Women in the Civil War: Extraordinary Stories of Soldiers, Spies, Nurses, Doctors, Crusaders, and Others

When the Civil War broke out, women answered the call for help. They broke away from their traditional roles and served in many capacities, some of them even going so far as to disguise themselves as men and enlist in the army. Estimates of women disguising themselves as men and enlisting range from 400 to 700 and records indicate that approximately 60 women soldiers were known to have been killed or wounded. More than sixty women who fought or who served the Union or Confederacy in other important ways are featured in this work. Among those included are Sarah Thompson, the Union spy and nurse who brought down the famous raider John Hunt Morgan; Elizabeth Van Lew, the Union spy who was instrumental in the success of the largest prison break of the Civil War; Sarah Malinda Blalock, who fought for the Confederacy as a soldier and then for the Union as a guerrilla raider; Dr. Mary Walker, a doctor for the Union and the only woman to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor for her service during the Civil War; and Jennie Hodgers, who had the longest length of service for any woman soldier, was the only woman to receive a soldier’s pension and the first woman to vote in Illinois.