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Civil War Women, Famous Firsts, Feminists

Sarah Grimke

• Maggie

One of the First Social Reformers in the United States Sarah Moore Grimke, the lesser known of the Grimke sisters, was born November 26, 1792, in Charleston, South Carolina, the daughter of Judge John Grimke. Sarah was a writer, an abolitionist and an early advocate of women’s rights. At five years old, she saw a slave being whipped and tried to board a steamship that could take her to a place where there was no slavery. The Grimkes lived alternately between a fashionable townhouse in Charleston and a thriving cotton plantation in Beaufort with hundreds of slaves. Judge Grimke was the Chief Justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court. He was a strong advocate of slavery and of the subordination…

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Civil War Spies, Civil War Women

Rebecca Wright

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Virginia Spy for the Union Rebecca McPherson Wright, a Union spy during the Civil War, was born near Winchester, Virginia in January, 1842. Her family was one of the few in Winchester who supported the Union. Her father, Amos Wright, died in a Confederate prison early in the war. Rebecca was a schoolteacher, and due to her Quaker beliefs, she abhorred slavery. In August 1864, Confederate General Jubal Early’s army occupied Winchester. While trying to discover the troop strength of Early’s army, Federal scouts came across Thomas Laws, an elderly slave, at his home. When Laws told them that he had a permit to pass through the Confederate lines three times a week to sell vegetables, the scouts enlisted his…

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Civil War Women, Diaries and Letters

Emma Holmes

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Diarist in Charleston, South Carolina Emma Holmes, a Civil War diarist and teacher, was born in 1838 in Charleston, South Carolina, to a plantation owner. During the Civil War, from February 1861 until March 1866, Emma kept a diary of her life in Charleston, the affairs of her family and history as she observed it. A true Confederate, like many others, she believed the war would be over within a few months. In the spring of 1861, Emma recorded in her diary that “the city seemed suddenly turned into a camp. Nothing was heard but preparations for war. The great body of citizens [seems] to be so impressed with the justice of our cause that they place entire confidence in…

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Abolitionists, Civil War Women, Feminists

Anna Dickinson

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Abolitionist and Lecturer during the Civil War Anna Elizabeth Dickinson was an abolitionist, writer, lecturer and advocate for women’s rights. A gifted speaker at a very young age, she significantly influenced the distribution of political power in the Union just prior to the Civil War. She helped the Republican Party gain key positions in the hard-fought election campaigns of 1863, and was the first woman to speak before the U.S. Congress. Childhood Anna Elizabeth Dickinson was born in Philadelphia on October 28, 1842, the youngest of five children of Quaker parents. Her father was a dedicated abolitionist who died of a heart attack shortly after giving a fiery antislavery speech in 1844. Since Anna was only two years old, she…

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Civil War Spies, Civil War Women

Eugenia Phillips

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Confederate Spy in the Civil War Born into an assimilated Jewish family in the South, Eugenia Phillips, like many Southern Jews, was a strong supporter of the Confederate cause. Beginning in 1861, Phillips aided Confederate spy networks and secretly passed material aid to Confederate troops. The family later moved to Georgia, where Phillips supposedly toned down her outspoken support of the Confederacy. Eugenia Levy was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1820 to prominent Jewish parents. One of six daughters, Eugenia was well-educated, outspoken and fiery-tempered. At age l6, she married a prominent Jewish lawyer, Philip Phillips, who was 13 years her senior. The couple moved to Mobile, Alabama, where he had already established a successful law practice. He and…

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Civil War Women, Female Soldiers

Frances Hook

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Female Soldier from Illinois Frances Hook was born in Illinois in 1847. When she was three years old, both her parents died, leaving her to be raised by her older brother. Frances and her brother were living in Chicago when the Civil War began. Inscription below photograph: ‘Fanny the soldier girl Exchanged by Genl Thomas at Chattanooga.’ She was 14 years old when her brother announced that he was going to enlist in the Union Army. Since her brother was her only living relative, and she did not want to be left alone, Frances decided to disguise herself as a man and follow him to war. Frances cut her hair short and told the recruiting officer she was 22 years…

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Civil War Women, Famous Firsts, Women Artists

Vinnie Ream

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One of the First Women Artists in the United States Vinnie Ream (1847–1914) was an American sculptor whose most famous work was the statue of Abraham Lincoln in the U.S. Capitol rotunda. In 1866, at the age of 18, Ream was selected by Congress to sculpt a memorial statue of Lincoln, making her the first woman commissioned to create a work of art for the United States government. Ream later created sculptures of Samuel Kirkwood and Sequoyah for the National Statuary Hall. During her career, Ream sculpted portraits of the likes of women’s rights leader Susan B. Anthony; abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher; former slave Frederick Douglass; 20th President of the United States James A. Garfield; journalist Horace Greeley; Hungarian composer…

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Civil War Nurses, Civil War Women

Annie Etheridge

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Union Civil War Nurse from Michigan Annie Etheridge had already been a nurse at a Michigan hospital, and the Civil War provided her the perfect opportunity to continue in that profession. She acted as what today would be called a combat medic, providing immediate medical care to wounded soldiers, often under fire during battle. In addition to nursing, she served the regiment as cook and laundress. Etheridge was one of only two women to receive the Kearny Cross. Lorinda Anna “Annie” Blair was born into a wealthy family on May 3, 1844, in Detroit, Michigan. She was an only child, and her mother died when she was quite young. Soon thereafter, Annie moved with her father to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The…

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Civil War Women, Famous Firsts, Feminists

Abby Kelley

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One of the First Feminists in the United States Abby Kelley (1811–1887) was a Quaker abolitionist and radical social reformer active from the 1830s to 1870s. She became a fundraiser, lecturer and committee organizer for the influential American Anti-Slavery Society. Fighting for equal rights for women soon became a new priority for many ultra abolitionists and Kelley was among them, speaking on women’s rights in Seneca Falls, New York five years before the first Women’s Rights Convention would be held there. Image: Abby Kelley Charlotte Wharton, Artist Abigail Kelley was born on January 15, 1811, in Pelham, Massachusetts. She was quite delicate as a child, and her family encouraged her to spend time outdoors. She helped her father around the…

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Civil War Women, Female Soldiers

Amy Clarke

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Confederate Soldier in the Civil War One of the most famous Confederate female soldiers, who served in both cavalry and infantry, was Amy Clarke. At the age of 30, she enlisted as a private in a cavalry regiment with her husband, Walter, so she would not be separated from him. She disguised herself as a man, using the name Richard Anderson. She fought with her husband until his death at the Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee, on April 6, 1862. Image: Rhode Island Civil War Monument Bronze female figure on a pink granite baseNew Bern, North Carolina Clarke was tired of cavalry life, and decided to join the infantry. Her request was approved, and Private Richard Anderson was transferred to the…

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