WandaCKeesey

WOMEN AT WAR
By Wanda C. Keesey

In the nineteenth century women didn't work outside the home. Even those who did services such as laundry, sewing, or made products for sell, worked at home.   They had children to raise, and a family to cook and clean for. Families were large and even married children often lived at home. The females took care of younger children, and helped with the other chores while married and single male children worked. This was necessary on farms and plantations as you can imagine, but even in the homes in the city, it was financially difficult to maintain a home for a single family, especially newlyweds. More often than not, when a couple married; they started their new life under the roof of either the bride's or groom's parents, contributing to the coffers of the whole.

Women were at a disadvantage. It was not readily accepted that a woman would work at anything but domestic duties: in their own homes. In the more affluent households, many of these duties were taken over by slaves or live-in domestic servants (often spinsters or widow without other means, often relatives), leaving the lady of the house to oversee the work.   Whether slave or servant, often the only compensation for this work was room and board.

So much was about to change in the lives of the citizens of America. Men were about to go to war. Where did this leave their families? A man's family may have included his and/or his wife's elderly parents, or a widowed parent; his own wife and children; a widowed or spinster sister or aunt, and even cousins; and perhaps his newly married child.

Women were forced into more responsible roles. They took over the running of the farms or plantations, and even the businesses that their husband had abandoned. They became the heads of their homes, responsible for not just making the food and clothing, but for providing the produce and meat, and the cloth.   They became responsible for paying the bills, purchasing the needs of not just her family, but the animals on the farm, the seed for planting and providing for the family slaves. At harvest, these women had to deal with gathering and selling the crop, and preparing for the next years sowing.

Letters from some women caught up in the war, to their men related the problems and plead for their men to return. Some soldiers were drawn to desert. But not all these women were overwhelmed by the new responsibility, most were able to find a way to coop, some thrived and others found an entirely new life.

Perhaps the women of the north were generally more able to make this change. Fewer families owned slaves in the north. Slavery was banned in most northern states, those who owned slaves were not required to free them, but were restricted in buying more, and in selling those they had. The north was industry driven, with small farms and businesses peppering the country side. Women were already involved with the family farms, and businesses. Though they had to make some adjustments they were able to take up where their men had left off more readily than many of those in the south.

In comparison, the south was largely populated by large plantations, and the businesses that supported them; slave dealers, and shipping. But without the mills and markets for their tobacco and cotton, women of the south were left with plantations, families, and slaves for which they had to provide, and no apparent way to do that. Left to their own devises, the women of the south also had to worry about the constant rumors of a slave uprising.

To survive, many resorted to selling family heirlooms so they could purchase to feed their charges. But like their counterparts in the north, they took up the mantle and did what they had to do to fill their men's shoes.

To some women, from both the north and south, it was too devastating to have their husbands/brothers/fathers leave them. Many of those who could followed the army. They set up a "home" for their men. They washed their clothing, cooked for them, and nursed them when they were ill or wounded. Some earned money by doing wash and cooking for other soldiers.

Of course you also have the women who followed the camps, doing laundry or cooking by day, and serving the soldier in a more primitive way at night.

Women from both sides of the fight, served as nurses in the makeshift hospitals that were opened in the towns near the battlegrounds, but also as nurses to the sick.

Women throughout the north and south sent food and clothing to their men at war. Many formed groups and provided food and gifts to the soldiers going to war at the many train stations along their route.

Women unable to leave their homes to support the troops joined or formed groups to roll bandages, or knit socks for their men.

On the more interactive side, some women not only followed the soldiers, but they dressed as men and joined the fight. One such woman was found out only when she was wounded, another when she gave birth.

There were spies on both sides, women found ingenious ways to smuggle information to do the most good or harm, depending on whose side you were on: in their hair, the hoops of their clothing, and secreted pockets in garment, to name a few. They were seldom bothered when they traveled and even less seldom searched. They became friends to soldiers, officers, and influential men of the community to glean information.

The need for drugs in the south was tremendous. The north and Europe were both cut off, leaving the south to find other sources. Smuggling medicines was one small way women who were friends of the south had of helping.

Just talking about these individuals as a group, doesn't do them justice. Being thrown into a war of their own, the women of America fought, not just against guns and cannons, but they had to fight the prejudices against them as a lesser society. They had to prove they were stronger, smarter, and more determined than any man they came up against. Many of these heroes died in poverty, very few were every recognized for their achievement. Today there are groups who are trying to memorialize these women and get them the recognition that is their due.