Tag: authors

authors
Civil War Nurses, Civil War Women, Educators

Amy Morris Bradley

• Maggie

Civil War Nurse and Educator Amy Morris Bradley, a schoolteacher from Vassalborough, Maine, abhorred the limitations placed on women in the 19th century. She started out as a field nurse for the Union Army, then became an agent for the U.S. Sanitary Commission. She also served aboard hospital ships and ran a Soldiers’ Home in Washington, DC. When the Civil War erupted, Bradley quickly volunteered her services as a nurse. She was assigned to the Fifth Maine Infantry but soon transferred to a hospital ship on the James River in Virginia. At that time, nursing was viewed as domestic work. Bradley’s abilities led her to the United States Sanitary Commission where she rose through the ranks to become Special Relief…

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African Americans, Authors, Civil War Women

Lucy Delaney

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Writer and Slave Who Won Her Freedom in Court Lucy Ann Delaney (1830–1891) was an African American author, former slave and activist, notable for her 1891 slave narrative, From the Darkness Cometh the Light, or, Struggles for Freedom. The memoir tells of her mother’s legal battles in St. Louis, Missouri for her own and her daughter’s freedom from slavery. Their cases were two of 301 freedom suits filed in St. Louis from 1814-1860. Edward Bates, the future US Attorney General under President Abraham Lincoln, argued Lucy’s case in court and won. Childhood and Early Years Lucy Ann Berry was born a slave in St. Louis, Missouri in 1830. Lucy’s mother Polly Berry had been born free in Illinois, but was…

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Emeline Pigott
Civil War Nurses, Civil War Spies, Civil War Women

Emeline Pigott

• Maggie

Confederate Nurse and Spy North Carolina native Emeline Pigott offered her services to the Confederate Army as a spy. Single and 25 years old, Pigott hosted parties for local Union soldiers and gathered information about their plans. In the folds of her voluminous skirts she hid important papers and other contraband, which she later passed on to the local Rebels – until 1865, when she was arrested and jailed. Emeline Pigott was born in December 15, 1836, in Harlowe Township, Carteret County, North Carolina, and spent her youth there. When Emeline was 25 years old, just after the Civil War began, she and her parents moved to a farm on Calico Creek at Crab Point on the coast – what…

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Civil War Nurses, Civil War Women

Cornelia Hancock

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Nurse at the Battle of Gettysburg Cornelia Hancock was a nurse for the Union Army whose work at the Battle of Gettysburg where her work was exemplary. The ground was littered with dead and wounded after Pickett’s Charge, and more than 5000 injured Confederate soldiers were left behind when General Robert E. Lee retreated after the three-day battle. The letters Hancock wrote to relatives about her experiences at Gettysburg are priceless. Cornelia Hancock was born February 8, 1840 in southern New Jersey. She was one of five children in a Quaker family. When the Civil War began, her only brother and her cousins went to war against the South, and Cornelia wanted to do her part for the Union cause….

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Civil War Women, Female Soldiers

Cathay Williams

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Buffalo Soldier in the American West Cathay Williams is the first African American female to enlist, and the only documented to serve in the United States Army, posing as a man under the pseudonym William Cathay. Orders were soon given to transfer the new recruits to the west, where they would join the army’s fight against the Indians. Cathay and her fellow black comrades were named Buffalo Soldiers by the Plains Indians because they were fierce fighters, and they had short curly hair like the buffalo. Image: Female Buffalo Soldier William Jennings, Artist Cathay Williams’ story is as unique as they come. She was born a slave near Independence, Missouri, in 1842. Her father was free, but her mother was…

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Civil War Women, Female Soldiers

Florena Budwin

• Maggie

Female Prisoner in the Civil War With the Civil War raging around the country, Philadelphian Florena Budwin decided not to let her husband go off to war without her. She disguised herself as a man and enlisted alongside him in the Union Army, and maintained her disguise throughout her active service. Unfortunately, both the Budwins were captured during fighting by the Confederate Army and sent to Andersonville Prison in southern Georgia, the Confederacy’s most notorious prisoner of war camp. Andersonville was built in early 1864 after Confederate officials decided to move the large number of Federal prisoners in and around Richmond, Virginia to a place of greater security and more abundant food. The first prisoners were brought to Andersonville in…

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Civil War Spies, Civil War Women

Laura Ratcliffe

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Confederate Spy in Virginia Known as a local beauty, Virginian Laura Ratcliffe saved the life of the Grey Ghost, Colonel John Singleton Mosby, in 1863. Among her many admirers was the famous cavalry general J.E.B. Stuart. She was also the sixth cousin of General Robert E. Lee. As a Confederate spy, Ratcliffe is a prime example of the brave women on both sides of the conflict who put themselves at risk to help their cause. Laura Ratcliffe was born May 28, 1836 at Fairfax City, Virginia to Francis Fitzhugh and Ann McCarty (Lee) Ratcliffe. Following the death of her father, Laura moved with her mother and two sisters to Frying Pan (later Herndon) in Fairfax County, just south of Washington,…

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African Americans, Civil War Women, Feminists

Sojourner Truth and The Civil War

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African American Abolitionist and Women’s Rights Activist Sojourner Truth was a nationally known feminist and social reformer. During the Civil War, she helped recruit black soldiers for the Union Army. After the war, she tried to secure land grants from the federal government for former slaves, a project she pursued for seven years, meeting with President Ulysses S. Grant to discuss the subject. Image: Sojourner Truth Monument Florence, Massachusetts Truth lived in Florence (a village of Northampton) from 1843-1857. She came to Florence to join the Northampton Association of Education and Industry, a utopian community dedicated to equality and justice. After the Association disbanded, she remained in Florence, bought her first home, dictated her autobiography to Olive Gilbert and became…

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female Confederate soldier Malinda Blalock
Civil War Women, Female Soldiers

Malinda Blalock

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Female Soldier and Bushwhacker in the Civil War Union sympathizers Malinda Blalock and her husband Keith enlisted in the Confederate army near their home in the mountains of western North Carolina, planning to desert and join the Union army. In the meantime, Malinda was wounded. The couple deserted and returned home where they became the most feared bushwhackers in the mountains, feared by secessionists and Unionists alike. Sarah Malinda Pritchard was born in 1842 in the Appalachian Mountains of western North Carolina. She met William McKesson Blalock (nicknamed Keith) in a one-room school they both attended. Their marriage in 1856 was a shock to their neighbors, because their families had been feuding for 150 years. The couple resided on Grandfather…

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Civil War Nurses, Civil War Women

Janie Smith

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Civilian at the Battle of Averasboro Janie Smith lived on a huge plantation near Averasboro, North Carolina. She was eighteen years old when General William Tecumseh Sherman plowed through the Carolinas with his scorched-earth policy, hoping to end the civil war that had dragged on for four long years. Janie lived with her parents and her nine brothers and two unmarried sisters; eight of her brothers were serving in the Confederate Army. Following the Battle of Averasboro, North Carolina – March 15 and 16, 1865 – eighteen-year-old Janie Smith (1846-1882) wrote an insightful letter on scraps of wallpaper (due to the paper shortage during the war) about the battle and her family’s experiences to her friend Janie Robeson in Bladen…

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