It is an accepted truth that the Civil War was a man's
fight. Men, not
only the white American soldiers but also
the minors like African Americans and Latinos, combated in the
battles against their enemies, lived in muddy camps with
little time to rest, ate in
anywhere no matter how bad the smell of the surrounding is, and died horribly, yet heroically.
However, this is not what the entire story of the
Civil War looks like. Men, as a
matter of fact, were not the only ones to fight the
wars. Like the men, there were women who
fought as vanguard, lived in camp, ate what
they could get, and then died for
several different causes. Here comes the question, how and why are the women
enlisted as soldiers during the Civil War?
Both Union and Confederate armies forbade the enlistment of women. Therefore, in order to get in the armies and become the real soldiers who fight on the front line, some women disguised themselves as men, and hid the fact they were female. Since they passed and joined the troops as men, it is almost impossible to know how many women soldiers served in the Civil War. However after the Civil War ended and the women soldiers came back to where they used to live, the facts that several soldiers who previous attended the wars were women gradually revealed. By incomplete statistical research, there have been approximately 400 women soldiers who disguised them as male soldiers, not including the ones who has been discovered to be female and sent back home during the war. The reasons for women to join troops and fight can be diverse. But most reasons could be traced to their determination of fighting against the injustice. While some women chose to be the nurses to aid the male soldiers, other women tended to have different ideas. Full of passion and sense of justice, they wanted to fight with the enemies, not just standing on the back of the battlefront and waiting for the reports of winning or losing. Another reason for the women to fight in the battles was because they were eagerly hoping to prove themselves to be valiant enough for wars, not only the kitchens. Years before the Civil War, the lives of American women were shaped by a set of ideals that historians call “the Cult of True Womanhood”, where the definition of “True Women” means that the women should devote their lives to create a clean, comfortable, nurturing home for their husbands and children. Nevertheless, this war changed people’s mind. It was the first time in American history that women played a significant role in a war effort. By the end of the war, these experiences had expanded many Americans’ definitions of “true womanhood”, and the women were finally able to prove themselves can also be brave enough, just as the men are. One example of the women soldiers who engaged in the Civil War was Sarah Edmond Seelye. Originally from Nova Scotia, Sarah experienced a hard life at a young age. This early life she had directly cause her escaping to the United States, where she quickly adapted a new life and considered herself as an American. This is the reason why she wanted to join the troops, to “defend her country”. Unlike other women, her uniqueness is that she not only succeeded in remaining in the army for several years, but also lurked as a Union spy. She was first assigned to be a male nurse, alias Franklin Thompson, and then sent as a spy to the Confederate side. She collected information from the Confederate side and returned to the Union side without doubts from the enemies. After the war ended and her identity being revealed, she even got the pension from the congress, which made rest of her life peaceful and happy. As time goes by, the names of those women might be lost in the long river of history, but what they have contributed to the Civil War and what their spirits have left for the offspring are enormously precious. |