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During the Civil War women were needed to do more things than usual. They were needed to work in factories, farm, join volunteer brigades, and sign up to work as nurses.

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“True women” devoted their lives to creating a clean, comfortable, and nurturing home for their husbands and children. They didn't go out and work like the men in the family.

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Dorothea Dix and a hastily assembled group of volunteer female nurses staged a march on Washington, demanding that the government recognize their desire to aid the Union’s wounded. Despite such responsibilities, however, neither she nor her nurses were granted military appointments.She steadfastly denied admission to nuns or other representatives of religious sisterhoods. Despite these stringent requirements, some 2,000 women across the country laid aside their cherished jewels and laces to pass Dix’s austere muster.

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The government agreed to create “a preventive hygienic and sanitary service.” called the United States Sanitary Commission. The Sanitary Commission’s primary goal was to fight preventable diseases and infections by improving conditions in army camps and hospitals. It also worked to provide relief to sick and wounded soldiers.

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Throughout the war, ‘Mother’ Bickerdyke moved from one trouble spot to another, acting on her belief that bodies healed best when they were bathed, placed in clean surroundings, and fed well. She evinced a special concern for enlisted men and stopped at nothing to get supplies that would bring comfort to her ‘boys.’ She begged food from any viable source, raided government supplies–often without permission–and commandeered boxes of delicacies sent from home to healthy soldiers. Many times, when government rations were waylaid or ran out, she found a way to feed the troops. Her tireless zeal earned her the nickname ‘Cyclone in Calico.’

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The three Woolsey women used their social position to obtain prodigious amounts of supplies and other necessities for the wounded. At one point, Georgy personally delivered to the White House a letter she had written to President Lincoln, imploring him to send chaplains to the military hospitals. He promptly named seven new chaplains.

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The nurses of the Civil War left a heritage far beyond a country’s gratitude for bodies salvaged and spirits renewed. Observing the difference they had made, both the public and the medical community finally came to recognize nursing as a legitimate profession.

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Clara Barton, who later founded the American Red Cross, brought supplies and help to the battlefronts before relief organizations could take shape to administer such shipments. Acting entirely on her own, Barton personally collected food, clothing and medical supplies for the hard-pressed Union Army after the Peninsula campaign in 1862. She later served in a similar capacity at other engagements.

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Ropes became the matron of the Union Hotel Hospital located in the Washington, D.C., neighborhood of Georgetown, where Louisa May Alcott also served. In her book Hospital Sketches, Alcott described Ropes’ actions as casualties arrived from the Battle of Fredericksburg: ‘The hall was full of these wrecks of humanity…and, in the midst of it all, the matron’s motherly face brought more comfort to many a poor soul, than the cordial draughts she administered, or the cheery words that welcomed all, making the hospital a home.’

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Early in the war, Tubman was asked to help nurse in the military camps. She moved from one camp to another throughout the war, using her nursing skills and extensive knowledge of the healing properties of roots and herbs. Tubman rarely accepted the military rations that were offered to her, preferring to support herself by making baked goods and selling them in the camps. She gave any extra money to the free men who often sought refuge in the camps. Late in life, she was awarded a military pension, and when she died in 1913, she was given a military funeral.

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Taylor’s book is filled with details of camp hospital life. She recalled making custard of milk and turtle eggs for the wounded in a camp on Morris Island, and she described warming her tent at night with an iron pan full of coals from the cook shed. She reported that fleas often kept her awake all night. She served for four years and three months in Union Army hospitals without receiving either pay or a formal appointment. After the war, she was granted no government pension or recognition for her nursing services. Still, she wrote, ‘I was glad…to go with the regiment, to care for the sick and afflicted comrades.’

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The nurses of the Civil War left a heritage far beyond a country’s gratitude for bodies salvaged and spirits renewed. Observing the difference they had made, both the public and the medical community finally came to recognize nursing as a legitimate profession. Women such as the Woolseys and Clara Barton translated their experience in Civil War hospitals into reforms in both nursing science and the education of nurses.

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http://www.history.com/topics/women-in-the-civil-war

http://www.historynet.com/women-in-the-civil-war#soldiers

http://www.historynet.com/civil-war-nurses

http://www.hektoeninternational.org/Journal_NursingduringCivilWar.html