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In the Northern states, women organized ladies’ aid societies to supply the Union troops with everything they needed, from food (they baked and canned and planted fruit and vegetable gardens for the soldiers) to clothing (they sewed and laundered uniforms, knitted socks and gloves, mended blankets and embroidered quilts and pillowcases) to cash (they organized door-to-door fundraising campaigns, county fairs and performances of all kinds to raise money for medical supplies and other necessities).īut many women wanted to take a more active role in the war effort. With the outbreak of war in 1861, women and men alike eagerly volunteered to fight for the cause. By the end of the war, these experiences had expanded many Americans’ definitions of “true womanhood.” Fighting for the Union It was the first time in American history that women played a significant role in a war effort. Thousands of women in the North and South joined volunteer brigades and signed up to work as nurses.

In the 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.” As men’s work moved away from the home and into shops, offices and factories, the household became a new kind of place: a private, feminized domestic sphere, a “haven in a heartless world.” “True women” devoted their lives to creating a clean, comfortable, nurturing home for their husbands and children.ĭid you know? More than 400 women disguised themselves as men and fought in the Union and Confederate armies during the Civil War.ĭuring the Civil War, however, American women turned their attention to the world outside the home.

In search of women of african descent who served during the civil war union navy.