Army at Home: Women and the Civil War on the Northern Home Front

Civil War America

by Judith Giesberg

Introducing readers to women whose Civil War experiences have long been ignored, Judith Giesberg examines the lives of working-class women in the North, for whom home front was a battlefield of its own.Black and white working-class women managed farms that had been left without a male head of household, worked in munitions factories, made uniforms, and located and cared for injured or dead soldiers. As they became more active in their new roles, they became visible as political actors, writing letters, signing petitions, moving (or refusing to move) from their homes, and confronting civilian and military officials. At the heart of the book are stories of women who fought the draft in New York and Pennsylvania, protested segregated streetcars in San Francisco and Philadelphia, and demanded a living wage in the needle trades and safer conditions at the Federal arsenals where they labored. Giesberg challenges readers to think about women and children who were caught up in

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Civil War, American History, United States, 19th Century, American Civil War

248 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2009

Reviews

[Teri · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a look at the effects of the Civil War on women in the North. Giesberg details six specific areas of Northern life that were indelibly changed by the war on the homefront. Areas discussed include the life of rural women who were forced to manage farms alone without husbands and sons, women and their families that were displaced when they were no longer able to make house payments and rents, women in the workplace including those young ladies who lost their lives in the Alleghany Arsenal explosion, freedwomen who began the early civil rights movement, middle-class and working women whose loyalties were divided due to oppressive working conditions and marginality, and women who were left to find and bury the men they lost on the battlefields. In the Conclusion, there is a discussion of how little women were memorialized after the war, unlike their southern counterparts. The author surmises that for the women of the north, the line was blurred between the war on the battlefields and the war raging back at home for the women left to carry on without help or hope.

I thought this was a very good read and quite eye-opening. It seems that when women of the Civil War are discussed, many people think of southern women, the "Scarlett O'Hara" romanticized ideal women depicted in so many Civil War movies and novels. This book gives an accurate portrait of the trials and tribulations of the women left to manage life on the homefront. These women were the army at home.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

This would be a good book to assign for a Civil War class. I think it would work for both advanced undergraduate students and graduate students.

[Maggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great extrapolation of James Scott. Looks at the mobilization of poor, immigrant and black women in the Civil War.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of all the books on Northern Civil War women this one explored the true home life beyond aid work and nursing which overcrowds so much of the genre. It explores a variety of aspects of everyday life that most Northern women struggled through. I definitely recommend it.

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great look into the lives of women during the American Civil War. The book gives a nice look into women of different backgrounds.

[S.Q. Eries · Rating 2 out of 5]

Contains interesting facts on how the civil war disrupted life for women in the North, but seems more a feminist treatise than a historical source.