Women in the Civil War

While a woman’s place was certainly considered to be the home during the Victorian era, many women defied this tradition during the American Civil War, leaving their homes and sometimes even their hometowns to do what they could for the war effort.

One of the most common roles that women took on during the Civil War was that of nurse. Spurred on by trailblazers such as Dorothea Dix and Clara Barton, women both North and South worked as nurses either officially or unofficially during the war. Women were employed to work as nurses in military hospitals throughout the country, but many women found themselves working as nurses in impromptu hospitals that sprang up near the site of a battle.

Some women also served as vivandieres during the Civil War. Vivandiere, a French term, refers to a woman who follows a regiment, usually a daughter or other relation of an officer, there to take care of the soldiers. Vivandieres were a French concept, and the popularity of Zouave regiments during the American Civil War, which were based on French Zouave units, accounts for the adoption of vivandieres in the American Civil War. Both Northern and Southern Zouave units included vivandieres, however, the number of regiments who did, or the number of vivandieres who served is unknown. The photograph above is of vivandiere Mary Tippee, who served with a Zouave unit.

There were women, however, who were not content to serve as nurses or other helpmates during the war - these women wanted to fight beside their husbands, brothers, and fathers. Female soldiers were unheard of at the time, which meant that many of the women who went into combat went disguised as men. While the exact number of women who chose to impersonate men in order to join the Union and Confederate armies, there are several well-known examples.

One of the best known examples of a woman impersonating a man to join in the Civil War is that of Sarah Emma Edmonds, who joined the Union Army as “Franklin Thompson.” Edmonds, or Thompson, served as a “male” nurse, then as an intelligence officer during her tenure in the Union Army. As a spy, she often dressed as a woman, but also worked in blackface, impersonating a slave.

The jig was up for Edmonds when she became ill with malaria. Going to a military hospital for treatment would have meant being debunked, so Edmonds left the army and went instead to a private hospital. After her recovery, she discovered that Franklin Thompson was wanted for desertion; returning to the Union Army would have meant being shot for deserting. Edmonds then served at a hospital for soldiers in Washington, as a female nurse.

In 1864, Edmonds confessed to her career in the Army, cooperating with several different publishers on a couple different versions of her story. One of these versions, Nurse and Spy in the Union Army, was a rousing success that made Edmonds a household name. Edmonds collected a government pension for her service, and eventually received an honorable discharge.