Category: Civil War Women Working

Women at the U.S. Treasury Department Image: Lady Clerks Leaving the Treasury Department at Washington This illustration was published February 18, 1865, in Harper’s Weekly. During the Civil War, the Department of the Treasury in Washington, DC hired women workers to fill clerical positions vacated by men who had left to fight with the Union Army. Until that time, clerking was strictly a male occupation. Believing women were particularly well-suited for the task, the Treasurer of the United States assigned them to hand-cut paper money, usually printed in amounts of four bills per sheet. Backstory Prior to 1790, the ground now covered by magnificent public and private buildings and known as the City of Washington, was part of a Maryland…

Civil War Women Working in Hospitals In Union hospitals, the term matron referred to the woman who had the responsibility of supervising the wards in general hospitals – large military facilities in Northern cities, far away from the battlefields. Running hospitals during the war taught women that they could be leaders, and that the limitations society placed on them could sometimes be changed. Union Hotel Hospital Washington, DC The Union Hotel and Tavern, built in Washington, DC in 1796, hosted many prominent citizens through the years including Robert Fulton, George Washington and John Quincy Adams. By the time of the Civil War, this once glorious hotel had become a boarding house. On May 6,1861, John Waters, the proprietor of the…

General Sherman Deported Women from the South In July 1864, approximately 400 mill workers in Georgia – nearly all women, were taken prisoner by the Union Army. They were then put on trains headed North, and few of them ever made their way back home. They would be referred to as Factory Hands or Roswell Women in the Official Records. Image: Roswell Mill Women Backstory During the summer of 1864, the Union Army under the leadership of General William Tecumseh Sherman advanced toward Atlanta, Georgia. The two armies faced off at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain (June 27, 1864). Sherman discovered that the Confederate forces were too well entrenched so he cut his losses and continue toward Atlanta. The Chattahoochee…

Civil War Women in the Arsenals On September 17, 1862, seventy-eight girls and young women were killed in an explosion at the Allegheny Arsenal in the Lawrenceville section of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – the worst civilian disaster of the Civil War. The deaths of these young women were given little press coverage because the Battle of Antietam was fought the same day. This post is dedicated to their memory. Image: Allegheny Arsenal Laboratory Building (circa 1870) and the Stone Road Employment at the arsenal enticed young girls, widows, mothers and wives who were struggling to support their families while their husbands, brothers, fathers and sons were fighting in the Union Army. Most relied on community members such as physicians and clergyman…