their right to do what they thought was best for the soldiers and the state of Iowa. This is one example of women stepping out of their private roles and challenging men to what they believed was right. In this situation though, women felt as they knew better than the men due to their experience in domestic roles. They were taking their private role and using it in the public. Eventually, the two societies did merge after multiple failed attempts, but
Annie was keen on making sure that her society’s ladies were equally involved as the men.
53 Elizabeth D, Leonard.Yankee women: gender battles in the Civil War. New York: W.W. Norton, 1994. Print,51-103 54 Elizabeth D, Leonard.Yankee women: gender battles in the Civil War. New York: W.W. Norton, 1994, 67.
Lanier 41 Wittenmeyer’s next role in the war effort was at an orphan asylum for Union soldiers. The women were able to take what they had learned from the Keokuk Ladies’
Soldier Aid Society and apply it to this area of need. This time, Annie had the respect and support from the Iowa government. This new project also brought employment to the women of the area, something that before this would probably not have been an option for them.55
“Recognizing that salaried status elevated what might otherwise be considered the manifestation of women’s caretaking “nature” to the level of “skill”. Professionalism limited external competition, permitted a middle-class woman to expand the scope of her work beyond the home and the immediate community, and transformed good Christian women caring for the weak, sick, and the less fortunate into managers, specialist, and authorities in benevolent affairs”56
The Special Diet Kitchen, another program was a great success on multiple levels, but most important for getting injured and sick soldier well. When Wittenmyer visited her brother, a soldier in a hospital, she saw the horrible food that they were being served. She realized then why her brother looked as though he was starving to death. She then started the “Diet Kitchen.” Again, this was a way for women to take their domestic skills and turn them into a business. She took the fat bacon and slice of bread that was being served on dirty tin dishes to baked potatoes and apples with homemade soup and meat when available on clean dishes. This program employed women to go and take over the hospital kitchens and provide the sick with wholesome hearty meals helping them recover. It gave middle class women the empowerment to take on such responsibilities, show their organizational strengths, and make an income. They were the ones in charge of the kitchen and made sure that everything
55 Elizabeth D, Leonard. Yankee women: gender battles in the Civil War. New York: W.W. Norton, 1994,51-103 56 Elizabeth D, Leonard. Yankee women: gender battles in the Civil War. New York: W.W. Norton, 1994, 85.
Lanier 42 went smoothly. These women were definitely stepping out of the Victorian mold and not turning back.57
Annie writes of the support that she immediately had this time by those involved with the project. Everyone from the Sanitary Commission to the surgeons were on board with the program. The first kitchen opened in Nashville, Tennessee.58
She writes how the process was to work:
“A bill of fare was provided, with the name of the patient and the number of his bed, for every patient put on special diet; and on the bill the surgeon prescribed his diet by making a mark opposite the articles the patient was allowed. This plan gave the sick or wounded man a chance to express his own wants in regard to food, which was a great advantage.”59
The “Diet Kitchen” was a great success and helped a lot of soldiers who may have died from simply being malnourished. It helped millions of soldiers during the later part of the war. This kitchen was instituted by many hospitals during the Civil
War with the support of the government and the Sanitary and Christian Commission.
This undertaking was a lot of work, and the more kitchens that opened the harder it became.
“To give some idea of the magnitude of the work, out of over one hundred special-diet kitchens established by me, I give the amount of food in rations issued from sixteen special-diet kitchens, a record of which I happen to have now on hand from February, 1865. . . “60
The list contains such items as tea, milk, crackers, corn bread, soup, eggs, cabbage, beans, pickles, tomatoes, etc, totaling 899,472 rations. Wittenmeyer proved
57 57 Elizabeth D, Leonard. Yankee women: gender battles in the Civil War. New York: W.W. Norton, 1994,51-103 58Annie Wittenmyer. "The Special-Diet Kitchen Work." In Under the guns; a woman's reminiscences of the civil war,. Boston: E.B. Stillings & Co., 1895. 259-267, 261. 59Annie Wittenmyer. "The Special-Diet Kitchen Work." In Under the guns; a woman's reminiscences of the civil war,. Boston: E.B. Stillings & Co., 1895. 259-267, 260. 60Annie Wittenmyer. "The Special-Diet Kitchen Work." In Under the guns; a woman's reminiscences of the civil war,.. Boston: E.B. Stillings & Co., 1895. 259-267, 264.
Lanier 43 to be a very strong woman and provide not just aid for the soldiers, but start organizations to help them while employing women.
Ella Gertrude Clanton Smith Thomas
Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas grew up in a life of worry free luxury. She grew up in South Georgia, just outside of Augusta. Ella was educated at the prestigious
Wesleyan Moravian College and Mme Talvanee’s in Charleston. Her fathers, plantation and estate were valued at 2,500,000 in confederate money.61 In 1852, Ella married Jefferson Thomas who also came from a plantation family.
Ella writes in her diary why she is writing: April 8, 1855
“I am writing for my dear little boy and for my children should I have others and in this book they will read, hurriedly recorded a statement of events unimportant in themselves yet they make up the sum of my life as “Trifles make up the sum of human ills.” This will at least serve to prove that heretofore my life has glided on smoothly- my barque has glided calmly and swiftly too o’er the sea of life for am I not twenty one? I have selected my destiny and am content with it.”62
- When Ella wrote this, she thought she had her life figured out. Little did she know that a long civil war was in her future which would change the life she thought she would have.
On April 11, 1855 she writes of how she is thankful for her husband, and writes how she is “the weaker sex” and lucky to have a husband. At this time, Ella is dependent on her husband not just for companionship, but to support and protect her. In the
61, Ella Gertrude Clanton, T homas and Virginia Ingraham Burr. The secret eye: the journal of Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas, 1848-1889. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1990. Print, 3. 62 Ella Gertrude Clanton, Thomas and Virginia Ingraham Burr. The secret eye: the journal of Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas, 1848-1889. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1990. Print, 120.
Lanier 44 future Ella will learn that she is capable of taking care of herself. This entry says something about how women saw themselves before the Civil War.
“Heavenly father for thy many mercys, but for none do I so sincerely thank thee as for my husband. Combining such moral qualitys, such an affectionate heart, with just such a master will as suits my woman’s nature, for true to my sex, I delight in looking up and love to feel my woman’s weakness protected by man’s superior strength – Oh my Journal!”
In her article The Women Left Behind: Transformation of the Southern Belle,
1840-1880, Alexis Brown writes what was thought of women and their role at the time.
This way of life was what the standard and goal to attain was for many women in the
South. They knew what their position was and it was not until after the war that many women realized that they had a lot more to themselves than they ever realized,
Ella included.
“The private sphere of women embraced femininity, beauty, simplicity, and submissiveness; the highest roles to which a southern woman could aspire were those of nurturing mother, dutiful wife, and social moral pillar. These separate spheres constituted an unwritten contract between men and women, where women remained domestic and atop their pedestals, and men protected them.”63
On July 13, 1861 Ella writes of her husband, brother, and brother in law going off to join the Confederacy. She not only is talking about how she is proud of the men in her life, but in a way, she is also defending her luxurious lifestyle. A lot of women at first thought it their patriotic duty to support their men leaving. Many of them would not see their loved ones return.
“My husband will go- My brother Jimmie will leave in the same co so will Jack and I am proud to see them exhibit the noble, manly, spirit which prompts them to go. It proves that southern blood has not degenerated in consequence of the life of luxury and ease we have been living.”64
63 Alexis Girardin, Brown. "The Women Left Behind: Transformation of the Southern Belle, 1840-1880." Historian 62.4 (2000): 759-778. Wiley Onlie Library. Web. 20 Oct. 2011. 64 Thomas, Ella Gertrude Clanton, and Virginia Ingraham Burr. The secret eye: the journal of Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas, 1848-1889. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1990. Print, 184.
Lanier 45 Ella’s husband did join the army, but he did not remain enlisted the entire time. He returned home and recruited while also trying to find work in Georgia.
On April 15, 1864, Ella wrote about the death of her father. He was the head of the household and managed to keep everything running. Ella loved and respected her father dearly. The loss of her father turned out to be an interesting turn of events.
Ella thought that she would be receiving an inheritance from him, but learned that
Jefferson, her husband, had been taking that money over the years. This is an example from this time that most women did not have an understanding of their financial situations.
On September 17, 1864 Ella writes about her thoughts on slavery. Through the war
Ella’s views on slavery change and she started thinking differently about things.
“I have sometimes doubted on the subject of slavery. I have seen so many of its evils chief among which is the terribly demoralizing influence upon our men and boys but of late I have become convinced the Negro as a race is better off with us as he has been that if he were made free, but I am by no means so sure that we would not gain by having his freedom given to him.”65
This passage says that she knows that slavery is evil and that it is not right.
Ella does believe that her own slaves should keep working for her family, but also thinks that they should be able to do so as free men.
“Again I hear that Confederate money is to be worth 50 cts on the $100.”66
- May 2, 1865
This is the start of Ella’s world changing forever. Their money and land suddenly was not worth what it used to be. Most of their slaves left them, and Ella
65, Ella Gertrude Clanton, Thomas and Virginia Ingraham Burr. The secret eye: the journal of Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas, 1848-1889. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1990. Print, 236. 66 Ella Gertrude Clanton, Thomas and Virginia Ingraham Burr. The secret eye: the journal of Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas, 1848-1889. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1990. Print, 262.
Lanier 46 found herself doing things that she rarely had to do before. Ella wrote in her diary about having to do the dishes, something she may have only done once or twice in her life. A lot of upper class women had to take on new domestic responsibilities that they usually had servants do, and some finding out they did not know how to do them at all. Some of the tasks they were frustrated which included simple things like laundry, cooking, cleaning, and childcare. Women also felt abandoned by their slaves leaving once they had the opportunity. A lot of them felt like their slaves were an extended part of their family, betrayed once they were left on the plantation by themselves. 67
“I so dearly love this place and I had thought that in case of our becoming bankrupt that we would still own this home. Tonight Mr. Thomas tells me this must go too. . . . I had heard so much of homestead bills, bankruptcy, state courts, and so on I understand nothing of it. . . . when the idea was brought home to me that this place could be taken I was stunned, speechless with astonishment.”68
Ella wrote this in a diary entry on November 3, 1868. There were probably many other women who found themselves in the same situation as Ella not knowing what their financial situation was. While her property was being taken away and funds were starting to become scarce, she thought that she would at least have her father’s inheritance to fall back on. Unfortunately, there was very little of it left for her and her husband. Ella being the lady she was had to hid her feelings and pretend that everything was going to be alright in front of her husband, but in her diary she expresses her true feelings.
During the next ten years Ella and her family experience their property being publicly auctioned off, death in the family, and hard times in general. Ella starts to become pro-active about the situation and starts teaching at a school house. Once
67 Drew Gilpin, Faust. Mothers of invention: women of the slaveholding South in the American Civil War. Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996. Print, 61. 68 Ella Gertrude Clanton,Thomas and Virginia Ingraham Burr. The secret eye: the journal of Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas, 1848-1889. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1990. Print, 299.
Lanier 47 she started teaching she started to pay more attention to their financial situation, and kept a log of spending. Ella took charge when her husband fell into spats of depression. Before the war, Ella probably never saw herself as a working woman, but later she found herself prideful that she was able to contribute. On December 31,
1878 she wrote about how the year was still hard, but things got better. “I am grateful and contented that I have an opportunity of adding to the comfort of my family.”69
The war had a great effect on Ella’s life. She went from a wealthy young lady who did not have to worry about things to losing everything and starting over. It was hard going through everything she did, but in the end she became a stronger, more independent, woman who was more aware of public life. Ella became active in women’s rights writing and speaking her opinion on topics that before the war, she probably would never have said, or possibly even had an opinion on. She became a member and leader of the Georgia Woman Suffrage Association. The women’s suffrage movement started before the Civil War, but when women were put in situations like
Ella’s, it made women everywhere start to realize their potential. Ella even took the stance of signing her name “Gertrude C. Thomas” and not “Mrs. J. Jefferson
Thomas”70
Ella Gertrude Thomas took charge of her life and family when her plush lifestyle was taken away. She took charge of the situation and tried to do the best for her family. Not realizing how much the Civil War would impact Ella’s life, through all the hard times and losses, it made her a stronger more independent woman who realized
69 Ella Gertrude Clanton, Thomas and Virginia Ingraham Burr. The secret eye: the journal of Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas, 1848-1889. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1990. Print, 377 70 Ella Gertrude Clanton, Thomas and Virginia Ingraham Burr. The secret eye: the journal of Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas, 1848-1889. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1990. Print, 449.
Lanier 48 that her life was more than just the role of wife and mother. Her role changed during the war, and after she did not go back to being the same southern bell.
Rose O’Neale Greenhow
Rose Greenhow lived in Washington D.C, and a part of the high society life.
She married into this lifestyle and flourished in it. Many women did not like Rose, thinking that she was rather outspoken and were probably jealous of her beauty that attracted many men.
In 1954, Rose’s husband David was killed in an accident leaving her a widow to four daughters. She struggled financially during this time, but used her strength and intelligence to keep her afloat. Her home was on 16th street just a few blocks away from the White House. Rose’s family was a slave-owning family in Maryland, and she herself believed in slavery. When the war broke out, she used her wit and started a spy ring for the Confederacy. She had men and women working on this using a secret code to pass along secrets.71 Right before Rose was arrested, she wrote in her book, on August 23,1861, of how she used signals and destroyed a secret message that she had with her:
“ I continued my conversation apparently without noticing them, remarking rapidly to one of our humble agents who passed, 'Those men will probably arrest me. Wait at Corcoran's Corner, and see. If I raise my handkerchief to my face, give information of it.' The person to whom this order was given went whistling along. I then put a very important note into my mouth, which I destroyed; and turned, and walked leisurely across the street, and ascended my own steps.”72
Rose was in prison for ten months, five in her house that Lincoln also sent other women who might have been Confederate spies, and five in prison. While under
71 Ann Blackman, Wild Rose: Rose O’Neale Greenhow, Civil War Spy. http://www.c- spanvideo.org/program/189032-1. (aired 9/7/2005-10/10/2005) 72 Rose, Greenhow. My Imprisonment and the First Year of Abolition Rule at Washington: Electronic Edition. London: Richard Bentley, 1863, 53.
Lanier 49 house arrest, anyone who came to see her was questioned and held captive for further investigation. This situation did not stop Rose from keeping her spy ring going. She sent messages out of the house by putting the messages in the foot of her friends stockings thinking that was a safe place because when the soldiers searched Rose, she did not have to remove her shoes. Her house was turned into a prison, called Fort
Greenhow, for women who were considered to be spies for the Confederacy. The
Union army went thru everything in her home trying to find evidence of her spy ring.
After spending five months under house arrest, Rose and her youngest daughter were taken to a prison where they stayed for another five months.73
Confederate President Davis gave credit to Rose for winning the Battle of Bull
Run. She used her spy ring to get messages to Generals about the position of the
Union troops. She wrote in her book about the special greeting that President Davis gave her when she arrived in the South:
“On the evening after my arrival our President did me the honour to call upon me, and his words of greeting, 'But for you there would have been no battle of Bull Run,' repaid me for all that I had endured, even though it had been magnified tenfold. And I shall ever remember that as the proudest moment of my whole life, to have received the tribute of praise from him who stands as the apostle of our country's liberty in the 74 eyes of the civilised world.”
Rose really changed roles when she was asked by President Davis to go to
Europe for support of the Confederacy. While there, she met with many important political leaders. Rose was the first female diplomat to negotiate on European soil.
She was able to bring back two thousand dollars worth of gold coins for the
Confederacy. Using secret compartments in her clothing like she did with her spy ring, she put the coins in pouches she sewed into the neck and shoulder area of her
73 Rose, Greenhow. My Imprisonment and the First Year of Abolition Rule at Washington: Electronic Edition. London: Richard Bentley, 1863. 74 Rose, Greenhow. My Imprisonment and the First Year of Abolition Rule at Washington: Electronic Edition. London: Richard Bentley, 1863, 322.
Lanier 50 clothing. Unfortunately, this would cause her death. When getting into her boat to go back ashore in North Carolina, a large wave pushed her overboard. The weight of the gold drowned her. She was found the next day washed up on the sand.75 Ann
Blackman, author of Wild Rose, describes Rose as being just as committed and loyal to the war as any other soldier.
“You didn’t have to be a southerner and didn’t have to share her politics to understand that Rose was a woman of courage and convictions. She took risks, she took enormous risks for the cause she believed in and like thousands and thousands of soldiers of both North and South she was willing to die for the cause and she did.”76
Rose went from being a high society socialite to a spy running a ring for the
Confederacy to a diplomat for the Confederacy in Europe. She took charge in all of these situations. Whether it be running the spy ring in Washington or going to
Europe, she took charge of the situation and stepped out of traditional role of society socialite. She, like many others, gave her life to the war.
75 Ann Blackman, Wild Rose: Rose O’Neale Greenhow, Civil War Spy. http://www.c- spanvideo.org/program/189032-1. (aired 9/7/2005-10/10/2005) 76 Ann Blackman, Wild Rose: Rose O’Neale Greenhow, Civil War Spy. http://www.c- spanvideo.org/program/189032-1. (aired 9/7/2005-10/10/2005)
Lanier 51 Chapter 6: Changing Roles
Changing Roles takes a look at the effect of the war on the lives of women from different walks of life. Some women’s roles changed due to financial situations, some by their social status, and some due to where they were living at the time. All of these women had to face change and adapt to various situations brought on by the war.
One way that the visitor will experience Changing Roles is by seeing the destruction that happened to Mary Curtis Lee’s home, and how she had to bury various family heirlooms into the ground. For example, it may be a display case of silver that is set into a mound of earth to give a visual of how women had to bury these family treasures and leave them.
Mary Curtis Lee
Mary Curtis Lee went from living the life of an army wife at Arlington house in
Virginia just across the Potomac River from Washington D.C., the home she grew up in, to a refugee. She had to pack up what she could and hide the rest of her belongings from the Union army who took over her house during the war. At one point she buried the family silver in the ground to try and keep looters away. After the war, Mary wrote in her manuscripts the events of the war from her perspective. She felt as though her experiences were important to document because they were stories that would not be told about the war otherwise.77
Mary had her first scare with the war when she was told to pack up as much as she could. She writes of an officer who warns her of what is to come:
77 Lee, Mary Curtis, and Robert E.L. DeButts JR.. "Mary Curtis Lee's Reminiscences Of The War"." JSTOR 109, no. No. 3 (2001): 301-325. http://www.jstor.org (accessed October 11, 2011).
Lanier 52 “You must pack up all you value immediately he explained & send it off very early in the morning. The enemy in large force will cross the long bridge tomorrow & take possession of these heights.”78
She immediately packed up as much as she could, which included precious family heirlooms that came from Mt. Vernon. What she could not pack to take with her, she locked in the attic and other hiding parts of the house. It is evident that Mary thought that leaving her beloved home was going to be temporary, and that she would return to find her home intact. Unfortunately, this is the opposite of what happened. The
Union army took over her home and turned it into what is now Arlington cemetery.
“How little could I foresee the nature of that enemy who were to pry into every corner of my house, & rob it of articles that even they should have held sacred.” . . . “These things I should have taken with me, but I had hoped to return in a short time & having known so many of the army officers I had some reliance in their chivalry honesty & courtesy.”79
Mary felt betrayed to learn that her home had been invaded and disrespected. These were men who knew her husband and probably her. They could have even been friends before the war broke out. Her husband was asked to join the Union army, but joined the Confederacy instead. Being so close to Washington, Mary was in a difficult location and possibly had friends on the Union side that were now the enemy. Keep in mind that she went through this without her husband and oldest son to help her because they were in the battlefields.
Mary tried to take care of the goods she was able to remove from the home, including burying china and silver in the ground at one of the places she stayed during the war. When she returned to Arlington House she was so distraught with the
78 Mary Curtis, Lee and Robert E.L. DeButts JR.. "Mary Curtis Lee's Reminiscences Of The War"." JSTOR 109, no. No. 3 (2001): 301-325. http://www.jstor.org (accessed October 11, 2011), 315. 79 Mary Curtis, Lee and Robert E.L. DeButts JR.. "Mary Curtis Lee's Reminiscences Of The War"." JSTOR 109, no. No. 3 (2001): 301-325. http://www.jstor.org (accessed October 11, 2011), 318.
Lanier 53 condition it was in that she refused to even go inside. The house was never the same, and still to this day it is part of Arlington cemetery.80
Mary changed roles from living in her Arlington house and being a military wife to losing her home, personal belongings, and living outside of Richmond, Virginia for the rest of her life. She, like Martha Broyles Royce, faced similar situations, yet came from very different lifestyles. Martha was probably considered middle class for the time, while Martha was more from the upper class Washington society, yet the war put them in similar situations. They both had to leave their homes and lost almost everything. This shows how the war affected all women regardless of what their social situation was.
The Haven Sisters
Ellen and Fanny were sisters who were very close, yet they found themselves torn apart during the Civil War. When Ellen married a plantation owner from
Louisiana, she had to leave her sister Fanny and family in New York. Once the war broke out, their relationship took on some very trying times. They found themselves having different views of the war, but still loving each other regardless. Through letters they tried to communicate over these difficult times.
Ellen wrote to Fanny on November 15, 1860 her first fears of the impending war and what it is like in New Orleans at this time:
“…But what use is there in my dwelling upon such trivial matters when there is so much hanging over our heads. Fanny there is now no doubt that we are two different
80 Lee, Mary Curtis, and Robert E.L. DeButts JR.. "Mary Curtis Lee's Reminiscences Of The War"." JSTOR 109, no. No. 3 (2001): 301-325. http://www.jstor.org (accessed October 11, 2011)
Lanier 54 nations. You cannot imagine the deep concentrated feeling that exists here. In New Orleans the excitement is intense and it is increasing every day. The Government of Louisiana has his proclamation written, although it is not out yet, to call an extra session and even the Bell men all say the state is doomed to follow the others.”81
Fanny and her family wrote Ellen to come back to New York while the war was going on since her husband was not able to spend time at the plantation, leaving a lot of extra work for her- while also pregnant. They tried to tell her if she does come, not to mention anything about the Confederacy or any disliking of the Union because these actions could have harsh repercussions. Nell takes this very personally which starts a rift about sides and politics that eventually Nell and Fanny’s mother Sarah on March
11, 1861 writes:
“My dear Ellen, we have avoided purposely writing to you and David on this sad, very sad state of our country, sad it is that we should throw away the many and wonderful blessings God has given us. We know that any remarks made now, on either side, tend only to increase the irritability that is already upon many minds and perhaps create bad feeling.”82
Her letter is one example of many families and friends who were on different sides of the war, but before loved and cared for each other. Another example of this situation comes from Mary Chestnuts diary when talking with Mrs. McLean in
Virginia. She writes about two prominent women during the war, Mrs. Davis wife of
Jefferson Davis and Mrs. Blair whose husband was an influential figure in
Washington. Her entry describes that one has sent a baby dress to the other and in the letters says “if their husbands killed each other they would love each other to their graves.”83 These women were put in awkward situations because before the war, they were all on one side and now there was a line between many of them. It was a time
81 A genteel spy: the inspiring odyssey of Martha Broyles Royce and her family during the Civil War. Rockvale, TN: Two Peas Pub., 2010, 45 82 A genteel spy: the inspiring odyssey of Martha Broyles Royce and her family during the Civil War. Rockvale, TN: Two Peas Pub., 2010, 47. 83 C.Vann, Woodward and Elisabeth Muhlenfeld. The Private Mary Chestnut, The Unpublished Civil War Diaries. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984, 86
Lanier 55 when family and friends became enemies. Fanny and Mary Chestnut are just two examples out of hundreds of women experiencing similar situations.
Like many other women Fanny joined an aid society to help with the war effort.
She writes to Ellen about how there are women from all different parts of the city and different classes working for the same cause, to help the Union soldiers. Their goal was to make sewing and making bandages.
Ellen and David went into serious financial hardships like many other plantation owners did after the war. Their plantation was no longer being used for its original intensions, but now David was trying to make money from the milk of his cows and butter. When Ellen went up to New York, she is brought back into the lifestyle that she once had, yet is having to be very cautious about what she says and to who about the war. Things in New Orleans are so uncertain that David writes to
Ellen saying that she and the children should probably stay in New York longer till things settle down, unfortunately, she did not receive that letter before she left.
When Ellen and the children return from New York, she is left to run the household while David is in the city looking for work. She writes to David on Janaury
16, 1868 of how she is trying to manage everything by herself, while having little to no money.
“I sell all the night’s milk, after skimming, say 10 quarts at $.10 a quart, so this helps along well, but with all our present expenses it takes up nearly everything. I am keeping an account of every cent to show you. I have flour, meal, oil soap, and sacks of corn continually to buy. One sack of corn lasts Julia and Willis together just 2 ½ days. Julia quarereled with Willis for giving out too much, so, on Monday, I gave them each a sack, $3.50 a piece, and told them they must make it go through the week.”84
84 Kathleen Langdon-Haven McInerney . Dear Nell: the true story of the Haven sisters : based on the Haven-Pugh letter collection. United States: Kathleen McInerney, 2009, 102
Lanier 56 Ellen felt abandoned during the time after the war while David is in New
Orleans. He left her running the house, taking care of the finances, and dealing with debt collectors. David not being home and Ellen trying to juggle everything leaves her very stressed out and tired. She has changed roles since the Civil War, going from a well to do plantation owner’s wife to a woman having to running the household. Ellen had to deal with debt collectors while suddenly having to learn what their financial situation even was. This caused her great stress like it did many women during that time. She wrote to David who was still in New Orleans on March 5, 1869:
“I am working and striving at home, annoyed and harassed in a thousand ways, the chief anxiety money, everybody wanting money, so many things needed and not enough money and you, my husband, start off and leave me without telling me of your plans and stay two months in the city.”85
The Haven sisters kept writing through the war and after. Ellen wrote to Fanny about her struggles and hardships that she faced. This was not the life that she probably anticipated having when she left her comfortable lifestyle in New York to what was supposed to be a life of luxury in Louisiana. When Ellen’s husband David passed away in 1886, she and her children left Louisiana and moved back to New
York. Ellen faced many obstacles during the war and brought great stress and strain that altered her life during and well after the war ended.
Mary Ann Webster Loughborough
Mary Ann was twenty seven in 1863 when she found herself, the wife of a
Confederate Major, in Vicksburg, Mississippi living in a cave. She left Jackson,
Mississippi because of the threat of Union troops invading the city. Vicksburg seemed
85 Kathleen, Langdon-Haven McInerney . Dear Nell: the true story of the Haven sisters : based on the Haven-Pugh letter collection. United States: Kathleen McInerney, 2009, 107
Lanier 57 like a safe place to go at the time. In 1864 Mary wrote about her experiences living in
Vicksburg during this time in her life.
“Still, I was in doubt; the Federal army was spreading all over the country, and I feared to remain where I was. Yet I thought, may I not be in danger in Vicksburg? Suppose the gunboats should make an attack? Still, it was true, as my friend had said, we were in far more danger here from the rabble that usually followed a large army, and who might plunder, insult, and rob us. No; to Vicksburg we must go!”86
Once in Vicksburg, she and her friends who she traveled with were told that they had to leave. They did not have a choice to leave because there was not anywhere else that would have been safer for them. Taking the train somewhere else was no longer an option because the railway had been damaged by the Union army. For some time things were calm in Vicksburg and Mary did not think that things would become dangerous. They would go on the hill and see the troops at various spots, but did not feel fearful because they were not too close to them. Below them they could see different battles going on, the smoke from all the gunfire, and see ambulances coming into the city with wounded soldiers. When the gun shells started to get too close to the house, Mary and her friends went to stay in the caves.87
“we ran to the small cave near the house, and were in it during the night, by this time wearied and almost stupefied by the loss of sleep. The caves were plainly becoming necessity, as some persons had been killed on the street by fragments of shells.”88
Mary describes her cave as a “T” shape with her cot in one corner and her “living area” in the front. A soldier’s tent material was used as an awning. Food was limited to primarily biscuits and bacon.
86 Mary Ann Webster, Loughborough. My cave life in Vicksburg With letters of trial and travel.. New York [etc.: D. Appleton and company, 1864, 27. 87 Mary Ann Webster, Loughborough. My cave life in Vicksburg With letters of trial and travel.. New York [etc.: D. Appleton and company, 1864. 88 Mary Ann Webster, Loughborough, My cave life in Vicksburg With letters of trial and travel.. New York [etc.: D. Appleton and company, 1864, 56
Lanier 58 Mary lived during this time in the cave, fearful of the battles going on around her, but also knowing that her husband was down in those battlefields fighting in the war. She must have experienced all kinds of emotions not knowing what was going to happen to her and her young daughter in the caves, to if the battle would come to where she was staying, or how her husband was doing down in the battle fields. They lived in constant fear of the shells hitting the caves. Unfortunately, people living in the caves had been killed when shells went thru the earth and into the caves.
Her husband finally had her and their daughter leave the caves of Vicksburg to be with him at his camp because he thought it was safer than where they were. While close to the battle, Mary saw the effects first hand from seeing many injured soldiers and being very close to everything going on. Eventually, the Battle of Vicksburg ended and the fighting stopped. Mary changed roles by living in a comfortable house, to spending months in caves in Mississippi. She had to be courageous and strong-willed to make it through the trying times of the war.89
Mary Ann Webster, Loughborough, My cave life in Vicksburg With letters of trial and travel.. New York [etc.: D. Appleton and company, 1864.
Lanier 59 Chapter 7: Impact
The Civil War changed the lives of women forever. Some went back to the positions that they had before, but many were changed. The war, though painful and full of heartache, gave women new opportunities to step out of their traditional role of depending primarily on men. They learned that they too could be nurses, doctors, teachers, and factory workers. Women started to feel empowered from their war efforts. The aid societies that were formed gave a pathway for women to organize in a way they had not done before. Nina Silber describes the impact of the Civil War on women in both the North and South as:
“The Civil War shaped a new civic identity for all American women, Northern as well as Southern, and it forced women to reorient their own struggle for change and equality. In the aftermath of the Civil War, women increasingly recognized the need to direct their demands and their political energies towards the nation-state, and to press forward their claims in the civic arena.”90
Women in the South had learned during the war they could not rely on the men to take care of them, they had to learn to take care of themselves. They did not want to be the same helpless women they were before the war. The situations that the war put them in made them stronger and more independent than ever before. After the war, many women continued to stay in the roles that they took on and pushed forward to have more of a voice.91
If it were not for the Civil War would Ella Gertrude Clanton Smith ever take charge and become an activist in Women’s Rights? Would Clara Barton have brought the Red Cross to America if she did not realize the need for it after her experiences
90 Silber, Nina. Daughters of the Union: northern women fight the Civil War. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2005, 283. 91 Faust, Drew Gilpin. Mothers of invention: women of the slaveholding South in the American Civil War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996, 248-254.
Lanier 60 during the war? If it were not for Annie Wittenmeyer’s “Diet Kitchens” how would the women she was able to provide jobs be able to support themselves? The stories of these women all give us a glimpse into what life was like for women during the Civil
War. They all had different experiences, and some more drastic than others, but the war did have an impact on their lives.
Lanier 61 Research Plan
The research for this thesis started out researching women during the Civil War in general. Through Nina Silber’s Daughters of the Union: northern women fight the
Civil War and Drew Faust’s Mothers of invention: women of the slaveholding South in the American Civil War gave a great overview of women during the time. From these primary books it lead me to the names of women during the war to research further.
Many library and internet searches led to the findings of journals, diaries, and letters that have been transcribed and published. Amazon.com actually was a great tool to see what books were out and available. The District of Columbia Public Library had many of these resources available. The use of JSTOR to find articles was very valuable to the research in looking for scholarly written work on the subject. My research changed as I found new stories from women and went through the process of developing my content outline.
Lanier 62 Bibliography
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Lanier 63 Oates, Stephen B.. A woman of valor: Clara Barton and the Civil War. New York: Free Press, 1995. Primus, Rebecca, Addie Brown, and Farah Jasmine Griffin. Beloved sisters and loving friends: letters from Rebecca Primus of Royal Oak, Maryland and Addie Brown of Hartford, Connecticut, 1854-1868. New York: Knopf :, 1999. Revels, Tracy. J. "Grander in Her Daughters: Florida's Women during the Civil War." The Florida Quarterly 77, no. 3 (1999): 261-282. Scott, Gary. "Clara Barton's Civil War Apartments." Washington History 13, no. 1 (2001): 24-31. Silber, Nina. ""A Woman's War:" Gender and Civil War Studies." OAH Magazine of History Fall (1993): 11- 13. Silber, Nina. Daughters of the Union: northern women fight the Civil War. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2005. "The Careers of Public School Administrators: Policy Implications from an Analysis of State-Level Data | RAND." RAND Corporation Provides Objective Research Services and Public Policy Analysis. http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9054/index1.html (accessed November 26, 2011). Thomas, Ella Gertrude Clanton, and Virginia Ingraham Burr. The secret eye: the journal of Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas, 1848-1889. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1990. "Vicksburg Cave Life." Official Site: Friends of Raymond. http://friendsofraymond.org/articles/cave- life.htm (accessed December 8, 2011). Wittenmyer, Annie. "The Special-Diet Kitchen Work." In Under the guns; a woman's reminiscences of the civil war,. Boston: E.B. Stillings & Co., 1895. 259-267. "Women and the Civil War." American History and World History at Historycentral.com the largest and most complete history site on the web. http://www.historycentral.com/CivilWar/people/Women.html (accessed October 8, 2011). Woodward, C.Vann, and Elisabeth Muhlenfeld. The Private Mary Chestnut, The Unpublished Civil War Diaries. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984. children, 1850 they were in Sandy River Plantation with six. "Some Civil War Soldiers of Northwest Maine." OoCities - Geocities Archive / Geocities Mirror. http://www.oocities.org/barbour1048/CWsoldiers.htm (accessed November 26, 2011). fire, a line of. "Rose O'Neal Greenhow: story, pictures and information - Fold3.com." Fold3.com - Historical military records. http://www.fold3.com/page/1523_rose_oneal_greenhow/ (accessed December 9, 2011).
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