His 110 - Roles Played in the Civil War

Roles Played in the Civil War

LaShonda Howard

University of Phoenix

HIS/110

September 21, 2015

John Hummel

Roles Played in the Civil War

When many think of women during the Civil War, the picture of Scarlett O’Hara at Tara is the picture many conjure up in their mind. The role of the women of the Civil War is vastly different than this fiction character. Many view the Civil War as a fight between men; women took on roles of nurses, spies, or the ladies that maintain the home in the absence of their husbands (2010, April). Women work as vivandieres – providing support to the Union and Confederate Armies by sell tobacco, coffee, oil lamps, and whiskey. The vivandieres also do laundry, sew and cook. Every regiment assigns a vivandiere. Women also are soldiers even though both sides forbade women from serving during the war. It is estimated the 400 women disguised them as soldiers and fought alongside men for both the Union and Confederacy (History.com Staff, 2010).

 Women north of the Mason-Dixon line, no longer were just farm women, gardening, cooking, cleaning, and clothes-making. They are now also threshers, harvesters, wood-choppers, and animal-slaughterers. Northern women must now man positions in industry as well. They work in factories producing ammunition; or in the garment district making uniforms, tents, and blankets. Countless women of the North join "ladies' aid" societies, under the United States Sanitary Commission. These women prepare aid packages for soldiers, gather medical supplies for army hospitals, sponsor fund-raising fairs for the troops and provide emotional support.  

Women in the South work zealously in the Civil War as well. This was new territory for “many Southern women, especially wealthy ones; they relied on slaves for everything and had never had to do much work” (History.com Staff, 2010). War changes the very definition of “proper” female behavior. They cook and sew - providing uniforms, blankets,  and sandbags for entire regiments. They work in the makeshift hospitals as untrained nurses. Women of the South struggle with starvation. Many southern women carry signs that read "Bread or Blood" and "Bread and Peace;" publicly calling into question the rationale that had sent their men to war (2015, September 20).

“What shall we do with the Negro?” was a question posed in Northern newspapers. No one knows how the black man will react. Slavery is part of the reason for the Civil War - North did not need slaves while the South need them to maintain their livelihoods. The Civil War provides opportunities for the slaves to escape. While many saw war as freedom, many slaves remain on the plantations and silently join the fight by slowing production. Slaves are impressed by the Confederacy. Slaves build fortresses and roads, dig latrines and graves, work in factories, and carry rations/supplies to the army frontlines – anything that would free up white men to fight. The Union enlists black slaves as spies. The "Black Dispatches" is the Union term for intelligence information supplied by blacks on the Confederate Army (2008, July). President Jefferson Davis’ slave, William Jackson, and Harriet Tubman are the most noted. Jackson is Davis' house servant and personal assistant. Jackson gathers details about battle plans and movements of the Southern army all; Davis views Jackson as a "piece of furniture" -- not the human being he is  (2009, February).