Michigan Women of the Civil War

A Presentation of Sloan-Longway

Created by Kathryn Benard

Things to Remember…

• Women were not yet allowed to vote• Women were not allowed to own

property• Women were not allowed to work in

many job areas

Sarah Emma Edmonds• Was one of about 400 women who were able to disguise themselves and enlist in either armies during the Civil War.• Used the name Franklin Thompson• was born in Nova Scotia but ran away from home at 19, and settled in Flint, Michigan to sell Bibles.• after 4 tries, succeeded in enlisting with the Union Army• became a nurse with the Second Volunteers of the United States Army• She then became a spy for the Union Army• Contracted malaria and had to desert the army to seek medical attention as a woman. Upon her recovery, Pvt. Frank Thompson was listed as a deserter, and therefore had to present herself as a woman and work as a nurse for the remainder of the war.• After the war wrote a book entitled Nurse and Spy in the Union Army. She gave all profits to the Union Army.• Then she became homesick for Canada, and returned there. • She married and moved back to the United States. First to Ohio, then Texas.• Considered a deserter by many she appealed her case to Congress receiving honorable discharge for her services.• Is the only female member of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), an organization formed after the war by Union veterans.

Courtesy of Captain Barbara A. Wilson, USAF (Ret.)

•What do you think about a woman in combat?

•Would impersonation in the military today be tolerated?

United States Sanitary Commission• The commission what founded, in part by President Lincoln, in 1861• Was to promote clean and healthier conditions for the soldiers• Many of the ladies became staff in field hospitals, raised money and

supplies, provided food and shelter for soldiers returning home, and after the war advocated for veterans rights

• Strictly a volunteer operation• Raised about $5 million in cash and $15 million in supplies• The South did not have such an organized group• Women included those such as Louisa May Alcott, Dorothea Dix, Julia Ward

Howe, and Clara Barton• Commission was the forerunner to the American Red Cross• Flint had its own local association of sanitary ladies, the Ladies Aid Society,

which later became the Ladies of the United States Sanitary Commission, led in part by Arabella Rankin.

•What is the significance of the sanitary commission? •Was the commission important? Why or why not?•What types of things did the commission do to help the war efforts?

Arabella Rankin, Flint• Came to America from Dublin, Ireland in 1848. She and her husband were set out for

Wisconsin but settled in Flint because of the unusual kindness they received from its people.• Helped her husband with “The Wolverine Citizen”, a weekly Flint newspaper that they

published and ran.• Helped establish the Ladies’ Library Association, and set up a small library in Flint.• Lost her oldest son Charles in the war when he died of a fever in 1861. He had been part of

the 2nd Michigan Infantry.• Arabella and her daughters started their aid campaign by sewing uniforms. It quickly

transgressed into much more, collecting and sending food, and housing those injured and returning home.

• One slogan of the group included persuasions such as “Send your sweetheart an onion or potato” instead of a letter!

• Was one of the founders of the United States Sanitary Commission and the American Red Cross

Clara Barton• Was a very, very shy girl!• When her older brother became very ill, she

learned how to administer all of his medical needs.• She then became a teacher in a young age,

teaching in Massachusetts and New Jersey• Set up one of the first public schools in New Jersey• When a male was appointed principal in her place,

she resigned, moving to Washington in 1854. There she became the first woman to work at the Patent Office

• Helped establish groups such as the United States Sanitary Commission

• Served in some of the grimmest, bloodiest battlefields in the American Civil War

• Helped identify the 13,000 unknown dead Union soldiers, leading her to campaign to identify missing soldiers.

• Helped found the American Red Cross, becoming its first director.

Photo Courtesy of The National Park Service

Harriet Beecher Stowe• American abolitionist and author• Born in Connecticut, mother passing away when

she was only 4 years old.• Was educated in her sister’s seminary, receiving a

traditionally male education• At 21 moved to Cincinnati, Ohio to join her father,

the president of a seminary there• Married Calvin Stowe, a professor at that

seminary. He was a major critic of slavery.• Together they supported the Underground Railroad

and housed slaves in their home. They later moved to Maine.

• In 1850, Congress had passed the Fugitive Slave Law. This law prohibited assitsing fugitive slaves. This prompeted Harriet to write.

• In 1851 she wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The book is an anti-slavery work. It is said that her book helped begin the dispute over slavery (North vs. South). It is said that President Lincoln once said to her “So you are the woman who started the war!”.

Photo Courtesy of Leroy Pletton

Rose O’Neal Greenhow• Born in Maryland but moved to her aunt’s

boardinghouse in Washington, D.C.• Easily became a socialite among the political life • Married Robert Greenhow and had four

daughters• Was friends with presidents, congressmen, and

all sorts of people• Became close friends with John C. Calhoun, loyal

to the South• When the war broke out Rose, a now widow,

became a spy for the Confederacy.• Suspected of espionage she was imprisoned in

1861. In 1862 after her trial, she was deported to Richmond.

• That summer, Jefferson Davis sent her to Europe as a courier… there she collected intelligence.

• In 1864, she boarded a vessel and made her way back to the American South. Her ship was chased forcing it to ground on a sandbar.

• Rose convinced the captain to send her and two others to shore on the ship’s lifeboat to escape. The lifeboat overturned and Rose drowned carrying $2,000 in gold she carried.

Photo Courtesy of www.civilwarhome.com

Susan B. Anthony• Was the second of seven children, born in

Massachusetts• Attended a boarding school in Pennsylvania

and had to leave to teach and earn money to pay her father’s debt (obtained in the panic of 1837). She taught until 1949 when her father asked her to come home to run the family farm so he could build an insurance business.

• The family was well known amongst abolitionist leaders. Her home was even visited by Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison.

• Her family attended the first women’s rights convention at Seneca Falls

• Campaigned for the abolition of slavery and for women’s rights.

• After the abolition of slavery with the passing of the 13th Amendment, Susan continued to fight for women’s suffrage until her death in 1906.

Photo Courtesy of the Susan B. Anthony House

•How were women important in their roles during the Civil War?

References

• Clara Barton, 1821-1912: Civil War Nurse: Founder American Red Cross. (n.d.) Retrieved March 9, 2010 from http://americancivilwar.com/women/cb.html

• Clara Barton at Antietam. (n.d.) Retrieved March 9, 2010 from http://www.nps.gov/anti/historyculture/clarabarton.htm

• Garrison, Nancy Scripture. (1999). With Courage and Delicacy. Mason City, Iowa: Savas Publishing Company.

• Markle, Donald E. (2004, August). Spies and Spymasters of the Civil War, http://www.civilwarhome.com/edmondsbio.htm

• Pletton, Leroy, J. (1999). Harriet Beecher Stowe: Religious Basis for Opposing Slavery, medicolegal.tripod.com/stowesummary.htm

• Relates Story of Woman Soldier. (1959, February 26). The Flint Journal, p. 24.• Rose O’Neal Greenhow. (n.d.) Retrieved March 24, 2010 from http://

www.civilwarhome.com/greenhowbio.htm• ‘Send Sweetheart an Onion’ Was a Civil War Slogan. (January 6, 1945). The Milwaukee Journal”

Victory Edition, page 1.• Susan B. Anthony (n.d.) Retrieved March 24, 2010 from http://

www.notablebiographies.com/An-Ba/Anthony-Susan-B.html• Susan B. Anthony House (n.d.) Retrieved March 24, 2010 from http://

www.susanbanthonyhouse.org/biography.shtml• Wilson, Captain Barbara A. (1996-2006). Women Were There,

http://userpages.aug.com/captbarb/femvets2.html• Woman Served in War as a Man. (1911, May 31). The Flint Daily Journal, page unknown.