Women's History Month

Confederate Spy Belle Boyd Library of Congress

​Most study of the Civil War revolves around the men who initiated, persecuted and concluded the war.  After all, men were the politicians, and the generals; the newspaper editors and the soldiers.  It is only natural that the military history should focus on men.
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The Civil War came during the Victorian era, when most women were striving to conform to a version of womanhood that centered on home and hearth.  But the narrow definitions of a woman’s role in society changed dramatically with the advent of war.  Women became nurses, a traditionally male duty before the war.  Women used their wit, charm and guile to steal states’ secrets as spies.   Women bound their breasts, cut their hair and donned the uniform to fight as soldiers. And even those women who stayed behind on the home front had to expand their duties to include working the land and running the family business.

​This month, in honor of Women’s History Month, we will explore how women redefined their roles in society by entering traditionally male worlds during the most trying time of the county’s history.