University Place  John Zimm Wisconsin Women in the War Between the States  March 18, 2014 UP997   cc >> We are pleased to introduce historian John Zimm as part of the Wisconsin Historical Museum's History Sandwiched In Lecture Series. The opinions expressed today are those of the presenters and not necessarily those of the Wisconsin Historical Society or the museum's employees. John Zimm received a BA in History from the University of Wisconsin Madison and has worked for the Wisconsin Historical Society Press since 2002. Today John will be discussing the book, "Wisconsin Women in the War Between the States," which was first published in 1911 by Ethel Alice Hurn. Now available in a facsimile reprint this book documents the important and often overlooked contributions of Wisconsin women during the Civil War. Please join me in welcoming John Zimm to the stage. [applause]  >> Wow, full house today. Well stole my thunder, I was going to say I've been working with the Historical Society Press since 2002. A couple of years ago I had my own book on the Civil War, "This Wicked Rebellion," it's a collection of letters, plus I'm here today to talk about another really fantastic book. It's less than 200 pages, but it's packed full of a lot of information, a lot of different anecdotes and whatnot. 

Talking about a surprising amount of things that women were doing during the Civil War in Wisconsin. Ethel Hurn will get into a whole lot more detail than I'll be able to today, but I'll just outline a few of the major areas of activity that women were engaged in during the war. I'll do a quick little review of the Civil War because to get started here I'm sure that this is stuff you all know already, but in 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States. Usually not a big deal, but hearing the loss of their political power southern states began to secede shortly thereafter. One by one they left the Union, decided to start their own country and in the Spring of 1861 attacked Fort Sumpter. Shortly thereafter we have young men all over the north and in Wisconsin trying to sign up to join the Army to put down the rebellion. Now interestingly in the first part of the war you hear a lot of places saying that the war was going to be short and almost bloodless. Very early, only a few days after Fort Sumpter was attacked, Governor Alexander Randall sent a, excuse me, issued a Proclamation to the Patriot Women of Wisconsin in which he said, "I know you'll respond cheerfully to my request that you contribute your aid in the present crisis in the way of preparing lint and bandages for the use of the Army. A much larger amount of such necessaries for an Army may be prepared that may be required by the sons of Wisconsin, but in the long war likely to follow there may be thousands who will require such kindness." If he only knew. "It is your country and your government as well as theirs that is now in danger and you can give strength and courage and warm sympathies and cheering words to those who go to do battle for all that is dear to us here. 

Bitter as the parting maybe to many I am assured that you will bid them go bravely forward for God and liberty to return with their shields that are on them. I commend the soldiers to your kindness, encouragement, and prayers with full confidence that when an occasion calls many, very many, Florence Nightingales will be found in our goodly land."  As Governor Randall noted there is a place for women to be busy during the war and to help support the war effort. One way was supporting the Army in various and sundry ways. Now at the beginning of the war there were these war rallies, young men who had already decided to enlist would be paraded through a certain town, usually they would gather at a Town Hall or other suitable meeting place. Stirring military music was played, orders were given, lectures. Then often there were women in attendance and one of the first things that Ethel Hurn talks about is how women would pressure their boyfriends or husbands, what not, to enlist. Great quote, "John, if you do not enlist, I'll never let you kiss me again as long as I live! Now you mind, sir, I mean what I say." Hurn points out that John was fed up with the whole business and did not enlist, but it is lost to history whether or not the young lady kept her promise. [laughter] As far as actually some of the work that women were involved in initially was making bandages and this was something that continued all through the war. It was very laborious and sadly very necessary where fabric, linen, old sheets, curtains, what not they would lay them up, take a knife, sharp piece of metal, something and scarp it into lint basically, which would be fluffy and absorbent. Sew that together with other pieces of material for bandages. 

In a war that had over 600,000 men die and several 100,000 wounded this was a really necessary part of the work. There's also making clothes for the Army. One of the soldiers had, Hurn quotes in the book, points out that the clothes that men were given were really poorly made and often had to do a whole lot more work than people's clothes normally had to do and being in them for weeks at a time sometimes, kind of disgusting when you think about it. Women would make all sorts of things shirts, undergarments, and there was a perfect epidemic of knitting which lasted throughout the war, socks, mittens, hats, all sorts of things. It was very common to have knitting circles. Women would gather in groups and knit like the wind. Then there's also gathering food. This also came at a pretty significant personal cost for women and men and their families as well during the war where women would gather things from their garden, pluck food, and send it to the south. Often times throughout the war they were sending to food their families or relatives, friends or what not, but there were later more organized efforts to gather food and then distribute it where it was seemed to be most needed. Sometimes this could be anything from making pies, making cakes, often times those things never got to the soldiers. 

There were a whole lot of hands that touched them along the way and from what Hurn points out a lot of Postal workers are really well fed in the Army. Also in the middle of the war there was a scurvy epidemic in the Army. Gathering this was actually a medical necessity for a lot of men in the Army and very well appreciated as well, I hear. Then, of course, there's always raising money. What they couldn't get through direct donations, women had to raise money to purchase for the Army. A vehicle for doing that was the fair. There are these sanitary fairs where women would make things, they would gather unique items, rent out some sort of Hall, and go around gathering supplies, money, what not, charge admission to get in and all in an effort just to provide various and sundry things that they needed. Now in the very beginning of the war this really localized efforts. A church group would get together or some other club of what not, of one sort or another, but as the war progressed there were efforts to organize the activities into soldiers aid societies. A lot of the efforts from Wisconsin were funneled through Chicago and the Northwestern Soldiers Aid Society. 

I'd like to read a little bit because it's interesting what Ethel says here. Talking about the sanitary commission, it was to do what the government could not accomplish. The latter undertook to provide all that was necessary for the soldier. The United States Government wasn't really prepared to raise or sustain armies in 1861. These efforts really, really served a great purpose for the government. Hurn goes on to say, "The work of the commission was comprehensive in its scope including many lines of usefulness. It sent medical inspectors to the Army to report on sanitary  conditions and administration. It prepared 18 treatises on the best means of preserving health in the camps, put trained nurses in the hospital, established soup depots and invented hospital cars for a more humane transportation of the wounded. It had also a general relief department with 12 branch depots in the large cities. Each of these had auxiliaries engaged in obtaining supplies. 

A special relief department established 40 lodges for sick soldiers, these were scattered along the route of the Army." Really an amazing amount of organization when you think about how little time they had to do this. "They founded claim pension and payback agencies and printed a hospital directory. Most invaluable was a system of battlefield relief through which thousands of dollars worth of sanitary supplies were distributed after the great battles." Great deal of organization and effort in order to serve and help the Army. There are several cases where women traveled with the regiments. The first one here is the daughter of the regiment. This is like a quasi military garb that a daughter of the regiment would be dressed in. Basically they just traveled with the Army for a short time, mostly in the beginning of the war and look after the soldiers, made sure if they were sick that the hospitals were clean, made sure that they were being well fed, well clothed, well taken care of. There are only two that Ethel Hurn points out from Wisconsin. By 1863 I believe that they had both left the Army. One soldier showed his appreciation for their daughter of the regiments thing, were it not for the daughter of the regiment when a woman would appear we would be running after her as children do after an organ and a monkey. 

Officers wives are also known to travel with the Army. Again, this was a early war phenomenon where wives basically took care of their husbands in the field, washed the laundry, made sure their tent was in order, made sure they were being fed and taken care of and all sorts of niceties were being observed. Then there are also two women that we know of from Wisconsin who enlisted in the Army or tried to. I'm going to read again from Ethel Hurn's book here. I've got so many sticky notes in here it's almost like having no sticky notes. I'm going to read from my Kindle instead. Yeah, there are only two that we know of from Wisconsin who went into the Army or tried to, but her note said, "It would really be interesting to know how many Wisconsin women disguised as men served in the ranks, but the question will probably never be answered except in circulating rumors connected with this or that woman who wore masculine attire. Two well authenticated cases are known. In the town of Lake Mills lived a devoted sister and brother, Sara and Mason Collins. When the war broke out Mason made up his mind to enlist and his courageous sister decided to do the same. 

She was a robust girl with the bloom of roses upon her cheeks and could easily have born the hardships incident to a soldiers life. Won over by her persistence her brother Mason aided and abetted the deception. Her tresses were cut short. She put on a mans apparel and and endeavored to accustom herself to her strange garb she accompanied her brother to the rendezvous of the company and not withstanding her soldier like appearance, an air of masculine her sex was detected. It is stated by her unmasculine manner of putting on her shoes and stockings." [laughter] I always wonder what does that mean. "Poor Sara with tears in her eyes, disappointed at the failure of her efforts to become a soldier was obliged to return to her home while her brother left for the front without her." The other case recorded is that of Belle Peterson, a young country girl who lived near Ellenborough. A soldier who saw her at that time says that she was just an ordinary girl, neither good nor bad looking, but she was adventuress and one day surprised her father by telling  him that she was going away from home for some time. Her family later learned that she had enlisted in the Wisconsin regiment. The date of her enlistment is not certain, but it was probably late in 1862. She served in the Army for some time possibly as a spy or a scout. 

Those who saw her in uniform say that she made a fair looking soldier and that no one would have suspected that she was a woman. Kind of interesting, little back handed compliment there. [laughter] One way, really important way for soldiers where women made their presence known was to write letters. One woman said later, "We girls felt that a patriot duty not to leave any of the boys unsolaced by cheery and newsy letters." Of course women are known to write letters to their relatives and friends, but some women also took it upon themselves to write to men that they didn't know. Hurn points out that some men would write to their mothers or wives and say, "So and so is not getting any letters. He's really dejected, could you send him a letter." One young woman was even married to somebody who she wrote to, but this is pretty significant. Hurn excerpts a letter from one of the soldiers and she says, a young volunteer lest describes the value of the home letters, "We did not get letters enough to make us better men and better soldiers. We get the blue sometimes and fell like going to the dogs. The coffee is bad. The cracker is worse. 

The bacon worst of all." It's hard to imagine isn't it? "And we are as hungry as wolves. Just then the mail boy brings in a letter, a good long one from you or from mother. Immediately all the weariness is gone, the fire has quit smoking, the musty fusty crackers and bacon are better and I am just the happiest fellow in the whole world. One man who was drunk yesterday is crying tonight between the blankets because he had a letter from his mother." It was very important for young men. It was very crucial for the morale to hear from home. It was a very useful line of work. In addition to helping up the Army and supporting the war effort, women also had to keep their lives going. With so many men away there were businesses to run, farms and what not, but before I talk about that I want to talk about the Hurn family. Now before we republish this book I did a little research trying to find out anything that I could about Ethel Hurn and there was really not a lot that I could find out. She was from Oshkosh and she went to the University of Wisconsin, graduated in the early 20th century. 

One of her professors was Carl Fish, who was a member of the Wisconsin History Commission, which was just a group of scholars and legislators that were planning projects, books, what not to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Civil War. Hurn had written her thesis on Wisconsin women in the war so naturally the Wisconsin History Commission took over this project and published it as a book. Her brother though, Phillip Hurn, is probably the most famous member of the family. He wrote several screen plays for movies in the 1930s, one of which was Wings in the Dark starring Myrna Loy and Cary Grant. Just had to read what one reviewer said about this movie. One critic called this a truly absurd script that required Grant to portray a pilot who loses his eye sight, but flies blind guided by the sure hand of Myrna Loy. [laughter] This movie is available at the public library on DVD I believe, everyone needs to see it. I want to say from my reading synopsis I believe he receives a blow to the head towards the end of the movie and regains his sight. [laughter] >> Spoiler alert. >> Your right. 

Oh sorry yeah. [laughter] I guess you don't have to see the movie now. Now we know where the Looney Toon guys got that from. To write the book Ethel Hurn used a variety of sources. There were already one or two books written about women's contributions to the war. She used a collection called the Quiner Scrapbooks, which were letters that Edwin Quiner and his daughters clipped out of newspapers, pasted into scrapbooks and eventually it amounted to about 11,000 letters in 10 different volumes that are still available at the Historical Society Archives. Additionally she also conducted interviews and sent out questionnaires to women that she had learned one way or another had been involved in the war. In light of the responses, we still have the file of her responses at the Historical Society Archives, and a lot of them start out with things like, "Dear Mrs. Hurn, I do not think I can give you any data that you do not already possess." Not only were women really involved in the war effort, very humble about it as well, judging by the responses that Hurn got. On the home front a lot of young men enlisted thinking that their families were going to be taken care of by wealthier families of the community, often times these promises were not kept and one correspondent noted, "How cruel. They were forsaken by those who promised to be their protectors, having to sally forth themselves to look after the humble pittance that Uncle Sam allows them to support their little flock. 

Oh shame, where is thy blush?" Throughout the book Hurn really sprinkles her observations with quotes with quotes from participants. One of them that I think really representative here is this about Mrs. A. "Mrs. A was left with seven children and a 400 acre farm. Before her husband had enlisted he had borrowed $600 dollars from a friend who promised not to press him for the money and to look after his family. Eight months after the husbands departure another child was born, thus the wife had eight small children to care for, in the meantime her husband had died in the south." Then her creditor insisted on the payment of the debt and threatened to take the farm. She begged him to leave her enough land for a house and garden, but he refused and the sheriff evicted her. Her household goods were placed outside and she was compelled to sit up all night to keep the cattle from destroying her possessions. She managed to keep her family together. Her children grew up to be useful and respected members of the community, but her terrible experience helped to shorten her life." The book is full of examples like that where women were really in tough straits, kind of hung out to dry. Additionally there was very difficult work to do keeping the farm together. 

There was women were aided somewhat by farm machinery, but not in every situation like in the picture here, which is originally in the book. The women had to do a lot of work by hand as well. One writer in the book notes that this was the condition all through our section. The mother and the small broad carried on all the work of the farm as they were able. They cleared land, chopped down trees, and clad in brown denim dresses they burned the brush and cultivated the soil. They gathered and marketed the crops and thus became not only self sustaining, but actually had a surplus of which to help the nation. There was another writer in the book who, it says she took a trip on the railway through Wisconsin that women were in the field everywhere, driving the reapers, binding and shocking and loading grain until then an unusual sight. At first it displeased me and I turned away in aversion. By and by I observed how skillfully they drove the horses around and round the wheat field diminishing more and more-- at every circuit. The glittering blades of the reaper cutting wide swaths with a rapid clicking sound that was pleasant to hear. 

Then I saw that although they did not keep up with the men their work their work was done with more precision and nicety and their sheaves had an artistic finish that those lacked made by men. I said to myself they are worthy women and deserve praise. Their husbands are too poor to hire help and like the helpmates God designed them to be they have girthed themselves to this work and they were doing it superbly. Very demanding physical labor. Women also worked in industries. Probably call us nowadays the Rosie the Riveter phenomenon if that weren't so anachronistic. Unfortunately we don't know in 1865 how many women were working in industries and by this phrase that Hurn uses industries would be like furniture making, working in a saw mill, usually difficult and physical labor normally associated with men's careers. There were about 773 women in 1860 who were working in industrial pursuits and 3,967 in 1870. Even five years after the war there was a change in the jobs that women were doing. It was probably somewhat similar to what we saw with World War II and its aftermath. 

To help keep women from being destitute, like those who had been promised help, but they did not get, women often helped each other. In the small country towns, she writes, women often made butter and sold it in order to obtain money for destitute families. The whole state seems to have been full of this benevolent spirit, which manifest itself in many ways. One interesting way that women were helped out by other women was women with certain connections in the government were able to get government contracts to help make clothing for the Army, hence the sewing machine on the picture here. The sewing machine was a great ally. Having a sewing machine took the time it took to make a shirt from 14 hours to about an hour and a half. It really increased profits. Now another important way that women helped out was caring for the men who were wounded or sick or otherwise hurt in battle. Moat familiar to us is nurses and sanitary agents. I tried to find out how many Wisconsin women served as nurses in the Civil War, Hurn doesn't give a number. 

The History of Wisconsin, volume two, doesn't. If anybody here knows I'd be happy to hear it. Nurses were throughout the south with the Army in very often times really dangerous conditions, right on edges of battles dealing with a sick men in an era where prevention of the spread of diseases was not as well known as it is today. Also a lot of times men were resistant both to have women working in hospital and to be cared for. One nurse wrote about a soldier who was getting pretty ornery with her and said, do you know that I have come all the way from Wisconsin to care for sick and wounded soldiers like yourself. Will you not look up and speak to me. Thou try to fill a mothers or a sisters place if you will allow me to. I think one of the surprising things that Hurn notes in the book is that surgeons, male surgeons, initial opposed having women nurses in the Army and she gives an example. When women first offered their services to the government as nurses they had much to contend with for few hospital surgeons were in favor of their employment. After the government had decided to utilize them the surgeons were unable to close the hospitals against them, but they could and did make their lives almost unbearable. 

It seems that their behavior was based on the cool calculation as to how much ill mannered opposition would be requisite to break up the system. One of the nurses said, and she quotes, "Some of the bravest women I have ever known were among the first company of Army nurses. They saw it at once the physician affairs, the attitude assumed by the surgeons and the wall against which they were expected to break and scatter. They set themselves to work, to undermine the whole thing. None of them were strong minded. Some of them were women of the truest refinement and culture. Day after day they quietly and patiently worked doing by orders of the surgeons things which not one of those gentlemen would have dared ask of a women whose male relative stood able and ready to defend her and report him. I have seen small white hands scrubbing floors, washing windows and performing all medial offices. I have known women delicately cared for at home, half fed in hospitals, hard work day and night and given, when sleep must be had, a wretched closet just large enough for a camp bed to stand in. Our surgeons worked really hard to discourage women in their work, but eventually women brought a lot of change in hospitals, made sure that soldiers were being extra comforted, cared for. 

One of the most famous examples would be Cordelia Harvey. She was married to this man, Louis P. Harvey, who was the Governor of Wisconsin. Louis Harvey was very concerned with providing for Wisconsin's soldiers as well. On a trip to visit Wisconsin troops after the Battle of Shiloh, Governor Harvey slipped, fell into the Tennessee river, and drowned. Hurn writes about Cordelia that when the intensity of her grief had somewhat lessoned she began to ask herself what her duties in life were to be. She soon therefore begin to inquire where and how she could be most helpful to Wisconsin soldiers. Cordelia Harvey then was made a sanitary agent for the state of Wisconsin, which gave her the responsibility of traveling throughout the south, visiting hospitals and making sure that the conditions were acceptable. In 1863 the United States government stopped allowing wounded men to go north to get better. The fear was that too many men were deserting and not going back south, Cordelia Harvey, after traveling through the south, seeing so many hospitals, seeing the condition that men were being housed in was convicted that the men were not in the right climate to get better. The impasse was that when wounded soldiers had to be sent to a military hospital in order to get better according to Army regulations. 

Cordelia Harvey brought a petition to Abraham Lincoln and over three days met with Abraham Lincoln, argued with Abraham Lincoln all in the effort to get a military hospital established in Wisconsin. On the second day of her interview with Lincoln Mrs. Cordelia Harvey actually went into-- the impression of Lincoln, we think of him as a wise and just fella. He doesn't come off quite that great in his interview with Cordelia. He at one point asked Cordelia, how many men does Wisconsin have in the Army. She says 50,000. Lincoln says to her well don't be so solemn they're not all dead. Little bit cold, huh? Eventually after going back and forth with Lincoln for some time and being given the run around, she was even sent to the Secretary of War to argue with him, sent back to Lincoln. Harvey persisted and she said to him, to Lincoln, I come to you from no casual tour of inspection passing rapidly through the general hospitals with a cigar in my mouth and rattan in my hand talking to the surgeon in charge for the price of cotton and abusing the generals in our Army for not knowing and performing their duty better. Finally coming into the open air with a long drawn breath as though they had just escaped suffocation and complicity saying you have a very fine hospital here. The boys seem to be doing very well. 

A little more intention to ventilation is perhaps desirable. It is not thus that I visited hospital, but from early morning and late at night sometimes I visited the regimental and general hospitals on the Mississippi River from Quincy to Vicksburg and I come to you from the cots of men who died, who might have lived had you permitted. This is hard to say , but it is nonetheless true. Hurn goes on to say that during that time Lincoln's brow had become very much contracted and a severe scowl had settled over his whole face. The next day Lincoln issued the order for a Army hospital be to established in Madison. The famous octagonal building that used to stand somewhere on the near side. Not only were soldiers sent there, but after the war it became a soldiers orphans home. She used that to care for children as well who had been affected terribly by the war. Soon after there were also Army hospitals established in Prairie du Chien and Milwaukee. Finally towards the end of the war women also took it upon themselves to care for men who were wounded out of the Army and as the Armies dispersed to great places where the wounded could be treated. 

One of the more notable ones that Hurn talks about is the Milwaukee Soldiers Home, which was pretty interesting because originally there were plans to create a big soldiers home in Chicago. Mrs. Lydia Huet said I will not have anything to do with the Chicago proposition. It will be a failure. I will have a Soldiers Home in Milwaukee and will not stop until it is an accomplished fact. That's settled. She was determined. Women organized the Wisconsin Soldiers Home Association, and as Hurn writes, began their work with enthusiasm. Large rooms on West Water Street were rented and arrangements were made for receiving sick and wounded soldiers. It is significant that this was a woman's movement and that the men concerned in the management of the home acted merely as an advisory board. Women took the lead on this. 

It was very interesting. Eventually they received state money and within the first year of being in operation nearly 5,000 soldiers were helped by the association and 406 soldiers received surgical and medical treatment. One other way that women were involved was in the Christian Commission. This was again a later effort during the war where this commission would send Bibles and other reading materials to the south and be involved in all sorts of work, even gathering sanitary supplies, distributing food. There were two noble Wisconsin women involved in these efforts. As Hurn writes one of the sisters found her favorite in the Freeman Schools, then being established. The other was a librarian of the Commissions Reading room in Memphis. Again, another interesting way. Really I think the exclamation point to Hurn's book is in the middle of the book where Hurn points out that men who had stayed home during the war they cut back on their card games and whatnot and their entertainment and took up plain dress and whatnot. She goes on to write if the men of the north were thus affected the women who had sent their sons, husbands, or brothers to the front were even more saddened. 

In fact the heartrending anxiety and dreadful suspense added to the fear of defeat made the days gloomy and weary. Women waited with baited breath for the latest list of killed and wounded. They haunted the post offices and eagerly scanned the bulletin boards and in the face of all this they had to keep on with their work for the soldiers and the care of their families. Everything that I talked about today women did while worrying about their loved ones in the Army. It's an intense amount of pressure to try and live through. What can we conclude? Women entered heart and soul into every conceivable activity of the time. They were not bystanders, but made really key contributions during the Civil War. They provided for soldiers in the ways that the government could not either by making bandages, making clothing, gathering food, they kept farms, factories, and shops running saving the north from economic collapse. -- who wrote the original introduction to this book called it probably the most significant contribution that women made during the Civil War. Women also supported soldiers families and kept many families from starvation through charitable activities. 

They also pressured the Army and the federal government until innovative means to caring for the wounded included transporting north to recover in a more favorable climate. During this time they were under a great amount of stress. One woman wrote there was too much to be done by most of us to keep the wolf from the door to give away to our feelings. It was better so it gave us the feelings that we too, although not enlisted in the ranks south, had a battle to fight at home on more than one line and worst of all was to keep up hope against hope that our loved ones would be spared to come back to us. [laughter] That was a very quick overview of the book. Ethel Hurn gets into a lot more detail about the specifics about how women supported themselves and soldiers during the war. [applause]