Southern Women in the American Civil War

Abstract

In the American Civil War, numerous Northern women had active roles and participated directly in the war effort. There are various accounts of Northern women disguising themselves and fighting in regiments as well as their emergence as nurses in the medical field. Thus, the role of Northern women was openly active in the Civil War. This is because during this time period, gender roles for women in the North were not as rigid as they were in the antebellum South. This poses the question: what about Southern women? Specifically white women?