The American Civil War was period in history where many soldiers loss their lives for the benefit of the country. Woman heavily influenced the civil war. Without woman to cook, clean, and aid the soldiers the war would probably not have been able to reach an end. The woman played many important roles. Women were sutlers, nurses, union and confederate soldiers, and vivandieres (a French term applied to woman who provided food, provisions, and liqueurs to soldiers). When the men died the woman would then have to become the breadwinner for their family. Women were the unidentified backbone of the Civil War.
For many years the north and the south were in different in their views. They had fundamental differences in Agriculture, and adoption of slavery in the south. From the beginning of time the states had their own cultural believes which weren’t compatible with the other states. The uproar began during the 1850’s when there were very different views on the right to hold slaves in new territories. Starting with bitter hostilities the debate soon became violent. In 1860 Abraham Lincoln (who many thought to have been an abolitionist) was elected president of the United States of America. Lincoln was a very known opponent of slavery, which created uproar within the union. After calling a state convention, delegates voted to remove South Carolina from the union. Following South Carolina six more states were removed, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. Eventually these seven states left the union, making up the confederate states of America.
A peace meeting was held in Washington in February of that year to try and persuade more states to join the confederacy. The plan to add more states was unsuccessful. The union was on fort sumters grounds and the confederacy decided they wanted them off. The union decided they wouldn’t move so they set up an attack on the union on fort sumters grounds. Fort Sumter was the first fort to be re taken by the confederates. The confederates took alot of time in planning their attack on the union on fort sumter's ground. The work force consisted of just under 500 slaves, under the supervision of confederate army engineers. There were casemates filled with sand, sandbags to protect the walls, and new traverses. Once the battle was over the south had beaten the north and left Fort Sumter in ruins. The U.S army worked to restoreFort Sumter as a useful military installation. From the year 1876 to the year 1897 Fort Sumter was used only as an unmoved lighthouse station. The start of the Spanish-American war created a new interest in the military use of Fort sumter, and a block house style installation was built in 1898. The new installation was named "battery Huger" in honor of revolutionary war general Isaac Huger, it was never saw combat.
The next Battle in the U.S history was the Battle of Bullrun. Irvin McDowell who was opppointed by president Lincon to lead the army of northeastern Virginia. McDowell began to get harrassed by impatient politicians and citizens who wanted to see a quick battlefied victory over the confederate army in northern Virginia. Though McDowell thought it was a bad idea, but against his better judgement he departed on July 16, 1861 with the largest field army (about 35,000 men) gathered on the north American continent. For many hours on July 21st the first Battle of Bullrun was fought. Union casualties were: 460 men killed, 1,124 men wounded, and 1,312 men missing or captured. The confederate casualties were: 387 men killed, 1,582 men killed, 1,582 men wounded, and 13 men missing or captured.
The battle of Chancellorsville was fought near the village of spotsylvania courthouse, Virginia from April 30th until May 6th 1863. The union was lead by General. Joseph Hookers. The confederate army was lead by General Robert Lee. The battle of Chancellorsville was fought under horrible conditions. Soldiers were easily getting lost in the impenetrable maze of undergrowth and fires were started during the course of the battle. It was common for wounded men to be burned alive. Robert Lee who happend to be outnumbered by a ratio of 5 to 2 won what can be argued as his greatest victory of the war. The worst part for Robert Lee was that he only started the war with 52,000 men and at the end he lost more than 13,000 casualties. He lost about 25% percent of his army that the confederates could not replace.
On June 3rd Robert Lee's army began to shift northward from freddericksburg. Robert Lee gave strict orders to his army to minimize any negative impacts on the civilian population many towns were forced to pay indemtities instead of supplies under threat of destruction. The most controversial of the confederate actions under the words of Robert Lee was the siezure of about forty northern African Americans, a few of whom were escaped slaves but most were freeman. They were sent to the south into slavery under gaurd.
The battle of gettysburg was fought throughout (July 1-3) in and around the town of Gettysburg pennsylvania. The battle of gettysburg is the battle with the largest known number of casualties in the American Civil War. The battle of Gettysburg is known as the turning point in the civil war. In was the battle that made the union look like heroes to it's country. For most of the war the confederacy were in the lead with wins, wiping out the union in the battles. Finally the union had been giving a little hope.By the second day of the battle most of both armies had assembled. The union line was laid out in the formation of which resembled a fishhook. On the third day of the battle July 3rd the fight resumed on Culp's hill, and cavalry battles raged to the east and south. The major event on the third day was a dramatic assault by 12, 500 confederate soldiers against the center of the union line. Though it seemed the end was already decided the union were the ones who came up with a victory on their hands.
It is an American belief that the American Civil war was a man's fight. Though mjority of the soldiers were men it is a known fact that woman soldiers somehow made up a portion of the soldiers. Both union and confedertate armies forbade to enlist woman in their armies. The result of this war was that woman had to take on masculine name, they had to disquise themselves as men, and do everything they possibly could to hide the fact that they were females. Due to the fact that they dressed up as men there is no exact known number of how many woman were in the war, but there is an estimated total of 250 woman in the confederate army and about 135 in the union army. One very prominent woman that created a name for herself during the war was Clara Barton . Everything started for Clara Barton at age 16 when a Phrenologist Lorenzo Fowler advised her to become a teacher to cure her shyness. For ten years, she was a teacher. While teaching at a private school in Bordentown, NJ she realized the community was in need of free education. Although many were against it Clara barton set up the first free public school in the state. when officials hired a male principal over her she quit. she then moved to washington, where she became the first woman to work at the patent office. Clara Barton's civil work began in April 1861, after the battle of Bull run. she set up an agency which was responsible for obtaining and disputing supplies to wounded soldiers. In July 1862 she recevied permmission to go behind lines and there she began to aid soldiers in both the North and the south. After the civil war she became a poplar and widely respected lecturer. Though Clara Barton did alot of work during the civil war, she is most known for starting the American Red cross.
Throughtout american history woman have been pushed out of their light. Woman have been portrayed to have very little importance in the becoming of our country today, but this is so wrong. Woman have been the back bone of this country for a very long time. Woman have birthed, fed, cleanded, and nursed this country to what it is today. Hopefully one day woman will receive the credit that is due, and stand in their own light.
