Category: Civil War Women

Civil War Women
Civil War Spies, Civil War Women

Cyrena Bailey Stone

• Maggie

Union Civilian in the Civil War South A Unionist circle of women in Atlanta was led by Vermonter Cyrena Stone, who had moved there in 1854. Although the city was under military government, she and her pro-Union cohorts risked their lives to assist the escape of Union prisoners, to protect slaves, and to provide intelligence to General William Tecumseh Sherman‘s advancing army. Image: War Is Hell, by Mort Kunstler General William Tecumseh Sherman destroyed key military, rail and industrial sites with a blaze that gutted much of Atlanta. Early Years Cyrena Ann Bailey was born in 1830 in East Berkshire, Vermont, the fifth child of a Congregationalist minister Phinehas Bailey. Less than ten miles from the Canadian border and situated…

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Civil War Love Stories, Civil War Women

Stonewall and Anna: A Love Story

• Maggie

Passionate Love, Civil War and Tragic Loss The letters exchanged between General Stonewall Jackson to his wife Anna tell the story of this remarkable couple. Even in the midst of the most difficult military campaigns of the Civil War, the general made time to write extensive letters of love and devotion to his bride. Theirs was one of the great love stories of the war. Image: A Ride With Anna by John Paul Strain Riding along the bridle paths of Winchester in the stillness of the twilight Like many officers’ wives, Mary Anna Jackson traveled to winter encampments to be with her husband. In February 1862, she was at Winchester, Virginia, where they were able to spend several weeks together…

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Activists, Civil War Women, Educators

Mary Stafford Anthony

• Maggie

Educator and Suffragist Mary Stafford Anthony was the youngest sister of the famous social reformer and feminist Susan B. Anthony. Often overshadowed by her older sibling, Mary was a suffragist and educator who served as the first female school principal in western New York. She played an active role in several social reform organizations, including the New York Women’s Suffrage Association. Image: Mary Stafford Anthony At about 25 years of age Early Years Mary Stafford Anthony was born April 2, 1827 to Daniel and Lucy Read Anthony in Battenville, New York. Her parents had different religious beliefs; he was a liberal Quaker abolitionist. Although Lucy was a Baptist in her younger years, the Anthony children were raised as Quakers. Anthony…

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Civil War Hospitals, Civil War Women

Civil War Hospitals in Washington DC

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Caring for the Wounded in Our Nation’s Capital Federal General Hospitals The title of United States Army General Hospital applied to facilities where soldiers from any military unit, unlike Division or Corps Hospitals. Image: Harewood Hospital Washington DC From 1861 through 1865, General Hospitals treated more than one million soldiers with a mortality rate of only eight percent, the lowest ever recorded for military hospitals and better than many civilian facilities. Washington’s sixteen General Hospitals comprised nearly 30,000 beds. Harewood General Hospital In 1852 financier William Wilson Corcoran purchased 191 acres to use as a country estate east of the Seventh Street Turnpike and north of what is now McMillan Reservoir. In 1862 Harewood Hospital was built on Corcoran’s property…

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Civil War Nurses, Civil War Women

Mary Phinney

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Civil War Nurse Also known as Mary Phinney von Olnhausen, Mary Phinney was the widow of a Prussian nobleman when she served as a Civil War nurse at the Mansion House Hospital in Alexandria, Virginia. Her journals, published as Adventures of an Army Nurse in Two Wars, give a glimpse into the life of a Union nurse. Early Years Mary Phinney was born February 3, 1818 in Lexington, Massachusetts to lawyer Elias Phinney and Catherine Barlett Phinney, the daughter of a doctor. Mary was well educated at several academies. Mary received an excellent education at the Lexington Academy and Smith’s Academy in Waltham, and she worked on the family farm. In 1849, Elias Phinney died and the family sold the…

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Civil War Women

Ann Annis and the Sinking Sultana

• Maggie

Survivor of the Worst U.S. Marine Disaster Late in April of 1865, the Mississippi River stood at flood stage. Four years of war had ruined many levees, and the foaming water was over the banks for miles. More people died in the sinking of the steamboat Sultana than on the Titanic 47 years later, yet the tragic story is rarely mentioned in history books. Newspaper reports covered the latest event in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln: John Wilkes Booth had been killed at a Virginia farm the previous day – April 26, 1865. Marriage and Family At the age of 24 Ann met a young sea captain by the name of James Laird. They were married on December 29,…

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Abolitionists, African Americans, Civil War Women, Famous Firsts

Black Women Before the Civil War

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African American Women in Antebellum America Amid the harshness of slavery, American women of African descent managed to preserve the culture of their ancestry and articulate their struggles. Black female poets and writers emerged throughout the Civil War and Reconstruction eras. Many prominent free black women in the North were active in the Abolitionist Movement. Slave Women Enslaved women in every state of the antebellum Union undoubtedly considered escaping from bondage, but relatively few attempted it – often to avoid splitting up their families. Some bought their liberty with hard-earned money; others filed freedom suits and were declared free by the courts. Historian Deborah Gray White explains the life of slave women: “Black in a white society, slave in a…

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Civil War Cities, Civil War Women

Civil War New Orleans

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Largest City in the Confederate States of America New Orleans and its vital port became a major source of armament, supplies, and income to the Confederate Army. Its location near the mouth of the Mississippi River made the city an important and early target of the Union Army, which occupied the city for much of the war. New Orleans provided several leading officers and generals, including P.G.T. Beauregard and Harry T. Hays. Civil War Comes to New Orleans Late in 1861, Union authorities decided to send a flotilla of ships up the Mississippi River from New Orleans to meet the General Ulysses S. Grant‘s Union Army which was driving down the Mississippi valley behind a spearhead of armored gunboats. In…

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Civil War Women, Generals Wives

Julia Dubose Toombs

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Wife of Confederate General Robert Toombs Early Years Julia Ann Dubose was born May 15, 1813, in Lincoln County, Georgia. Her husband, Robert Toombs was born near Washington, Georgia, and the couple made their home in a stately mansion there for the rest of their lives. Robert was the first Secretary of State for the Confederate States of America and fought for the South as a general in the Civil War. Robert Toombs entered Franklin College at the University of Georgia in Athens when he was fourteen years old; he was expelled for bad behavior in 1827. He then enrolled at Union College in Schenectady, New York, where he graduated in 1828 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. The following…

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Civil War Art, Civil War Women

Hood’s Charge at Gaines’ Mill

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Largest Charge of the Civil War: Gaines’ Mill Image: Desperate Valor by Dale Gallon Brigadier General John Bell Hood leads the 4th Texas Regiment at the Battle of Gaines Mill and achieves the first breakthrough in the Union line. McClellan Threatens Richmond In early April 1862, USA General George B. McClellan‘s Army of the Potomac landed at the tip of the Virginia Peninsula between the York and James Rivers. This force of more than 100,000 Union soldiers then fought its way up the Virginia peninsula. McClellan planned to capture the capital of the Confederacy and perhaps end the war. By mid-May they had reached the outskirts of Richmond. Lee in Command When CSA General Joseph E. Johnston was severely wounded…

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