Category: Civil War Women

Civil War Women
Civil War Women, Famous Firsts, Feminists

Abby Kelley

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One of the First Feminists in the United States Abby Kelley (1811–1887) was a Quaker abolitionist and radical social reformer active from the 1830s to 1870s. She became a fundraiser, lecturer and committee organizer for the influential American Anti-Slavery Society. Fighting for equal rights for women soon became a new priority for many ultra abolitionists and Kelley was among them, speaking on women’s rights in Seneca Falls, New York five years before the first Women’s Rights Convention would be held there. Image: Abby Kelley Charlotte Wharton, Artist Abigail Kelley was born on January 15, 1811, in Pelham, Massachusetts. She was quite delicate as a child, and her family encouraged her to spend time outdoors. She helped her father around the…

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Civil War Women, Female Soldiers

Amy Clarke

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Confederate Soldier in the Civil War One of the most famous Confederate female soldiers, who served in both cavalry and infantry, was Amy Clarke. At the age of 30, she enlisted as a private in a cavalry regiment with her husband, Walter, so she would not be separated from him. She disguised herself as a man, using the name Richard Anderson. She fought with her husband until his death at the Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee, on April 6, 1862. Image: Rhode Island Civil War Monument Bronze female figure on a pink granite baseNew Bern, North Carolina Clarke was tired of cavalry life, and decided to join the infantry. Her request was approved, and Private Richard Anderson was transferred to the…

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Matilda (Tillie) Pierce
Civil War Women, Gettysburg

Tillie Pierce

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  Teenage Girl’s View of the Battle of Gettysburg Matilda (Tillie) Pierce was born in Gettysburg in 1848. She was 15 at the time of the battle, and had lived her entire life in Gettysburg, a village of 2400 persons. Her father made a good living as a butcher, and the family lived a comfortable life above his shop at the corner of South Baltimore and Breckinridge Streets in the heart of town. In the summer of 1863, Tillie was attending the Young Ladies Seminary, a finishing school near her home. Tillie had two brothers, James and William, and one sister, Margaret. At the time of the Battle of Gettysburg, her brother James was serving with the 1st Pennsylvania Reserves,…

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African Americans, Civil War Women

Lost Colony of Roanoke

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Roanoke Island Freedmen’s Colony Roanoke Island is located between the Outer Banks and the mainland coast of North Carolina. It is well known as the site of the Lost Colony, where the first settlement of British colonists disappeared in 1587. It is not so well known for another colony that was established during the Civil War. The island was important militarily because it is located near the opening of two major sounds and is protected somewhat from the harsh weather in the Atlantic Ocean. Image: Roanoke Island Freedmen’s Colony Monument Fort Raleigh National Historic Site In 2001, the Dare County Heritage Trail committee erected a marble monument to commemorate the Freedmen’s Colony of Roanoke Island. In 2004, the monument was…

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Civil War Nurses, Civil War Women

Cordelia Harvey

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Civil War Nurse and Sanitary Agent Cordelia Perrine Harvey (1824-1895) was a Civil War nurse and an agent of the Western Sanitary Commission. She worked throughout the war for Wisconsin’s sick and wounded soldiers and children orphaned by the war. After five visits to the White House she convinced President Lincoln that building military hospitals in the North would allow soldiers to recover much quicker than in the hot putrid climate of the South. Cordelia Adelaide Perrine was born December 27, 1824 in Barre, New York. Not much is known of her early life. The Perrine family moved to Wisconsin in 1842 and owned a prosperous farm in the Kenosha area. Cordelia lived for many years in Kenosha, where she…

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Authors, Civil War Women

Kate Chopin

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Novelist and Short Story Writer Kate Chopin (1851-1904) was an American author of short stories and novels. Though her writing career began more than two decades after the Civil War ended, her writing was greatly influenced by the aftermath of the war and the time she spent living in Louisiana. Chopin wrote two novels: At Fault (1890) and The Awakening (1899), which are set in New Orleans and Grand Isle, respectively. Most of her fiction focuses on the lives of sensitive, intelligent women. Childhood and Early Years Katherine O’Flaherty was born in St. Louis, Missouri on February 8, 1850 to Irish immigrant and successful businessman Thomas O’Flaherty and Creole Eliza Faris, a well-connected member of the French community in St….

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Civil War Nurses, Civil War Women

Kate Magill Dorman

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Catherine Magill Dorman was born in Georgia on October 7, 1828. ‘Kate’ married Arthur Magill in 1844. Seven years later, the couple went to Texas, settling at the seaport community of Sabine Pass. She stood only 4 feet 10 inches tall, but folks learned quickly not to cross her. In 1852, the young couple built an inn they called the Catfish Hotel, adjacent to the waters of the Sabine Pass. The hotel had its own wharf that extended into Sabine Lake from the front of the two-story building, so steamboats could dock and their crews could come in and eat dinner. By 1860, there were 24 permanent guests living in the hotel, as well as the itinerant seamen who lodged…

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Civil War Women

Civil War Christmas

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Merry Christmas General Lee By Mort Kunstler December 25, 1862 It was a passing moment of cheer amid the harsh realities of war. General Robert E. Lee has attended a holiday dinner hosted by General Stonewall Jackson at Moss Neck Plantation near Fredericksburg, Virginia. General Lee is leaving the festivities, heading back to his winter headquarters. During the Civil War, Christmas was celebrated in both the United States and the Confederate States of America although the day was not recognized until 1870, when President Ulysses S. Grant made Christmas an official Federal holiday in an attempt to unite north and south. The war continued to rage on Christmas Day and skirmishes occurred throughout the country. Christmas Feasts A pre-war Southern…

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Mary Todd Lincoln's dressmaker and confidante, Elizabeth Keckley
African Americans, Authors, Civil War Women

Elizabeth Keckley

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Dressmaker and Confidante of Mary Todd Lincoln Elizabeth Keckley was a former slave who became a successful seamstress and author in Washington, DC, after buying her freedom in St. Louis. She created an independent business with clients who were the wives of the government elite: Varina Davis, wife of Jefferson Davis, Mary Randolph Custis Lee, wife of Robert E. Lee, and First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln. Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley was born in 1818 in Dinwiddie Court House, Virginia. Her biological father was a white plantation owner, Colonel A. Burwell. Her mother Agnes was married to George Hobbs, who lived 100 miles away on another plantation. I was my mother’s only child, which made her love for me all the stronger….

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Civil War Nurses, Civil War Women, Women in Medicine

Hettie Kersey Painter

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Hettie Painter, a Civil War doctor, was born in 1821 in Philadelphia, the daughter of Joseph and Charity Kersey Cope. Her parents died when she was young, and she was adopted by her uncle and aunt, Mordecai and Esther Hayes of Chester County, Pennsylvania. They were widely known for their humanitarian work. She married Joseph Painter of West Chester, Pennsylvania. After their wedding, Hattie and Joseph moved to Ohio, where Hettie devoted her time to benevolent works. Hettie and Joseph were supporters of the anti-slavery movement, and their home was always open to fugitive slaves. In 1852, Hettie and Joseph returned east and lived in Philadelphia and later in Camden, New Jersey. During this time she studied medicine, “having had…

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