Category: Civil War Women

Civil War Women
Civil War Women, Gettysburg

Lydia Leister Farm

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Farm on the Gettysburg Battlefield Gettysburg farmer James Leister died in 1859, leaving his wife Lydia Leister and five children, ranging in age from 21 to 3. In March 1861, the widow Leister purchased a nine acre farm on Taneytown Road from Henry Bishop, Sr. for the sum of $900. The property included a modest, wood frame house with a single fireplace, two rooms and a stairway that lead to a small loft. Image: Restored Lydia Leister Farm today Looking north along Taneytown Road After the strong Confederate win at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863 CSA General Robert E. Lee effectively argued that the best use of limited Confederate resources was to invade Pennsylvania. In early June he…

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Civil War Women, Famous Firsts, Women Scientists

Ellen Swallow Richards

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Pioneer Chemist and First Woman to Graduate from MIT The most prominent American woman chemist of the 19th century, Ellen Swallow Richards (1842–1911) was a pioneer in sanitary engineering and the founder of home economics in the United States. She was the first woman admitted to any scientific school in the United States and the first female graduate of MIT. During her career, she also helped her break new ground for women in science. Early Years Born December 3, 1842 at Dunstable, Massachusetts, Ellen Henrietta Swallow was the only child of well-educated parents and received most of her early education from them. In 1859 the family moved one town over to Westford, Massachusetts, where her father opened a store. Ellen…

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Civil War Women, Famous Firsts, Women Lawyers

Ada Kepley

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First American Woman to Graduate from Law School Ada Kepley was the first woman in the United States to graduate from law school (1870). When she applied for a license, she was told that Illinois law did not permit women to practice law. By the time the law was overturned, Kepley had diverted her energies to the support of social reforms, particularly the temperance movement. Ada Harriet Miser was born February 11, 1847 to Henry and Ann Miser in Somerset, Ohio, where she spent most of her childhood. Her parents were . In 1860 her family moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where Ada completed two years of high school. The Misers then moved to Effingham, Illinois, a pioneer settlement, where…

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Civil War Women, Famous Firsts, Women Doctors

Bethenia Owens-Adair

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Pioneer Woman Doctor in Oregon Bethenia Angelina Owens-Adair (1840 – September 11, 1926) was a social reformer and one of the first female physicians in Oregon Country with an MD (Doctor of Medicine). She was also a divorcee and a single mother, who overcame many hardships to fulfill her dream. Some Oregon women, such as Mary Anna Cooke Thompson, called themselves doctor, but they had not attended medical school or earned medical degrees. Owens-Adair and Mary Priscilla Avery Sawtelle earned their medical degrees and established early practices in Oregon. Early Years Bethenia Angelina Owens was born on February 7, 1840, in Van Buren County, Missouri, the third of eleven children born to Tom and Sarah Damron Owens. As a daughter…

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Civil War Women

Women and the Battle of Baton Rouge

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Two Women Diarists Tell the Story The Battle of Baton Rouge might have been considered small or insignificant by Civil War standards, but to the women who lived in that city, it was traumatic. Twice they were forced to flee from their homes when Union gunboats in the Mississippi River shelled their town. Image: Civilians, including a young girl in the foreground, survey damage in Baton Rouge after the battle there in August 1862. Backstory The Union Navy captured Baton Rouge in May 1862, meeting little resistance as the state government fled to Opelousas, about 60 miles west, and later to Shreveport. A few weeks later, when Confederate guerrillas fired on Union sailors rowing ashore to get their laundry done,…

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Civil War Women, Famous Wives

Civil War Widows

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Women Who Lost Husbands in the Civil War Approximately 620,000 soldiers died in the American Civil War. The Union lost around 360,000 soldiers – 110,000 killed in combat; the Confederacy lost around 260,000 men – 93,000 killed in combat. Disease killed the rest. While not all of these soldiers were married, the War created an unprecedented number of young white widows, many of whom had been married for a very short time. Tintype of Union Widow Adelia Springer and her daughter For many Confederate widows, the war was an extremely close and personal experience, as battles and armies brought death, destruction and hardship into their states, their communities and sometimes their backyards. Many Confederate widows supported the Confederacy during the…

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Civil War Women, Civil War Women Working, Women Scientists

Emily Warren Roebling

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The Woman Who Saved the Brooklyn Bridge Emily Warren Roebling (1843-1903) was married to Washington Roebling, who was Chief Engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge. After her husband was incapacitated by caisson disease (the bends), Emily helped him complete the building of the bridge. First American woman engineer, one source calls her a prioneering example of independence. Childhood and Early Years Emily was born into the upper middle class family of Sylvanus and Phebe Warren at Cold Spring, New York on September 23, 1843. She was the second youngest of twelve children. Emily’s interest in pursuing an education was supported by her older brother Gouverneur Warren, future Union general in the Civil War. In 1864, during the Civil War, Emily visited…

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Civil War Women, Educators, Famous Firsts, Women Doctors

Mary Harris Thompson

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Pioneer Doctor and Educator of Women in the Medical Professions Dr. Mary Harris Thompson (1829–1895) was one of the first women to practice medicine in Chicago, and by some accounts the first female surgeon in the US. She was founder, head physician and surgeon of the Chicago Hospital for Women and Children, founder of the Women’s Medical College, the first medical school for women in the Midwest, and Chicago’s first nursing school. Early Years Mary Harris Thompson was born April 15, 1829 in Fort Ann, New York. She began her studies at a nearby school, then transferred to Fort Edward Institute in Fort Edward, New York, and then to West Poultney Academy in Vermont. While at West Poultney, she was…

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Civil War Women, Civil War Women Working

Matrons in Civil War Hospitals

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Civil War Women Working in Hospitals In Union hospitals, the term matron referred to the woman who had the responsibility of supervising the wards in general hospitals – large military facilities in Northern cities, far away from the battlefields. Running hospitals during the war taught women that they could be leaders, and that the limitations society placed on them could sometimes be changed. Union Hotel Hospital Washington, DC The Union Hotel and Tavern, built in Washington, DC in 1796, hosted many prominent citizens through the years including Robert Fulton, George Washington and John Quincy Adams. By the time of the Civil War, this once glorious hotel had become a boarding house. On May 6,1861, John Waters, the proprietor of the…

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Civil War Nurses, Civil War Women, Educators

Harriet Foote Hawley

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Civil War Nurse and Occasional Journalist Harriet Ward Foote, the oldest child of George Augustus Foote, was born June 25, 1831 in Guilford, Connecticut, on a New England farm – one of those rocky hillsides of which the natives say a man must own two hundred acres at least, or he will starve to death. Harriet was a first cousin of the famous Beecher family, her father being the brother of Roxana Foote Beecher, Lyman Beecher’s first wife. Joseph Russell Hawley He was born October 31, 1826 in Stewartsville, Richmond County, North Carolina. In 1842 his family moved to Cazenovia, New York, where Joseph attended the Oneida Conference Seminary, and then graduated from Hamilton College in 1847. Hawley taught for…

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