By Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D. FAAP Doctor Eisman is in Family Practice in Aventura, Florida with her partner, Dr. Eugene Eisman, an internist/cardiologist
Women from all over the country volunteered to serve in the Civil War.
They were cooks.
They were laundresses.
They were seamstresses.
Many of them were nurses
The Civil War Era (1851-1865) was a difficult time for women to be assertive and follow whatever career path they chose. They were expected to pursue domestic activities.
Ignoring the Victorian “Cult of Domesticity,” many brave women enlisted as men.
Secretly disguising themselves: they cut off their hair, bound their chests, smoked, changed their names, learned to lower their voices and wore uniforms.
And they fought on the battlefield.
Why did they want to pass as a man? Why start drinking and smoking, chewing tobacco, being uncomfortable in their clothing?
For some of them, it must have been economic. Leigh Stein on Slate writes: “A maid in New York at the time could earn $4 to $7 a month for her services; a Union soldier got $13 a month.”
Many were simply patriotic women.
Some wanted to face the same perils as their husbands and fathers.
These women were well aware of the dangers. And they did it—risking loss of limbs, death and horrible disease. And along with all of these challenges, they were constantly alert to keeping their identity secret.
Others just wanted adventure and the Victorian Era of a woman’s’ place mired in domesticity did not give them many opportunities.
How many women enlisted as men?
Maybe as many as one thousand women secretly joined the Confederate and Union armies. Of course we don’t have an exact number—it was all done undercover.
Some of these women were exposed; not because their fellow soldiers realized they were women –but because they went into labor and delivered a baby.
The disguised women were not surprised, but their comrades were stunned when a fellow soldier gave birth!
Colonel Adrian root from the 94th New York Infantry wrote a letter to his mother about a corporal with severe abdominal pain. Susan Kay Bierle in Emerging Civil War quotes from the letter: “A corporal of a New Jersey regiment…complained of being unwell, but little notice was given his complaints at first. His pain and other symptoms of severe indisposition increased, becoming so evident that his officers had him carried to a nearby farmhouse. There the worthy corporal was safely delivered of a fine, fat little recruit for the…regiment!”
Men quickly enlisted when the Civil War broke out. Women saw opportunities to ermerge from the “cult of domesticity” as historians referred to their place in society.
Chopping off their hair, binding their breasts, lowering their voices, drinking, smoking cigarettes, cigars and chewing snuff, in a man’s uniform–and….so they fought!
THE DOUBLE PHOTO IS OF FRANCES CLAYTON IN HER NORMAL DRESS AND AS A SOLDIER.. AFTER HER HUSBAND WAS KILLED, SHE STEPPED OVER HIS BODY AND KEPT ON FIGHTING.
Dr. Curmudgeon suggests “Bitter Medicine”, Dr. Eugene Eisman’s story of his experiences–from the humorous to the intense—as a young army doctor serving in the Vietnam War.
Bitter Medicine by Eugene H. Eisman, M.D. –on Amazon
Doctor Curmudgeon® is Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D., a physician-satirist. This column originally appeared on SERMO, the leading global social network for doctors.
SERMO www.sermo.com
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