Tag: Civil War spies

Civil War spies
Civil War Nurses, Civil War Women, Women in Theater

Jean Margaret Davenport

• Maggie

Civil War Nurse and Stage Actress Jean Margaret Davenport (May 3, 1829, Wolverhampton, England – August 3, 1903, Washington, D.C.), later Mrs. Frederick William Lander, was an English actress with a career in both England and the United States. American Civil War nurse and English-American stage actress Early Years Jean Margaret Davenport was born May 3, 1829, in Wolverhampton, England. Her father was a lawyer, but he left the bar for the stage and became the manager of the Richmond Theatre in the London borough of Richmond Upon Thames. At the age of seven, Jean made her first professional appearance at that theater as Little Pickle in The Manager’s Daughter, and in Dion Boucicault’s version as The Young Actress. Jean…

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Activists, Civil War Women

First Women’s Rights Activists I

• Maggie

Women’s Rights Advocates The first women who fought for their civil and legal rights were not a unique breed. Many were wives and mothers like most other females in the mid-nineteenth century. However, they must have developed a strong sense of self and some support from their husbands, for they found time in their busy lives to protest against the confining space that society had assigned them: women’s sphere. May Wright Sewall May Wright Sewall (1844 – 1920) Born May Eliza Wright May 27, 1844 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, May graduated in 1866 from North-Western Female College in Evanston, Illinois. There she earned a Bachelor of Science degree and a Master of Arts in 1871 and began a career in teaching…

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Civil War Women, Generals Wives

Agnes Maxwell Kearny

• Maggie

Agnes Maxwell Kearny: Wife of the One-Armed Devil Agnes Maxwell Kearny Agnes Maxwell was born sometime in 1833, daughter of the customs collector for the port of New York City. Her affair with Philip Kearny, who was nearly twice her age, caused quite a scandal in both Paris and New York City. Agnes broke all societal customs by living with Kearny several years before they were married. Philip Kearny (pronounced CAR-nee) was born June 1, 1815 in New York City, the only child of a wealthy couple, Philip and Susan Watts Kearny. Young Philip lived a privileged childhood, but it was touched by tragedy with the untimely death of his beloved mother when he was eight years old. When his…

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Civil War Art, Civil War Women

For God’s Sake Forward

• Maggie

Civil War Art at the Battle of Gettysburg For God’s Sake Forward General John Reynolds (left center, between two trees) and the 2nd Wisconsin at the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1, 1863. Soldiers of the 2nd Wisconsin Infantry Regiment, a unit of the Iron Brigade, charge to relieve General John Buford’s cavalrymen at McPherson’s Ridge. Civil War Art by Don Troiani Highest Ranking Soldier Killed at Gettysburg Pennsylvania native John Reynolds was a West Point graduate, and soon after the American Civil War began, he was promoted to brigadier general. During the 1862 Peninsula Campaign in Virginia; Reynolds was taken prisoner by the Confederates but was released some weeks later. After his return to the army, Reynolds was named commander…

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Civil War Women, Civil War Women Working, Women Lawyers

Phoebe Couzins

• Maggie

Phoebe Couzins: Pioneer Lawyer and Suffragist In the 1870s, Phoebe Couzins (1842-1913) became the third or fourth female lawyer in the United States and a popular public speaker in support of women’s rights. After her father died in 1887, the U.S. government appointed her as the first female in the U.S. Marshal Service, and she finished her father’s term of service. Early Years Phoebe Wilson Couzins was born September 8, 1842 in St. Louis, Missouri to John E.D. Couzins and and Adaline Weston Couzins, both of whom were tireless public servants. John Couzins was the chief of police in St. Louis and acting provost marshal of Missouri during the Civil War. After the onset of the American Civil War, Adaline…

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Civil War Women, Famous Children

Winnie Davis

• Maggie

Daughter of Confederate President Jefferson Davis Varina Anne ‘Winnie’ Davis As the daughter of President of the Confederate States of America Jefferson Davis, Varina Anne ‘Winnie’ Davis appeared with her father at numerous Confederate veterans’ events after the American Civil War and became known as ‘Daughter of the Confederacy.’ She also authored two novels and wrote for Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World newspaper. Early Years Varina Anne Davis was born June 27, 1864 in the White House of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia – ten months before the end of the American Civil War. ‘Winnie,’ as she was called, was the second daughter and the youngest of six children born to Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his wife Varina Howell…

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Civil War Women, Famous Firsts, First Ladies, Generals Wives

Julia Dent Grant

• Maggie

Wife of General and President Ulysses S. Grant Julia Boggs Dent was born January 26, 1826 at White Haven plantation near St. Louis, Missouri, the fifth of seven children. Her parents were Frederick and Ellen Dent, who owned about thirty black slaves; they refused to free them only when the law required it. From about 1831 through 1836, Julia attended the Misses Mauros’ co-ed, one-room boarding school in St. Louis. Growing up at White Haven, she fished, rode horses, and played in the woods. Image: First Lady Julia Dent Grant, 1870 Julia Dent met Ulysses S. Grant, whom she called ‘Ulys,’ who was a classmate of her brother Frederick at West Point; she was soon head-over-heels for Grant and agreed…

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Civil War Nurses, Civil War Women

Civil War Vivandieres

• Maggie

Typical Uniform of a Zouave Vivandiere Vivandieres first appeared in France as women who were part of a regiment and sold spirits (an alcoholic drink) and other items and cared for the sick. These women wore uniforms similar to that of the regiment in which they served, and they displayed great courage by giving immediate medical assistance to the wounded in the midst of battle. When the Civil War began in 1861, hundreds of American women were ready to brave those same conditions for the Union Army. Uniforms of vivandieres in the American Civil War varied from regiment to regiment. All had in common a knee-length skirt worn over full trousers, a tunic or jacket, and a hat. This style…

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Civil War Women, Diaries and Letters

Diaries of Fredericksburg Women

• Maggie

Civil War Diarists of Fredericksburg, Virginia Fredericksburg, Virginia was occupied on three separate occasions by Union forces. These ‘invasions’ had an impact on the townspeople. The diaries of Fredericksburg residents allow us to experience their anxiety and fear toward enemy armies, as well as the loss of loved ones and the damage or destruction of homes and personal property. Lizzie Alsop in 1862 Elizabeth Maxwell Alsop Elizabeth (Lizzie) Maxwell Alsop began writing her Civil War diary in 1862. She was the sixteen-year-old daughter of Sarah and Joseph Alsop, who lived at what is today 1201 Princess Anne Street in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Her father was one of the richest members of the Fredericksburg community; a large part of his wealth consisted…

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Civil War Women, Generals Wives

Hannah Forster Sumner

• Maggie

Wife of Union General Edwin Vose Sumner Early Years and Marriage Hannah Wickersham Forster was born January 31, 1804 in Erie, Pennsylvania. Edwin Vose Sumner was born in Boston, Massachusetts January 30, 1797 and entered the United States army as a career soldier in 1819. He fought in the Black Hawk War (1832) and various campaigns against Native Americans, and with distinction in the Mexican-American War (1846-1848). General Edwin Vose Sumner and His Civil War Staff Sumner and his son Brigadier General Edwin V. Sumner Jr. are knee-to-knee in the center of this colorized image. Seventeen-year-old Hannah Wickersham Forster, daughter of an army officer, married Edwin Vose Sumner March 31, 1832 in Sackets Harbor, New York. The couple had six…

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