When we talk about the American Civil War, the mind usually goes straight to the mud, the muskets, and the bearded generals staring intensely into the distance. It’s all Gettysburg and Antietam. But honestly, if you look at the actual mechanics of how the North and South didn't just immediately implode, the answer to what did the women do during the civil war is basically everything the men couldn't.
They weren't just "waiting." That's a myth.
While the men were out in the fields, hundreds of thousands of women were keeping the entire infrastructure of the 1860s from falling apart. They were the supply chain. They were the medical department before the medical department actually existed. Some were even the ones pulling the triggers. It was a massive, chaotic, and often terrifying shift in what society expected from them.
The Front Lines and the Soldiers in Petticoats
Let’s get the most "action-movie" part out of the way first. You’ve probably heard stories about women disguised as men, but it wasn't just a few isolated cases. Estimates suggest at least 400 women—and likely many more whose secrets went to the grave—bound their breasts, cut their hair, and adopted aliases to fight.
Why? Sometimes it was for the $13 a month pay. Sometimes they just didn't want to be left behind by a husband or brother.
Take Jennie Hodgers. She enlisted as Albert Cashier in the 95th Illinois Infantry. She didn't just survive the war; she lived as a man for the next fifty years. It wasn't until a car accident in 1910 that a doctor realized Albert was Jennie. Then you have Sarah Wakeman, who served as Lyons Wakeman. Her letters home weren't about the "glory" of being a woman in a man's world; they were about the grit of soldiering. She died of dysentery, a common soldier's death, with her secret intact.
Then there’s the spying.
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Rose O’Neal Greenhow was a high-society widow in D.C. who used her social standing to pass secrets to the Confederacy. She's credited with helping the South win the First Battle of Bull Run. On the Union side, you had Mary Elizabeth Bowser, a formerly enslaved woman who allegedly worked in the Confederate White House, listening to Jefferson Davis’s dinner conversations and passing that intel right back to the North. That’s ice-cold bravery.
Nursing: From "Improper" to Essential
Before 1861, nursing wasn't really a "respectable" job for a woman. It was considered messy and, frankly, inappropriate for a lady to be around thousands of strange men in various states of undress.
The war changed that overnight.
Dorothea Dix, the Superintendent of Army Nurses for the Union, was famously strict. She actually demanded that her nurses be "plain-looking" and over 30 because she didn't want any romantic distractions in the wards. But then you have Clara Barton. She didn't wait for permission. She drove wagons of supplies right to the front lines while the cannons were still firing. She was literally wiping blood off her face while she worked. She eventually founded the American Red Cross, but her start was just one woman refusing to let soldiers bleed out in the dirt.
In the South, women like Phoebe Yates Pember took over the Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond. It was one of the largest hospitals in the world at the time. She had to deal with more than just wounds; she had to fight off crooked surgeons and guards who tried to steal the hospital’s medicinal whiskey. She actually kept a pistol in her pocket to protect the supplies.
The Home Front was a Battlefield Too
So, what did the women do during the civil war if they weren't at the front? They ran the world.
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In the North, women stepped into government clerkships and factory jobs. They made the cartridges that the soldiers fired. They sewed the uniforms. In the South, where the blockade made everything scarce, women had to become chemists and engineers. They figured out how to make ink from soot and coffee from acorns.
It wasn't all "patriotic sewing circles." It was desperate survival.
In 1863, the Bread Riots broke out in Richmond. Women, tired of seeing their children starve while speculators hiked up prices, marched to the governor’s mansion. When they didn't get answers, they started smashing windows and taking what they needed. It took Confederate soldiers threatening to fire on them to get the crowd to disperse. It’s a side of the "Southern Belle" narrative that history books often gloss over.
The Transformation of the Enslaved
For Black women, the war wasn't just about preserving a Union or a Confederacy; it was about the immediate possibility of freedom. When the Union Army moved into Southern territory, thousands of enslaved women fled to Union camps. They were often classified as "contraband."
These women worked as laundresses, cooks, and scouts. Harriet Tubman is the name everyone knows, and for good reason. She didn't just lead people on the Underground Railroad; during the war, she was a literal spy and scout for the Union. She even led an armed raid—the Combahee River Raid—which liberated over 700 people. She was the first woman in U.S. history to lead a military assault.
The Relief Societies and the Power of the Purse
If you want to talk about the real "engine" of the war, look at the United States Sanitary Commission. It was a private relief agency, but women ran the local branches. They organized "Sanitary Fairs" that raised millions of dollars.
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They weren't just baking pies. They were managing logistics that would make a modern CEO sweat. They shipped tons of fresh vegetables to the front to fight scurvy. They organized the transport of the wounded. They essentially created the blueprint for modern civilian-military coordination.
Without this massive, grassroots effort, the death toll from disease—which was already double the number of battle deaths—would have been significantly worse.
Life After the Smoke Cleared
When the war ended in 1865, things didn't just "go back to normal." You can't tell a woman who ran a 500-acre plantation or managed a government office for four years that she’s suddenly incapable of having a political opinion.
The suffrage movement got its second wind after the war. Women like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who had been active in the abolitionist movement, began to pivot. They argued that if women could die for their country and keep its economy afloat during a total war, they deserved the right to vote.
The Civil War cracked the door open. It would take another fifty years to swing it wide, but the precedent was set in the 1860s.
Actionable Insights: Learning from the Past
If you’re looking to truly understand this era beyond the surface level, don't just read the big biographies of Lincoln or Lee. Dig into the primary sources.
- Read the Diaries: Look for the writings of Mary Chesnut (South) or the letters of Sarah Wakeman (North). They provide a raw, unpolished look at daily life that textbooks miss.
- Visit the Small Museums: Places like the National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick, Maryland, offer an incredible look at the roles women played in field hospitals.
- Acknowledge the Nuance: Don't fall for the "Angel of the Battlefield" trope. These women were humans—they were angry, tired, politically motivated, and sometimes just trying to make a buck.
- Trace the Lineage: See how the organizations started by these women—like the Red Cross or various veterans' aid societies—evolved into the NGOs we see today.
The reality of what did the women do during the civil war is that they were the hidden scaffolding of the entire conflict. They were spies, soldiers, nurses, and rioters. They didn't just witness history; they were the ones making sure there was a country left to have a history once the fighting stopped.