Behind the Lines: Women of the Civil War

During the Civil War there were many opportunities for women to take up work and responsibilities that reached outside their everyday life. Many exceptional women decided to take on these responsibilities and venture outside the infamous "Sphere of Domesticity." This limiting Sphere included all the jobs women were expected to do such as cook, clean, raise their children, take care of the house and family, make clothes and be a good and faithful wife to their husband. This was the way for thousands of years. Clearly it was a big deal when women started to branch out beyond this sphere.

Dorothea Dix was one of the Civil War's new women. She was a nurse in hospitals during the war. Typically, this was a usual job for a women working in the war. However, she took on a position of major power. She organized the hospitals and doctors and was in charge of almost everyone who worked at her hospital. She was even ordering male doctors around. Women never held positions of power, so this was way beyond anything within the "Sphere of Domesticity." Another woman that was famous for her work during the Civil War was Rose O'Neal Greenhow. Working for the Confederate army, she used her feminine charm to attain information from the Union soldiers. She was one of the best and most well-known spies of her time. The information she attained was so valuable to the South, that she was highly respected and, at the time of her death, they held an elaborate funeral to honor her name. There were more spies just like her such as Belle Boyd. Occasionally, women who followed their husbands during the wars would cook and act as a nurse at army camps. However, they often wanted to do more and make a larger impact, so they decided to dress as a man and act as a soldier during the war. While some incredible women acted outside the "Sphere of Domesticity"during the war, others remained in it and managed to help their side.

The Cleveland Ladies Aid Society stayed at home and continued to take care of their children. All the while, they were gathering food and clothes and supplies to send to soldiers in care packages. On occasion, they were known to steal in order to attain these goods, but  they didn't do anything particularly unladylike. They continued to care for their families and run the household while they helped the soldiers. Other women would nurse in camps and hospitals. They didn't take on any leading positions, thus maintaining their roles inside the sphere.

Our class used a website called "Padlet" to show examples of what some specific, important women of the Civil War did and if she was within our outside the circle of domesticity. In groups we read articles about a certain women. We then drew a picture or collage of pictures that captured the important things about the woman and what she did. We took a quote from the article we read that we felt described the woman and we also briefly summarized who she was and her importance in the war. The following image is a small screenshot of part of the Padlet Wall.

Civil War Battles: On the Hunt for Answers

Our History class recently conducted a scavenger hunt around the school, trying to find out about important battles in the Civil War. The first thing we did was split up twenty battles among the students in our class. A few students had to pair up, most were on their own. Outside of class, we did some research to figure out the important details about our assigned battle. We looked up the theater (Eastern, Western,  or Naval), victor (Union or Confederate) and two important points having to do with why the outcome was the way it was. Using this information, we created a Google Doc and a QR code that would lead the our public Google Doc. In class the next day, we discussed where our battle would be placed around the school with the people who had the battles before or after us. We wrote directions to the next battle on the bottom of our Google Doc and started the Scavenger hunt! Each person would scan the QR code, read the information, copy it into a  note then follow the directions to the next station. After we finished the hunt, we gathered as a class to discuss the two Essential Questions on Padlet. The questions and links to Padlet are following:

Who were the ultimate victors in each theater?
What are some commonalities you can identify in the reasons for the results of the battles?

In the Western Theater, the Union armies were in control for most of the war winning five of six major battles in the West. They tended to lead incredibly successful sieges against Confederate soldiers in their forts. They often utilized their strong navy to weaken the Fort's defenses before the soldiers attacked. In battles like Battle of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, the Union set up gunboats around a Confederate fort and would weaken its defenses. They out soldiers around the Fort, particularly blocking escape routes. Unprepared and panicked Confederate soldiers couldn't break Union lines and get out. At the Battle of Shiloh, Union soldiers outnumbered Confederates 40,000 to 30,000. In the Battles for Chattanooga, William Sherman's Army arrived to help Ulysses S. Grant to escape a town the Confederates had cornered them in. With their back up soldiers, the Union ended up outnumbering the Confederates yet again.

At the start of the Civil War, the Confederates seemed to be ahead in the Eastern Theater. They seemed to have better leadership in the beginning of the war. Not only this, but they were familiar with the territory while Union invaders were not. In battles in during the beginning of the war like the First Battle of Bull Run, the Union Army made their first attempts at invading the South. This left them open to be attacked by Confederates who knew the country while they tried to figure out what the best way to maneuver and use the land was.
\However, at the turning point of the year (beginning of 1862), the Union began to win more battles in the Eastern Theater. They had become more accustom to the land at this point and started to use their numbers to their advantage. In the Battle of Spotsylvania, both the North and South lost many men. However, the North, outnumbering the South, was able to continue their campaign along another Front of Richmond.

While the Eastern Theater never remained under one side's control, there was never any question that the Naval Theater belonged to the Union. The Union simply had a more established navy with better ships. In the Battle of Hampton Roads, one of the Confederate's Iron Clads had broken its iron ram against a regular Union Warship. There was no clear winner between the Confederate and Union iron clads, but the South was forced to retire first due to damage it had sustained. In the Battle of Baton Rouge, Confederate's CSS Arkansas' engines failed preventing her from neutralizing Union gun boats. They failed again the next day, causing the ship's crew to blow her up. Union ships weren't nearly as notorious for engine failures and malfunctions as the Confederate ships were.

Weighing Risk and Worth in the Civil War

With the Civil War came hundreds of new technology and inventions. In 1860 alone, 240 patents were issued for things like railroad artillery and land mines. Military telegraphs became more common and people started seeing more clearly at further distances using telescopes. The first iron clad warships were created. They became beasts of the ocean, taking down any regular navy that dared face them. Repeating guns (forerunners to machine guns) were utilized by the Union. Musket manufacturers began rifling the barrel of the gun. The inch long bullet would spin as it left the muzzle, causing faster, more accurate shots. Soldiers now had the ability to kill from half a mile away and be accurate for up to 250yards, five times longer than any other one-man weapon before. Canon balls would shatter bone, leaving very little for doctors to work with often calling for amputation. All of these new inventions resulted in even deadlier warfare before. For those living in this time period, it left them wondering: is it worth it to fight for my country and risk such severe injury?

That answer could be found in the surgical developments of the time. Very few people lived long enough, after being hit in the head chest or stomach, to make it back to a field hospital for treatment. However, if there injuries weren't so severe that they died on the battlefield, surgeons had a surprisingly high success rate during the war. Doctors would use chloroform to knock a patient unconscious during the procedure. If the bone was shattered, the only thing that could be done was either an amputation or resection. A resection was more time consuming than an amputation. The doctor had to cut out the section if shattered bone, then, re-stitch the wound. Despite the greater amount of time it took and risk of profuse bleeding or infection, resections had a lower mortality rate than amputations.
So what is this mortality rate? Well, that all depends on the circumstances. It was essential tone treated as quickly as possible. Primary amputations (less than 48 hours after injury) had a mortality rate of 25%. However, secondary amputations (48+ hours after injury) had a much higher mortality rate, slightly over 50%. The higher the wound was on the body, the less likely one was to survive. The mortality rate of amputations for injuries on the upper thigh approached 50% and kept climbing, the higher on body the injury was. Despite these dark statistics, it is estimated that 3 of 4 soldiers survived amputation. Some even recovered well enough to return to war. The surgical process was becoming more and more precise. Very few people overdosed on the chloroform that was used. Doctors pulled out nerves in order to reduce future pain where the injury was, and they gave their patients opium pills or dust and injections to prevent post-operative pain. Some very talented doctors were even able to perform over 20 time consuming resections in 24 hours.

While injuries could be life-altering, painful, and at times fatal, medical procedures were far more advanced in the Civil War than they had ever been before. Some may not have wanted to risk it, but when fighting for your country, way of life and morals as strong as the Union was, taking the risk of being injured was well worth it. Especially when medical treatment was so comparatively reliable.

Slavery and Statistics In the Civil War

INFOGRAPHIC


Our infographic begins with a chart that shows resource percentages for the North and South in 1861. This was a hugely important statistic because it showed just how dependent the South was on farming. They produced over 90% of America's cotton and owned over 85% of America's slaves (they worked the cotton plantations). If slaves were freed, the South's economy would plummet along with their cotton plantations. However, the North was home to more Industrial workers, higher production of manufactured goods and manufacturing plants than the South. If the slaves were freed, they wouldn't be so dependent on them to run their economy, especially where they owned less than 15% of America's slaves. Not only this, but the high popularity and accessibility to manufacturing plants would make it easier for the North to make weapons during the war.
Also, the North's general population, railroad mileage and corn production was significantly higher  than that of the South. This meant several things, beginning with more funding for the war from a higher population. This also meant easier, more accessible transportation for both weapons and men during the war. Finally, it meant more food was available for the men fighting the war.

Next in the infographic came the motivations and strategies for each side. The with each motivation came a strong will to fight for what each side believed in. The Northern will came from a moral base while the Southern will came from a need to maintain a certain way of life.The Northern strategy allowed them to make the Southerners weak by the time actual fighting came around. The Southerners could do nothing until the fighting started and they would be weaker then because of the North cutting off their resources.

25% of families in the South owned slaves, 33% in the Deep South owned slaves and 50% of families in the MI and SC area owned slaves. What this mean for the war is that slavery was more deeply rooted in areas like MI and SC. If the North could over take the states in the densely slave populated areas of the country, it would really open up the rest of the South for an easier war.

Finally, we showed that 1,815,000 of the 2,500,000 slaves in the south worked on cotton plantations. The South produced over 90% of America's cotton meaning it was a huge part of their economy. If slaves were freed, the cotton industry would plummet, taking the South's economy with it.

In order to create this infographic, we had to closely analyze each given statistic and decide which was more important. In doing this, we were able to figure out what each statistic meant in the long run for both the North and South and how it could have motivated them or affected their ability to succeed in the Civil War.

Before the War, How it Started

During this project, our group had to research one specific event leading up to the Civil War that made an impact in the antebellum era. In class each group explored the projects created by the other groups. We looked through the primary sources that were assembled by each group. We learned about the background for each event, what happened during each and what kind of developments were caused in the conflict over slavery. The following link goes to the timeline my group created after looking through all of the projects.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-09KEuORDtNZHRkdXE3eVptTk5CQ2lUMjRVTmZqMWpPMmZr/edit?usp=sharing

The next link goes to my groups's prezi on John Brown and Harper's Ferry.

http://prezi.com/fkg1zbu8jf61/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share