Women at the Front: Hospital Workers in Civil War America

by Jane E. Schultz

Overview

As many as 20,000 women worked in Union and Confederate hospitals during America's bloodiest war. Black and white, and from various social classes, these women served as nurses, administrators, matrons, seamstresses, cooks, laundresses, and custodial workers. Jane E. Schultz provides the first full history of these female relief workers, showing how the domestic and military arenas merged in Civil War America, blurring the line between homefront and battlefront.

Schultz uses government records, private manuscripts, and published sources by and about women hospital workers, some of whom are familiar—such as Dorothea Dix, Clara Barton, Louisa May Alcott, and Sojourner Truth—but most of whom are not well-known. Examining the lives and legacies of these women, Schultz considers who they were, how they became involved in wartime hospital work, how they adjusted to it, and how they challenged it. She demonstrates that class, race, and gender roles linked female workers with soldiers, both black and white, but became sites of conflict between the women and doctors and even among themselves.

Schultz also explores the women's postwar lives—their professional and domestic choices, their pursuit of pensions, and their memorials to the war in published narratives. Surprisingly few parlayed their war experience into postwar medical work, and their extremely varied postwar experiences, Schultz argues, defy any simple narrative of pre-professionalism, triumphalism, or conciliation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807858196
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	02/26/2007
Series:	Civil War America
Edition description:	1
Pages:	376
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.84(d)

About the Author

Jane E. Schultz is professor of English, American studies, and women's studies at Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis.

Table of Contents

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part I On Duty

1 Women at the Front

2 Getting to the Hospital

3 Adjusting to Hospital Life

4 Coming into Their Own

Part II The Legacy of War Work

5 After the War

6 Pensioning Women

7 Memory and the Triumphal Narrative

Appendix: A Note on Historiography

Notes

Bibliography

Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

This is a wonderful text for anyone interested in women's lives during and in the aftermath of the American Civil War. With intelligible graphs and interesting photographs, and based heavily on original archival research, Schulz has produced a readable, hugely enjoyable and intellectually stimulating text which is to be highly commended for its scope, content and clarity.—Women's History Magazine



A valuable study that debunks many myths that have grown up around the 'angels of mercy' that ministered to the wounded of America's deadliest conflict. Women at the Front represents a solid contribution to the social history of the Civil War and, more specifically, to the role of women in that war. . . . [It] is an important work that embodies many of the best contributions of women's history to Civil War studies and should have an honored place on the shelf of any serious historian of this period.—Reviews in American History



In this ground breaking work, Jane Schultz shows how… women at the front tested the boundaries of race, of class, and of gender in their interactions with soldiers, coworkers, and medical supervisors.—Mexica Daily News



Schultz gives us the most complete picture that we have of the women who broke with convention to become military relief workers. . . . This book is a fascinating look at the women at the front and of the persistence of the domestic ideal during and after the Civil War.—Journal of Illinois History



In a magnificent book, Schultz has made these unknown participants in a central event visible to new generations of historians of wars and the Civil War, historians of women, and scholars of American Studies. General audiences who enjoy a fast-paced and excellently written story well-illustrated with informative tables, photographs, and other materials will also find the stories told here both fascinating and significant.—H-Minerva



This is a fresh look at a badly neglected subject. Based on extensive and creative research, Women at the Front is both an original and significant contribution to scholarship.—George C. Rable, University of Alabama

Editorial Reviews

"[An] absorbing and meticulously researched history, and a useful introduction to Civil War histories written in the early postwar period."
-- "Metascience"

"[A] thorough, insightful, and carefully written history. . . . Engrossing and enlightening."
-- "American Historical Review"

"[Schultz] alone has assiduously mined a treasure trove of . . . information. . . . [This] superlative book is invaluable and should be read and considered by everyone interested in the Civil War."
-- "Historian"

"Schultz has enriched the historiography on women's war experiences in general and on the formative role of gender . . . in this particular war."
-- "Military History of the West"

"This absorbing book recovers a largely unknown history of the twenty thousand women who served Confederate and Union hospitals during the Civil War. . . . [A] compelling . . . account that is both empathic and unsentimental toward [the] subjects. The result is a nuanced and thoughtful interpretation of women at the front."
-- "Journal of Southern History"

An example of the best aspects of modern Civil War scholarship.

"Civil War Times"

Jane Schultz has written a well-researched book that tells a compelling story.

"New England Journal of Medicine"

Schultz gives us the most complete picture that we have of the women who broke with convention to become military relief workers.

"Journal of Illinois History"

"Women at the Front" is a significant achievement.

Darlene Clark Hine, author of "Black Women in White: Racial Conflict and Cooperation in the Nursing Profession, 1890-1950"

Breaks new ground. . . . Highly recommended.

"Choice"

From the Publisher

5 Stars! from Doody

Reviewer: Doris Wisher, MLS, MA, AHIP (Touro University-Nevada)
Description: This is a book about women, 20,000 or more, regardless of race or social class, going to battle in hospitals against disease, infection, unsanitary conditions during the American Civil War. This is their story — who they were, how they came to this line of work, what they challenged, and how they adjusted to life during and after the war.
Purpose: The book gives voice to the mostly unknown and silent women from an important period of American history. Jane E. Schultz digs deep to reveal that women directly engaged military life via hospital and relief work and reveals stories of women who served this country and didn't receive much notice or credit. This book further analyzes the material and psychological conditions of women's war service after the war in terms of how they fared after the conflict ended, how and why they pursued military pensions, and how they memorialized the war.
Audience: Students of American history, scholars of history of medicine, nurses, health science professionals, physicians, medical educators and anyone interested in studying an unreported-until-now aspect of the American Civil War can benefit by reading this book.
Features: Part I covers the lives and deeds of the women while on duty in the hospitals and clinics, how they adjusted to this new work and work day and how they came into their own as a result. Part II describes, in illustrious detail, the legacy of the women's war work, how they sought their pensions and how they memorialized their wartime activities for posterity with monuments and personal narrative. The stunning photographs drive home the author's well-documented and researched message. Every picture tells a story and these speak volumes. The 87-page bibliography, as well as the comprehensive index, serves as icing on the cake for this marvelous work.
Assessment: This book provides a new way to look at the American Civil War through the "lens of gender." This is a lively and comprehensive read about the blurred line between homefront and battlefront, which will stick with readers long after the final page.

Doody's Review Service