Women in the Civil War
Useful Websites

 General information

 http://civilwarwomen.blogspot.com/

 This site appropriately advertises itself as a resource for “Bios and stories about women of the Civil War era, how they lived, what they did to survive, how they fought for women's rights.”  It is informative and easy to search by both topic and name.

 http://americancivilwar.com/women/women.html

This site is excellent in its approach to many of the important women of the Civil War era.  Although part of its purpose is to sell books and other media related to women in the Civil War, it is excellent in its detailing of individual women’s contributions to the Civil War.

 http://www.teacheroz.com/civilwar.htm#women

 This site provides valuable links to a number of important internet resources on women in the Civil War.  Of particular value are the topics of women’s contributions as doctors and nurses, spies, soldiers, authors, and assorted other “homefront topics.”  As with most lists of this sort, some links provide better information than others.

http://dburgin.tripod.com/women.html

This site provides basic information on the contributions of a number of women to the Civil War effort.  It is a good place to begin research on an individual woman.

 http://library.duke.edu/specialcollections/bingham/guides/cwdocs.html

 This site provides access to diaries, letters, and other writings of women from the Civil War era as well as a link to the collection of Civil War images including women from the library of Congress.  While this research is rich in its detail, it is narrow in the number of women it includes.

 http://womenshistory.about.com/library/pic/bl_p_civil_war.htm

 This site provides a variety of excellent images of women from the Civil War era.

 Medicine  

http://www.civilwarhome.com/civilwarmedicineintro.htm

 This is an excellent, and sometimes graphic, site that details the different aspects of Civil War medicine.  Of particular interest to this project will be the sections on “Caring for the Men”, “Civil War Nurses”, “Hospitals, Nurses, and Surgeons”, and the “Sanitary Commission.”  

http://www.forttejon.org/ussc/ussc.html           

This site provides a concise history and excellent photographs of the role of the Sanitary Commission in the Civil War.  

http://www.joanbramsch.com/history/bickerdyke.shtml

 Narrow in its scope, this site provides an excellent example of the importance of female nurses during the Civil War.

 http://www.northnet.org/stlawrenceaauw/nurses.htm

 This site focuses on the contributions of five different nurses from upstate New York during the Civil War. 

 http://www.dcmemorials.com/index_indiv0001660.htm

 This site provides a series of images from the Civil War Nurses Memorial in Washington , D.C.   It also gives basic information on the history of the memorial.

 http://www.questia.com/library/book/letters-of-a-civil-war-nurse-cornelia-hancock-1863-1865-by-cornelia-hancock-henrietta-stratton-jaquette.jsp  

While this is a site offering to sell a book entitled “Letters of a Civil War Nurse: Cornelia Hancock, 1863-1865”, it also offers a free preview of a number of pages from this book.  These pages are instructive for their insight on the role of nurses during the Civil War.

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/hospital/whitman.htm  

A lengthy piece of writing, this article recounts Walt Whitman’s experiences with Civil War hospitals.  Included are a number of observations on the role of women.

 http://books.google.com/books?id=tiTmtH69dQEC&pg=PA9&dq=civil+war+nurse&ei=PvfIRv2JKoXy6gLzp-HfDw

 This site provides the entire text of a book entitled “Reminiscences of an Army Nurse During the Civil War.”  It is searchable through both the table of contents and for individual words or phrases through google’s book search box.   

Spies

 http://womenshistory.about.com/od/civilwar/a/women_spies_un.htm

 This site provides brief but excellent information on some of the key female spies from the Union during the Civil War.  No visuals are included.  

http://womenshistory.about.com/od/civilwar/a/women_spies_con.htm

 This site provides brief but excellent information on some of the key female spies from the Confederacy during the Civil War.  No visuals are included.

 http://www.lib.virginia.edu/small/exhibits/hearts/spies.html

 While limited in its information, this site has several excellent images, including those of Belle Boyd and  Rose Greenhow, both spies.

 http://www.lincolnparkboe.org/WebQuests/civilwar_spies.htm  

Originally designed as a webquest on the Civil War, this site provides a variety of links to information on several of the most well known Confederate era female spies. 

 Soldiers

 http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1993/spring/women-in-the-civil-war-1.html

 This site includes mostly secondary source material on the deceptions required for females to become soldiers during the Civil War.  The site is most remarkable for its images, including several photographs of women in their regular clothing next to photographs of them dressed as men in their military uniforms. 

 http://library.duke.edu/specialcollections/bingham/guides/civilwar.html

 This site is includes a list of female soldiers from the Civil War era with several sentences explaining the contributions of each.  More importantly, however, this site provides links to the writings of women from the Civil War era, including several soldiers.  

Literature  

http://www.americancivilwar.com/women/hbs.html

 This site does an excellent job of outlining the contributions of Harriet Beecher Stowe to the Civil War era.

 http://www.teacheroz.com/civilwar.htm#women

 This site provides links to important information and images about selected female authors who influenced the Civil War.

Civil War Women
Library Resources Available Through
Gowana Middle School  

There are several excellent resources available through the Gowana Middle School library on the topic of women in the Civil War.  These represent, however, a small proportion of the resources available on the Civil War in general.  In addition, there are several sources that include limited discussion of the role of women but are useful for general information.  Finally, there are a great number of historical fiction books (not including the ones used for this project) that are available through the library.  Though these are not intended for research purposes, students who find the topic especially engaging could continue their study through these novels.  For this reason, a list of these will appear at the end of this list.

 Non-fiction Resources

 Arnold, James R. and Wiener, Roberta.  Life Goes on: the Civil War at Home, 1861-

            1865.  Minneapolis : Lerner Publications, 2002.

 This book examines life away from the battle fields during the Civil War.  It takes a close look at both women and men who kept the North and the South running, from operating farms to working in factories.

 Beller, Susan Provost.  Confederate Ladies of Richmond.  Brookfield , CT : Twenty-First

            Century Books, 1999.

 This book uses diaries and letters of Confederate women to tell about life in Richmond , VA during the Civil War.  

Chestnut, Mary Boykin.  Ames , William, ed.  A Diary from Dixie .  Boston : Houghton

Mifflin Co., 1950.

 This diary shares Mary Boykin Chestnut’s perspective on a number of issues surrounding the Civil War and provides commentary on the role of women during the war.

 Clinton, Catherine.  The Other Civil War: American Women in the Nineteenth Century.

            New York : Hill and Wang, 1984.

 This is an excellent source dealing with the roles of women—both generally and specific—during the Civil War.  It is, however, written at a level too high for most seventh graders and focuses on ideas beyond the scope of this project.

 Editors of Time-Life Books.  Spies, Scouts, and Raiders : Irregular Operations. 

Alexandria , VA : Time-Life Books, 1985.

 Several of the “spies, scouts, and raiders” included in the book are women, and their stories are compelling.

 Faber, Doris.  Rose Greenhow, Spy for the Confederacy.  NewYork:  Putnam 1967.

 This is an informative biography Confederate spy Rose Greenhow.  It is both detailed and compelling.

 Hamilton, Leni.  Clara Barton.  New York :  Chelsea House Publishers, 1988.

 This is an excellent biography of Clara Barton.  Although it focuses more on her later work with the Red Cross, it is quite informative about Barton’s role as a Civil War nurse.

 Jackson, Donald.  Twenty Million Yankees: the Northern Home Front.  Alexandria , VA :

            Time-Life Books, 1985.

 This book chronicles the Civil War through the words of eyewitnesses, photographs, maps, and examinations important players.  Although most of the information comes from and concerns men, women are addressed in a peripheral way as well.

 Meltzer, Milton, ed.  Voices from the Civil War : a Documentary History of the Great

            American Conflict.  New York : Crowell, 1989.

 This collection includes letters, diaries, memoirs, interviews, ballads, newspaper articles, and speeches from the Civil War era.  Though most are from a male perspective, the female point of view also works its way into this collection.  

Schlaifer, Charles and Freeman, Lucy.  Heart’s Work:  Civil War Heroine and Champion

of the Mentally Ill, Dorothea Dix.   New York : Paragon House, 1991.  

Although this biography of Dorothea Dix deals more with her later work with the mentally ill, it is superb in its examination of Dix’s role in the Civil War.  

Sifakis, Stewart.  Who was who in the Civil War.  New York : Facts on File, 1988.

 This is a biographical reference book dealing with more than 2,500 figures from the Civil War.  While there are articles on many women, they tend not to go into great detail.

 Stern, Philip.  Secret Missions of the Civil War.  Chicago :  Rand McNally, 1959.

 This book provides first hand accounts of male and female spies of both the North and the South.  It does an excellent job of showing the importance of women to the war effort.

 Historical Fiction Available for Further Reading

 Clapp, Patricia.  The Tamarack Tree: a Novel of the Siege of Vicksburg .

New York : Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1986.

 Hahn, Mary Downing.  Hear the Wind Blow.  New York : Clarion Books, 2003.

Hansen, Joyce.  Out of This Place.  New York : Walker , 1988.  

Matas, Carol.  The War Within.  New York : Aladdin Paperbacks, 2001.  

Nolan, Jeannette Covert.  Belle Boyd, Secret Agent.  New York :  Messner, 1967.

 Peck, Richard.  The River Between Us. New York : Dial, 2003.  

Rinaldi, Ann.  Sarah’s Ground.  New York :  Simon & Schuster Books for Young

Readers, 2004.