Women in the Civil War: Warriors, Patriots, Nurses, and Spies

by Phyllis Raybin Emert (Editor)

From freedom fighters and spies to volunteer nurses and patriots on the homefront, women of the North and South served critical and largely unexamined roles in the Civil War. Through a collection of original source documents and the words of the women engaged on both sides of the conflict, Women in the Civil War depicts women's key roles and illuminates what life was like during the historic struggle for the future of the United States. This volume includes excerpts from journals, letters, and other writings of women such as Harriet Beecher Stowe, Confederate spy Belle Boyd, Louisa May Alcott, nurse "Mother" Bickerdyke, and Mary Boykin Chestnut.

84 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Phyllis Raybin Emert is a published author and an editor of children's books and young adult books. Some of the published credits of Phyllis Raybin Emert include Art in Glass (Eye on Art), Attorneys General: Enforcing the Law (In the Cabinet), Strangest of Strange Unsolved Mysteries, Vol. 1 (Strangest of Strange Unsolved Mysteries).

Reviews

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since women were officially forbidden from combat roles in the American Civil War, there is little mentioned regarding their contribution to the war effort. Unlike later wars when women moved into the factory jobs vacated by the men in combat and most nurses were women, most of what appears in the history books consists of their sitting at home and worrying.
This book is an attempt to right some of those wrongs. Some of the most effective spies on both sides were female and there were a few women that posed as men and engaged in combat. At a time when most medical caregivers were male, a few women helped the wounded ease their suffering, or in the worst cases, aided their passing.
While nearly all of the direct war effort was performed by men, there were some women that contributed. These 21 short biographies of women in the civil war demonstrate that there was a small, but significant contribution from women.

[M · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting little book that introduces readers to many important female figures from the Civil War, their histories, and the impact they made.

[Mo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I quite enjoyed this! I really appreciated that they had first hand accounts from nearly every woman that was in this book, though I also think I would have appreciated learning more about the women and their lives. I do suppose that the book would have been much longer, though, so I understand why that wasn't the case. I also think I would have perhaps garnered more information from it if I knew more about the Civil War, but I feel this would be true no matter what subject this book was discussing and that it, nonetheless, was a good piece of introductory material.