Courageous Women of the Civil War: Soldiers, Spies, Medics, and More

Gr 7 Up—Leaving behind the cult of domesticity and the traditional belief that a woman's place was in the home, the 16 women highlighted in this volume put their ambitions and convictions into action. At a time when women had few legal rights and could not vote, these figures took an active role in the Civil War by disguising themselves as men in order to fight or act as spies. They worked as nurses and found ways to assist soldiers on the battlefields. Spies included Harriet Tubman and Mary Jane Richards, who was planted in the Confederate White House to gather information. Georgeanna Woolsey is an example of one of the more than 21,000 women who were on the army payroll as nurses. Some women served as vivandières—women who were hired as cooks or laundresses and paid by the soldiers. One such woman was Annie Lorinda Etheridge, who followed her husband into the army and became a cook and nurse for the Fifth Michigan Regiment. The book begins with an introduction, providing historical context as to why the North and the South opposed each other and covering the events leading up to South Carolina's secession from the Union, the role of slavery in this opposition (Cordell wisely does not portray white Northerners simply as saviors in the fight to abolish slavery but rather as having their own legal, economic, and ideological reasons for it), and how the start of the war stirred the hearts of Northern and Southern women alike. Sidebars and photographs are scattered throughout the text.