Tag: generals wives

generals wives
Activists, Civil War Women, Women in Religion

Olympia Brown

• Maggie

Suffragist and the First Woman Minister in the United States Olympia Brown was a suffragist, the first woman to graduate from a theological school, and the first woman minister in the United States.* In 1863, the Universalist Church ordained Brown, the first woman ordained by that denomination. She was also one of the first generation suffragists who survived long enough to vote after the Nineteenth Amendment was passed in 1920. Image: Olympia Brown in 1919 *Antoinette Brown Blackwell is often considered the first American woman minister (1853). She was ordained by a Congregationalist church in Butler, New York, but the Congregationalist denomination did not approve her ordination. Olympia Brown was fully ordained by the church; Blackwell was not. Early Years…

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Activists, Civil War Women, Feminists

Women’s Rights After the Civil War

• Maggie

Feminists and Activists for Women’s Equal Rights Image: Executive Committee of the National Woman Suffrage Association (1869) Women fought for more than 200 years to obtain the rights that were guaranteed to men in the U.S. Constitution. When the nineteenth century began, a woman was not permitted to vote or hold office; she had few rights to her own property or earnings; she could not take custody of her children if she divorced; she did not have access to a higher education. Birth of Feminism In the 1830s, thousands of women were involved in the movement to abolish slavery. While working to secure freedom for African Americans, these women began to see legal similarities between their situation and that of…

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Civil War Women, Gettysburg

Mary Thompson House

• Maggie

General Robert E. Lee’s Headquarters at Gettysburg Image: Thompson House before the Battle of Gettysburg This one and a half story stone house sits on Seminary Ridge, west of the town of Gettysburg, on the north side of the Chambersburg Pike. On July 1, 1863 General Robert E. Lee established his headquarters here. It was an ideal location, at the center and rear of the Confederate battle lines. Anna Mary Long was born on November 12, 1793 near Littlestown, Pennsylvania. Her first husband was named Daniel Sell, with whom she had three daughters. Sell died at the age of 30 in 1822. Four years later she married Joshua Thompson, with whom she would have two sons and three daughters. Joshua…

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Civil War Women, Educators

Lucretia Crocker

• Maggie

Pioneer Educator and Innovative Administrator As the first woman appointed to the Board of Supervisors of the Boston Public School System (1876), Lucretia Crocker pioneered the method of teaching mathematics and the natural sciences during her decade-long tenure. Earlier, she was among the first women elected to the Boston School Committee, and a strong advocate for higher education for women. Early Years Lucretia Crocker was born December 31, 1829 in Barnstable, Massachusetts on Cape Cod to Henry and Lydia Ferris Crocker. She was educated in the Boston Public Schools, and attended the State Normal School in West Newton, Massachusetts. Established by Horace Mann, it was the first state-supported school dedicated to training teachers in America. She graduated in 1850, but…

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Civil War Nurses, Civil War Women

Euphemia Goldsborough

• Maggie

Confederate Nurse and Smuggler from Maryland Euphemia Goldsborough exemplifies the Southern woman committed to the Confederacy. Against all odds and at great risk to her own personal safety, she smuggled necessities into Southern hospitals and Northern prisons. Her story is one of courage, compassion and endurance. Image: Euphemia Goldsborough at age 38 Early Years Euphemia Goldsborough was born June 5, 1836 at Boston, the family farm on Dividing Creek in Talbot County, Maryland. Euphemia was one of eight children born to Martin and Ann Hayward Goldsborough. She studied at a girls’ boarding school in Tallahassee, Florida during the 1850s, and then joined her family at their new home in Baltimore, Maryland. Leading up to the Civil War, Marylanders had mixed…

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Civil War Women, Famous Wives, First Ladies

Ida McKinley

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First Lady of the United States Ida Saxton McKinley, wife of William McKinley, 25th President of the United States, was First Lady from 1897 to 1901. She and her husband developed a unique way of coping with her epileptic seizures during her public appearances, and the love they shared during the early years of happiness endured through more than twenty years of illness. Image: Ida McKinley Photograph from the 1896 Presidential Campaign Early Years Ida Saxton was born June 8, 1847 in Canton, Ohio, the second of three children born to Katherine DeWalt and James Saxton, a prominent Canton banker. The Saxtons were a prominent family in Canton: Ida’s grandfather founded the Ohio Repository, the first newspaper in Canton, and…

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African Americans, Civil War Nurses, Civil War Women

Black Civil War Nurses

• Maggie

African American Nurses in the Civil War Nursing was not a woman’s job before the Civil War, but by 1865, there were over 3,000 nurses serving the Union and Confederacy. In the North, most women nurses worked in military hospitals. Image: Black nurses with the 13th Massachusetts Infantry The 13th Mass fought in numerous battles, from the Shenandoah Valley to Bull Run to Antietam So many women volunteered as Union nurses that the U.S. government hired Dorothea Dix to serve as the superintendent of women nurses. African American nurses were not included in those numbers, nor were they recognized for their service for decades to come. Some were paid; many volunteered. During the Civil War, black women did serve as…

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Civil War Nurses, Civil War Women, Female Soldiers

Women of Antietam

• Maggie

Female Soldiers and Nurses at Antietam Fought on September 17, 1862, the Battle of Antietam was the first battle to occur on northern soil, and it is the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with a combined tally of dead, wounded and missing at 22,717. Also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg, it took place near Sharpsburg, Maryland and Antietam Creek. Image: Rochester House Marker Where Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. was treated for his wounds The battle occurred after 75,000 Union troops under General George B. McClellan followed the 38,000 Confederate troops led by General Robert E. Lee into Maryland. On the morning of September 17, McClellan launched attacks against Lee’s left flank near Antietam Creek. The Confederates counterattacked and…

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Civil War Hospitals, Civil War Nurses, Civil War Women

Armory Square Hospital

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Union Military Hospital in Washington DC Armory Square Hospital had twelve pavilions and overflow tents containing one thousand hospital beds filled with wounded from the battlefields of Virginia. The wounded were brought to the nearby wharves in southwest Washington and then taken to the Hospital. It was one of the largest Civil War hospitals in the area and one of many medical facilities located in downtown Washington, DC. Image: Chapel and buildings at Armory Square Completed U.S. Capitol in the distance Constructed in 1862, Armory Square took its name from the Old Armory on the Mall, around which the hospital was built. the medical facility spread accross the Mall and included quarters for officers, service facilities and a chapel. Situated…

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Civil War Women, Diaries and Letters

Devil Diarists of Winchester

• Maggie

Union and Confederate Women Who Kept Diaries The small town of Winchester in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia changed hands between the Confederate Army and Union Army numerous times during the Civil War. The town’s strategic location included a network of seven major roads that radiated out toward other towns and cities; two of the roads were macadamized. This road system made the town a major trade center in the Valley. Image: Mary Greenhow Lee, Winchester’s most prolific diarist and dedicated Confederate sympathizer Another geographic feature would magnify in importance during the war: Winchester was surrounded on all sides by low hills that hid the approach of enemy armies. Occupying forces found it almost impossible to mount a defense, so…

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