Women Before and After the Civil War (Essay Sample)

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Introduction
The Civil War in United States is the central event that determined what kind of nation they would be. When war breaks out, many think men are the main and only participants but, in fact, during the Civil War, women played a significant role including nurses, spies, secret soldiers and war relief workers. Women who did not play direct role in the war still forced to take responsibility of earning income during the war. After the Civil War, women were forced to return to their traditional domestic roles, but their consent in the Civil War provided many opportunities that were not available to women before and stimulated the feminist movement. They were thus changed and become more diverse in a way that made them to stand out from the men. Form even the enslaved women they were not left behind as they stood and fought for their rights of freedom and equity (Massey, 35). When the Civil war broke out and the opportunity to join and participate in it came, some women took part in the adventure and it is estimated and documented in history that they were about two hundred and fifty who joined to fight in battle. Many more did participant though not recorded, they took part in almost major battles such as the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862. An example was Confederate Loreta Velazquez and at least other six women. Most of the women, who took part in the Civil War, did join with their fiancées or family members. They were motivated by many things including serving their nation and in order to earn more money to take care for their children and family. Most of the female soldiers did participate in the war by been undetected as women only when they were injured or killed that’s when others realized that they were women (Blanton & Lauren, 10). This paper thus discusses in much further details on the meaning of the Civil war, the women’s direct or indirect role in the Civil War, the women’s right after the civil war, their recognition, their new energy to the feminist movement and the conclusion.
American Civil War is the war between the United States and 11 Southern states. The war held for four years from 1861 and ended with the triumph of the North in 1865. It is the significant central event in US history. Since the 1776-1783 revolution war created the United States, then the Civil war is what determined the type of nation America would be. The Civil War thus can be said to have resolved some issue that the Revolution war had left behind. One of the issues included whether or not the U.S was to be a confederation that is dissolvable of sovereign states or a nation that was indivisible with a sovereign national government. The main issue of the fight was on whether the United States which was born under the declaration that all men and women are of equal right to liberty would remain been the largest country in the world with the largest slaves held (McPherson, 18). The war ended with the Northern victory and thus made America as a nation to remain one and not divided and also the end of the war enabled slavery to come to an end. The slavery issue in America had been a major issue and thus, since the beginning it divided the country. Despite the achievements brought as a result of winning the Civil War, it came with a cost and many people’s lives were lost during the war, it is estimated that about 625,000 lives were lost. This number is said to be the largest number of lives lost in a war as compared to all the Wars that had taken place in America at that time. It was thus the most destructive conflict war and the largest of them all. The Civil War thus started because of differences among the states that were declared free and those that were still practicing slavery. This was also as a result that Abraham Lincoln when he won the elections, he had pledged to keep slavery out of the territories.
On the role of women, which they played during the Civil War, they played a major role and did help a lot since during the war the U.S needed a lot of helping hand and most of it came from the women. These roles were both direct and indirect. The direct roles of women included them been nurses, spies, soldiers and war relief workers. Indirect roles included performing manual labor in order to earn money to support their family seen their husbands may have been dead. The other role was that they assisted in the emancipation of slaves by supporting its abolishment. For the women who were nurses, they did this since most of them were much caring and compassionate and thus able to handle the sick and the injured properly. Men were also part of the nurses but majority of them were the women. They worked in Union and Confederate military hospitals whereby their duties included helping the doctors in dressing, washing of wounds and administering of medicine to the patients. They also fed the patients and gave comfort to the dying (Brackman, 1).
The spy women were used to obtain information from the soldiers in the Northern cities and Union strongholds. They could be able to maneuver and get into the Northern territory and be able to sweet talk government officials or military soldiers or sometimes they could overhear conversations and thus acquire useful information. These women were cautious not to get caught and thus not to get their cover blown easily. They blended in and were not easily detected. Those who were caught were few and were imprisoned.
The soldier women were much involved in the Civil War than any other feminist role. They had trained hard and get tough in order to be able to fight in the battle and bring victory. The female soldiers were also undetected since they could only be identified as women only if injured or dead. Some of them their job was to carry ammunition and firearms for the other soldiers but in case hell broke loose they were able to take the firearms and defend their people. The other role women played in the Civil War was as war relief workers. Their function was to provide medical assistance in the battlefield for the injured soldiers (Brooks, 1). They were able to assist in identifying the dead and the survivors thus able to remove the critically ill from the battlefield. The other role women played was as Vivandieres, they were mostly wives or daughters of officers and they accompanied them in order to provide them with support such as selling tobacco to them, coffee or whiskey. They also cooked for them too and did for the officers their laundry. Through this, they were able to earn money and thus support their family. Some women’s husbands were dead and thus the woman was left with the responsibility of been the source of bread of the family.
The women’s right after the Civil War truly changed and they were more recognized in terms of employment and this thus made them be more motivated and full of energy to spearhead their feminist movement. The women had fought for more than 200 years in order to get equal rights which the men were enjoying. Women were not permitted to vote or hold office positions; they were denied custody of their children in case of a divorce and didn’t have access to higher education (MacLean, 1). This, however, changed as they fought for their rights with lots of energy. Through women in 1830 supporting the abolishment of slavery and been able to win that fight, it thus opened for them many doors. Many women through the fight of the abolition of slavery were able to become important leaders in the women’s right and suffrage movements. An example of women who were respectfully recognized included Sarah Thompson who was a Union spy; she was highly respected by President Andrew Johnson through a letter. Another example included Angelina Grimke and Sarah Grimke who were sist...