Civil War Women, Famous Wives

Eliza Chase

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Wife of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Salmon P. Chase Salmon P. Chase: Lincoln’s Treasury Secretary And husband of Eliza Chase Henry Ulke, Artist Salmon Portland Chase was born on January 13, 1808, in Cornish, New Hampshire. He was the ninth of eleven children born to Ithmar Chase and Janet Ralston Chase. His father died when Salmon was nine years old, leaving his widow a small amount of property and ten surviving children. Chase’s education began in 1816 in Keene, New Hampshire, than at a better school in Windsor, Vermont. His uncle, Philander Chase, an Episcopal Bishop, took Salmon to the woods of Ohio. Young Chase attended the bishop’s school at Worthington, near Columbus. Chase had no love for…

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Famous Wives

Elizabeth Warren

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General Joseph Warren Wife of Revolutionary War General Joseph Warren Joseph Warren was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, on June 11, 1741. After attending the Roxbury Latin School, he went to Harvard College, graduating in 1759, and then taught for about a year at Roxbury Latin. He studied medicine with James Lloyd and opened his own practice in 1764, and he quickly became the most prominent doctor in Boston. Warren clearly demonstrated that he recognized and accepted his civic role in his work in public clinics, conducting smallpox vaccinations and treating its victims in Boston. He remained in Boston during the 1763 smallpox epidemic, administering to the ill, and opened an inoculation hospital at Castle William in Boston Harbor. The success…

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Civil War Women, Generals Wives

Fanny Chamberlain

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Wife of Brigadier General Joshua Chamberlain Frances Caroline Adams was born on August 12, 1825, in a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts. Her parents were rather old at the time of her birth. Fanny, as she was called, was passed around to different family members, finally living with her cousin Reverend George Adams in Brunswick, Maine. Adams was the pastor of the First Parish Congregationalist Church, and he often ministered to the students of nearby Bowdoin College, where he was a member ofthe Board of Overseers. Image: Joshua and Fanny Dale Gallon, Artist Fanny grew up in this strictly religious home,and received a good education. She was an intelligent and artistic girl with a talent for music and singing. She made…

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Women in the American Revolution

Margaret Corbin

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Heroine of the Battle of Fort Washington Margaret Corbin In a sketch by Herbert Knotel West Point Museum Art Collection United States Military Academy West Point, New York Margaret Cochran was born on November 12, 1751, near Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. In 1756, five year old Margaret and her older brother were visiting their uncle when an Indian raiding party attacked her parent’s homestead, killing their father and capturing their mother. The children were then raised by their uncle. In 1772, Margaret Cochran married John Corbin, a Virginia farmer. When the Revolutionary War began, John joined the Continental Army, and Margaret went with him. Wives of the soldiers often cooked for the men, washed their laundry and nursed wounded soldiers. They also…

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Abolitionists, African Americans, Civil War Women

Harriet Tubman

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Conductor on the Underground Railroad Harriet Tubman was an African American abolitionist, humanitarian and Union spy during the Civil War. After escaping from slavery, she made thirteen missions back to the land of her servitude to rescue scores of slaves, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. Image: Painting by Paul Collins: Harriet Tubman’s Underground Railroad She was born Araminta Ross around 1820 the fifth of nine children born to slave parents, Harriet (“Rit”) Green and Benjamin Ross, in Dorchester County on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. As with many slaves in the United States, neither the exact year nor place of her birth was recorded, and historians differ as to the best…

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Civil War Women, Famous Firsts, Famous Wives, First Ladies

Mary Todd Lincoln

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First Lady of the United States 1861-1865 Mary Todd Lincoln supported her husband throughout his presidency, and witnessed his fatal shooting at nearly point blank range at Ford’s Theater on April 14, 1865. Mary’s life was difficult after her husband was assassinated; she suffered from depression and mental anguish, which led to her being hospitalized for a time. Image: Mary Todd Lincoln in 1846 Mary Todd was born on December 13, 1818, in Lexington, Kentucky, the fourth of seven children born to banker Robert Smith Todd and Elizabeth Parker Todd. Robert Todd provided his children from two marriages with social standing and material advantages. When Mary was seven, her mother died. Mary’s father remarried to Elizabeth Humphreys in 1826. This…

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Molly Pitcher
Women in the American Revolution

Mary McCauley

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Heroine of the American Revolution Battle of Monmouth 1778 Don Troiani, Artist On a blistering hot day during the Battle of Monmouth, New Jersey, young Mary Hays McCauley became Molly Pitcher in American Legend. Molly Pitcher was a nickname given to a woman said to have fought in the Revolutionary War. The story of Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley is considered folklore by historians, or they suggest that Molly Pitcher is probably a composite of a number of real women. The name itself may have originated as a nickname for women who carried water to men on the battlefield. It has also been suggested that the story of the cannon also applies to another brave woman named Margaret Corbin, but both…

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Women in the American Revolution

Elizabeth Zane

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Revolutionary War Heroine <Betty Zane Monument Walnut Grove Cemetery Martins Ferry, Ohio The school children of the area collected money to have a large statue of Betty Zane placed at the entrance to the cemetery. Elizabeth Zane, better known as Betty, was born on July 19, 1759, in Moorefield, Virginia. She was the daughter of William and Nancy Nolan Zane. Betty moved with her family at an early age to the area that now is Wheeling, West Virginia. Betty’s older brother, Ebenezer Zane, pioneered this area in the turbulent Ohio Valley, which was the home of Native Americans who became increasingly hostile because of encroachment on their lands. These colonists were defying a royal order that reserved land west of…

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Civil War Women, Female Soldiers

Sarah Rosetta Wakeman

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Woman Soldier in the Civil War Sarah Rosetta Wakeman disguised herself as a man in order to fight for the Union in the Civil War. The letters she wrote home were preserved by her family, but were not made public for nearly a century because they were stored in the attic of one of her relatives. Wakeman, most often referred to as Rosetta, was born on January 16, 1843, in Afton, New York, to Harvey Anable and Emily Wakeman. She worked hard on her father’s dairy farm to help support her family, and later worked as a domestic. Her father served as town constable, but was deeply in debt. At the age of 19, Rosetta left home and traveled to…

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Women in the American Revolution

Deborah Sampson

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Deborah Sampson in Uniform Female Soldier in the Revolutionary War Deborah Sampson was born in Plympton, Massachusetts, on December 17, 1760. Although her family name was originally spelled without the p, it is under this spelling that she is most commonly remembered. She was the oldest of seven children of Jonathan and Deborah Bradford Sampson, both of old Colonial stock. Mrs. Sampson was a descendant of William Bradford, once Governor of Plymouth Colony. Jonathan Sampson abandoned his family and moved to Maine, where he continued to live in poverty. Her mother was of poor health and could not support the children, so she sent them off to live with various friends and relatives. Deborah, aged five, was taken by a…

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