Tag: Civil War nurses

Civil War nurses
Authors, Civil War Nurses, Civil War Women, Diaries and Letters

Catherine Stratton Ladd

• Maggie

Civil War Nurse and Educator Catherine Stratton was born in Richmond Virginia on October 28, 1808. While she was still an infant, her father, James Stratton, an Irish immigrant, fell off a boat and drowned. Catherine was educated in Richmond at the same school attended by poet Edgar Allen Poe and they were playmates. Catherine Stratton Ladd At the age of 20, Catherine married George Williamson Livermore Ladd, an artist who had studied with Samuel F. B. Morse in Boston. The Ladds first lived in Charleston, South Carolina, where George painted portraits. It was there that Catherine began to write stories, poems and essays, particularly about art and education. These were published in Southern periodicals, under such pseudonyms as Minnie…

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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

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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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Elizabeth Van Lew
Civil War Spies, Civil War Women

Elizabeth Van Lew

• Maggie

Union Spy in the Confederate Capital Elizabeth Van Lew, a well-to-do resident of Richmond, Virginia, recruited and operated an extensive network of spies who gathered intelligence for the Union in the shadow of the Confederate White House. Van Lew was also an Angel of Mercy for the Union soldiers who were being held at Libby Prison near her home. Her gifts of food and clothing meant the difference between life and death for many inmates there. Early Years Elizabeth Van Lew was born October 25, 1818 in Richmond, Virginia, the eldest daughter of Eliza Baker Van Lew and John Van Lew, a prominent Virginia businessman who owned a prosperous hardware business and several slaves. Elizabeth attended a Quaker school in…

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African Americans, Civil War Women, Educators, Women Lawyers

Mary Ann Shadd

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Abolitionist, Educator and Suffragist in the Civil War Era Mary Ann Shadd Bust BME Freedom Park Chatham, Ontario Mary Ann Shadd (1823–1893) was an anti-slavery activist, journalist, teacher and lawyer. She was the first black woman newspaper publisher in North America and the first woman publisher in Canada. Shadd was one of the most outspoken and articulate female proponents of the abolition of slavery of her day. She promoted equality for all people and taught former slaves how to be self reliant. Early Years Mary Ann Shadd was born October 9, 1823 in Wilmington, Delaware, the eldest of 13 children of Abraham and Harriett Shadd, both free-born blacks. Her father was active in the Underground Railroad and a subscription agent…

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Civil War spy Mary Elizabeth Bowser
African Americans, Civil War Spies, Civil War Women

Mary Elizabeth Bowser

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African American Spy During the Civil War Mary Elizabeth Bowser was a freed slave who worked with Elizabeth Van Lew as a Union spy in Richmond, Virginia during the Civil War. Van Lew sent Bowser to the Quaker School for Negroes in Philadelphia in the late 1850s. After graduating, she returned to Richmond, where Early Years Mary Elizabeth Bowser was born a slave on the plantation of John Van Lew, a wealthy hardware merchant in Richmond, Virginia. The exact time of her birth is uncertain, but believed to be about 1840. After Mr. Van Lew died in 1851, his daughter, Elizabeth, a staunch abolitionist, freed all of their slaves. Mary Elizabeth remained in the Van Lew household after she was…

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