BONNET BRIGADES

by Mary Elizabeth Massey

The Civil War wrought cataclysmic changes in the lives of American Women on both sides of the conflict. Women in the Civil War demonstrates their enterprise, fortitude, and fierceness. In this revealing social history, Massey focuses on many famous women, including nurses Dorothea Dix, Clara Barton, and Mother Bickerdyke; spies Pauline Cushman and Belle Boyd; writers Louisa May Alcott, Julia Ward Howe, and Mary Chestnut; pamphleteer and military strategist Anna Ella Carroll; black abolitionists Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth; feminists Susan B. Anthony and Jane Grey Swisshelm; and political wives Varina Davis and Mary Todd Lincoln. The anonymous women who maintained farms and plantations are described, as are camp followers, businesswomen, entertainers, activists, and socialites in Charleston and Washington.

Genres: History, Civil War, Nonfiction, American History, War

371 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1966

About the author

Mary Elizabeth Massey earned her B.A. degree from Hendrix College in 1937 and then her M.A. from the same institution three years later. She received her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1947. Massey taught high school in Arkansas in 1937–39 and then became head of the history department at Hendrix from 1940 to 1942. She became professor of history at Flora MacDonald College in Red Springs, North Carolina in 1942–44 and a teaching fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1944 to 1946. She was appointed as assistant professor at Winthrop College in Rock Hill, South Carolina, in 1947, promoted to associate professor three years later and then to full professor in 1954.

Reviews

[Ellen Spes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definately a dry historical novel. Footnoes on every page. Went way beyond the Civil War years. Still i learned a lot of facts and new womens stories.

[Wanda Casamento · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh My Goodness - this book was great- I learned so much. What I enjoyed about this book was the author lets you know what these people feel. from both sides the north and south. But what is interesting is what many of these women did to be with their husbands or to help men that are wounded. You get to see how they were treated also not only during the war but after.This is a must read Gentlemen I strongly suggest this book only because of the history that you can't afford to miss- there is stuff you might not know and like I said it covers both sides and women that were married to some that were interested in finding there brothers some were nurses and I don't want to give anything away. I was impressed all we did with so little technology, Wow is all I can say - I love a book that can give me a glimpse into someones life back in a time I never lived.

[Sheila Myers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most Civil War books focus on the men fighting the war. This is an interesting change of pace and tells about the role women played during that war.