What Role Did Women Play In The Civil War Essay

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In addition to taking over important roles at home, women actually played a major role in both the North and South’s war strategies, proving to be influential in their roles during the actual war efforts. Some women in the civil war era wanted to see the action, not just stay home and take care of affairs in their societies but actually fight and be able to see the change. As well as helping out at home and taking care of everything while the men fought, women were active members in the war, acting as nurses, spies, and combatants fighting for their side of the war. Women became incredibly useful to war efforts as they acted as spies for each side, finding out what the other side wanted and was going to do in order to help their side get ahead,…show more content…
One of the most well known female soldiers is Sarah Edmonds, a union soldier who also worked during the civil war as a nurse. “Women bound their breasts if they had to, and just kind of layered on clothes, wore loose clothing, cut their hair short and rubbed dirt on their faces,” so that they would be seen as masculine and be able to fight. This greatly helped each side in the attempt to win the war, as it gave their side more people. Another incredibly important role women played during the civil war was that of nurses, they were the ones who cared for and tended to the men who were wounded during battle, and without them there would have been many more casualties during the war. Some women believed that become a doctor or nurse during the war would loosen the restraints on women. Clara Barton, the founder of the Red Cross, was an influential nurse during the civil war. Clara, along with many other nurses, had to ration food because it was so scarce. Women nurses were not always welcome, and although initially “doctors still resisted the thought of women in the hospital”, they eventually accepted and even appreciated all the help they

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