Men weren't the only people to play a large role in the Civil War.Women also did a lot to help. Some became nurses and helped those who were fighting. Others dressed as men and did some of the fighting themselves. Both the Northern and the Southern armies did not allow women to enlist. Any woman who wanted to fight had to dress as a man. The women would also change their names. Because of this, it is hard to say exactly how many women joined an army and fought in the Civil War.When anyone, man or woman, enlisted in the army, he or she had a very simple medical exam. Also, proof of who they claimed to be was not asked for. Most women were not discovered until they were injured or killed.After the battle of Gettysburg, one woman was found dead on the field. It was July 17, 1863. Based on where her body was found, she probably took part in Pickett's Charge. In 1934, a grave was found outside Shiloh National Military Park. There were nine skeletons in the grave, and one of them was female. The identities of these two women will probably never be known. Florena Budwin was a woman who disguised herself as a man. She wanted to go to war with her husband.They were both captured and sent to Andersonville Prison. He was either killed or died there. She was sent to the Florence Stockade. While there, a doctor discovered she was actually a woman. She was removed from the Stockade but died from pneumonia. She was only twenty. She is known as the first woman buried in a national cemetery. Women did not only fight. They helped after the fighting was over. At first, men did not want the women to be nurses. The men felt that the horrors of war would be too much for them to stand. Of course, the women proved them wrong.When more and more wounded men began to arrive at hospitals, it was easier to find more nurses than doctors.Doctors were overwhelmed with the number of injured. The women nurses did many of the jobs that doctors did not have time to do.The women saw all of the horrors of war. Every day they faced disease, amputations, and dying soldiers. They worked harder than they had ever worked in their lives, and most of them would not have given up the job for anything. Nurses helped the doctors with surgeries and with amputations. They would feed soldiers who couldn't feed themselves and help them write letters to their families. They often talked to soldiers who were dying and pushed many of them not to give up fighting.Women also fought to keep their hospitals clean. Their hard work and willingness to fight for the injured men probably saved many lives.Louisa May Alcott is best known as the author of Little Women. During the Civil War, she was also a nurse in a hospital in Washington, D.C. She worked there until 1863 when she caught typhoid from one of the patients.While recovering, she wrote a book about what she had seen and done during her time in the hospital.Another famous nurse was Mary Ann Bickerdyke. She became known as Mother Bickerdyke. During her time nursing in the Civil War, she did everything she could to take care of "her boys." Thirty years after her service in the war, she was awarded a pension for the rest of her life.Women may not have changed the war. They didn't win battles. What they did do is show that women could fight next to men. They also showed that women could be nurses. The women nurses did so well that nursing became an accepted job for women after the Civil War.
