Women in the War
By: Alyssa Torres
Yes, its true! There are women helping as nurses for wounded soldiers, spying on the Confederates, and actually serving in the war!
Dorothea Dix asked officials if women could help as nurses, and they gave her permission. Women are helping the wounded soldiers. Between 3,000 and 8,000 women volunteered to be nurses. Women who volunteered wanted no pay. Mrs. M.J. Boston said to the surgeon, she was working under, “I do not want any pay for my services.” The nurses were called “The Angels of the Battlefield.”
They're also spying on the Confederacy! They get the details about their strategies. Harriet Tubman, a former slave that lead a group of escaped slaves to freedom, was also a Union spy! Harriet was recruited by officers to get a network of all former slave spies in South Carolina. Even Southerners spied for the Union! Elizabeth Van Lew, a Pro-Union Southerner, spied for the Union. She took clothes, food, and medicine to the prisoners at Confederate Libby Prison and gave General Grant information.
Women enlisted in the army and fought for the Union too! Women had their ways of getting in. They would cut their hair and dress like men. All they needed were three fingers, their front teeth, and a gun and they were ready to fight. Mary Livermore, of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, knew about women soldiers, and she wasn't the only one. If a women was wounded in action that's when they would be discovered to be women. A lot of women are secretly enlisting in the Union as men.
Dorothea Dix asked officials if women could help as nurses, and they gave her permission. Women are helping the wounded soldiers. Between 3,000 and 8,000 women volunteered to be nurses. Women who volunteered wanted no pay. Mrs. M.J. Boston said to the surgeon, she was working under, “I do not want any pay for my services.” The nurses were called “The Angels of the Battlefield.”
They're also spying on the Confederacy! They get the details about their strategies. Harriet Tubman, a former slave that lead a group of escaped slaves to freedom, was also a Union spy! Harriet was recruited by officers to get a network of all former slave spies in South Carolina. Even Southerners spied for the Union! Elizabeth Van Lew, a Pro-Union Southerner, spied for the Union. She took clothes, food, and medicine to the prisoners at Confederate Libby Prison and gave General Grant information.
Women enlisted in the army and fought for the Union too! Women had their ways of getting in. They would cut their hair and dress like men. All they needed were three fingers, their front teeth, and a gun and they were ready to fight. Mary Livermore, of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, knew about women soldiers, and she wasn't the only one. If a women was wounded in action that's when they would be discovered to be women. A lot of women are secretly enlisting in the Union as men.
