Civil War Nurses, Civil War Women

Juliet Hopkins

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Hospital Matron and Nurse from Alabama Juliet Hopkins (1818–1890) was born on a plantation in West Virginia, but moved to Mobile, Alabama after marrying Arthur Hopkins. When her husband was appointed to oversee hospitals during the Civil War, Juliet went to work converting tobacco factories into hospitals. She made daily visits to the injured soldiers, and received a wound on the battlefield in the course of her duties. Juliet Ann Opie was born in Jefferson County, Virginia on May 7, 1818, the daughter of a wealthy planter. She was educated at home by English tutors and later in a private school in Richmond. When she was sixteen years old, her mother died and she left school to help manage the…

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Civil War Women, Educators

Margaret Douglass

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Virginia Teacher of Free Black Children In the first half of the nineteenth century a number of slave rebellions occurred, which frightened white citizens and underscored the need to maintain tight control over the literacy of blacks. In June 1852 Margaret Douglass, a white former slaveholder from South Carolina, began a school for free black children in her home in Norfolk, Virginia. An unlikely martyr for black education, Douglass was arrested in May 1853 for violating the law – she had no idea that teaching any black child to read and write in Virginia was a crime. Margaret Douglass was born in Washington, DC, but her family moved to Charleston, South Carolina, when she was very young. She married and…

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Civil War Spies, Civil War Women, Diaries and Letters

Belle Edmondson

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Civil War Spy and Smuggler Belle Edmondson ardently supported the Confederacy during the Civil War. She probably began smuggling supplies and funds to the Confederate army in 1862, after the fall of Memphis, and served as a Confederate agent throughout the war. In July 1864, she fled south, because the United States had issued a warrant for her arrest. Isabella Buchanan Edmondson was born in Pontotoc, Mississippi on November 27, 1840, the youngest of eight children. When the Civil War began, the Edmondsons were living on a farm in Shelby County south of Memphis, Tennessee. They were staunch supporters of the Confederacy. Two of Belle’s brothers fought at Shiloh, and Belle nursed the wounded from that battle. In June 1862,…

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African Americans, Civil War Women, Educators

Hallie Quinn Brown

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Feminist, Author and Social Reformer Hallie Quinn Brown was an abolitionist, educator, writer and women’s rights activist in the Civil War era. She was born March 10, 1845 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to former slaves, Thomas and Frances Scroggins Brown. Both were well-educated and actively involved with the Underground Railroad. In 1864, in the midst of the Civil War, Hallie moved with her parents and five siblings to Chatham, Ontario, where her father earned his living as a farmer, and the children attended the local school. In 1870, the family settled in Wilberforce, Ohio, so Hallie and her younger brother could attend Wilberforce College, a primarily black institution. Hallie graduated in 1873 with a Bachelor of Science degree. After graduation, Brown…

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Civil War Women, Female Soldiers

Rhea County Spartans

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Female Confederate Cavalry Regiment In the summer of 1862, 30 young women banded together to form the Spartans with the purpose of supporting their men in the Confederate cavalry. Still active during Federal occupation, some were accused of spying and arrested, but were eventually released. Reconstruction was hard on them, and most of the women left the area after the war. Image: Rhea County Courthouse During the American Civil War, Rhea County (pronounced ray) was one of the few counties in eastern Tennessee that was sympathetic to the Confederate cause. The county raised seven companies to the Southern army, but only one for the Union. In the summer of 1862, the girls of Rhea County created the only female cavalry…

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Civil War Women, Gettysburg

Sallie Myers

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Civil War Nurse at Gettysburg Elizabeth Salome ‘Sallie’ Myers was born at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on June 24, 1842, the daughter of Peter and Mary Myers. Her father was a Justice of the Peace, and they were among the wealthier families in town. By 1863 Gettysburg was a thriving little community with 2,400 inhabitants, 190 of them African Americans. At the age of sixteen Sallie became a school teacher. In 1863 she was employed by the Gettysburg public school system as an assistant to the principal, and was still living with her family on West High Street. Sallie was in her fourth week of summer vacation from her teaching job, and had recently celebrated her 21st birthday when fighting broke out…

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Lucy Pickens
Civil War Women

Lucy Pickens

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Queen of the Confederacy Known during and after her lifetime as the Queen of the Confederacy, Lucy Pickens was described as “beautiful, brilliant and captivating” by her male contemporaries, and this perception of her helped shape the stereotype of the Southern belle. Lucy Holcombe was born on June 11, 1832, on the Holcombe cotton plantation named ‘Woodstock’ near LaGrange, Tennessee, not far from where the Battle of Shiloh would be fought 30 years later. She was the second of five children. Both of her parents were well-educated. The Holcombes sent their two daughters, Anna and Lucy, to study at a Quaker school, Moravian Seminary for Women, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. But Lucy’s father lost everything when he staked his farm and…

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Authors, Civil War Women

Louisa McCord

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Writer and Plantation Mistress in the Civil War Era Louisa Susanna McCord, political theorist, essayist, poet and book reviewer, was almost unique among antebellum southern women. Her published works fill two volumes and deal with subjects hardly touched by her female contemporaries. At the same time, she ran a plantation, supported her family and was the hard-hitting superintendent of an army hospital during the Civil War. She was in many ways an emancipated woman. Childhood and Early Years On December 3, 1810 Louisa Susanna Cheves was born into the aristocratic Charleston, South Carolina family of Langdon and Mary Dulles Cheves. Louisa was one of fourteen children, eight of whom died before 1860. Her father was a politician and her mother’s…

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Civil War Women, Diaries and Letters, Women Scientists

Eliza Frances Andrews

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Novelist, Botanist and Educator Eliza Frances Andrews (1840-1931) was a popular Southern writer whose works were published in popular newspapers and magazines, including the New York World and Godey’s Lady’s Book. Her longer works included The War-Time Journal of a Georgian Girl (1908) and two botany textbooks. Her passion was writing, but financial troubles forced her to take a teaching job after the deaths of her parents, though she continued to be published. Eliza Frances Andrews was born in 1840 in Washington County, Georgia, the daughter of Judge Garnett and Annulet Ball Andrews. She became a writer and a teacher in the Civil War era. In the Andrews home, Eliza had access to newspapers, books, and magazines, and was encouraged…

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Authors, Civil War Women

Jane Grey Swisshelm

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Editor, Journalist and Newspaper Publisher Jane Grey Swisshelm (1815–1884) was a journalist, publisher, abolitionist and women’s rights advocate. She was active as a writer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and as a publisher and editor in St. Cloud, Minnesota, where she founded a string of newspapers and regularly wrote for them. Jane Grey Cannon was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on December 6, 1815, the daughter of a Scotch-Irish chair maker. When her father died in 1827, her mother Mary was left with three children to support. She put Jane to work painting on velvet and making lace. At the age of fourteen, Jane became a schoolteacher. At age 21, Jane married farmer James Swisshelm, over her mother’s objections. Jane was strong-willed, and…

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