Video
Civil Warriors to Suffragists
Transcript
Hi, I'm Marna Bastian. Welcome to Civil Warriors to Suffragists. 2020 marks the 100 year anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution granting women the right to vote.
The women's suffrage movement began before the Civil War, but once the war broke out, women began assuming the jobs and the roles of men who were now away fighting. Women started managing family farms and businesses. They took jobs in factories and with the US Telegraph Service. Many women would become nurses, and there were some that even disguised themselves as soldiers and fought in the war.
We know of about 400 women who fought for both the Union and Confederate armies. Five of those women are known to have fought here at the Battle of Stones River. Probably the most famous woman soldier is Frances Clalin.
Her soldier name was Jack Williams. And she and her husband, John Clayton, joined a Missouri regiment, and they fought here at the Battle of Stones River. On the first day of battle, John was killed. Later that day, Frances was wounded, leading to the discovery that she was a woman.
It's estimated that hundreds of women became spies during the war to help both armies acquire information and even smuggle supplies, sometimes, by attaching those supplies to the frame of their large hoop skirts. The women that took jobs in factories would produce items like uniforms, rifles, medical supplies, ammunition, among many other items. The women that joined the US Telegraph Service actually became so good at this job that by 1869, Western Union Telegraph had established a school for female telegraphers, and by 1920, women made up 20% of the nation's telegraphers.
Some women would become nurses, and this would be a new role for them. Prior to the Civil War, men were only allowed to be nurses and work in other medical professions. A few women did become physicians during the war, and a couple became surgeons.
Women would usually find the opportunity to become a nurse through the US Sanitary Commission. The Sanitary Commission was established in 1861 when the war first began. The role of the Sanitary Commission was to educate the Union Army about matters of health and sanitation, to staff field hospitals, to raise money, and provide supplies. Over 15,000 women would volunteer with the US Sanitary Commission, usually in nursing care. And these nurses would assist surgeons, they would administer medications, they would change bandages, feed the soldiers, keep everything clean and sanitized, and then they would also comfort the wounded, the sick, and the dying.
Two US Sanitary Commission volunteers, Ann Hosmer and Carrie Tinkham of Chicago, Illinois filled several cars with food and supplies and then accompanied the train into hostile Middle Tennessee, not once, but twice. These women would stay on in Murfreesboro for 11 weeks following the Battle of Stones River, helping to nurse hundreds of soldiers back to health.
Mary Jewett was a civil war nurse that worked at hospital number eight in Nashville, Tennessee. She actually had applied for the US Sanitary Commission, but they declined because she was only 22. Mary persisted and became a nurse. Here's a picture of Mary, and at the bottom, somebody wrote soldier's friend.
This is what a wounded Union soldier said about Mary. This blessed woman whom I've always called my angel snatched me from the grave down in Tennessee and saved my life. Sick and discouraged and homesick, she made me live and get well.
Mary met a soldier, Jacob Telford, while working at hospital number eight. He was seriously wounded at the Battle of Stones River while serving with Company B of the 15th Indiana Infantry. Once Mary left nursing, she married Jacob, and once the war ended, they adopted several girls who had been orphaned during the war. Mary devoted her life to service and went on to become a writer, editor, lecturer, and an activist for many causes, including the women's suffrage movement. Mary did not live to see the passage of the 19th Amendment, which was the case for many early suffragists.
During the war, many women supported the abolition of slavery, and some of these same women would go one and join the growing women's suffrage movement. When the war ended in 1865, the 13th Amendment was added to the US Constitution, freeing African-Americans from slavery. In 1870, the 15th Amendment was added, granting African-American men the right to vote.
But it would be another 50 years before the 19th Amendment became law when Tennessee became the 36th and the final state needed to ratify the 19th Amendment on August 18, 1920. But the 15th and the 19th Amendments would not always ensure that everyone had the right to vote. Many men and women of color would be denied this right until 1965, when the Voting Rights Act passed. In 2013, the US Supreme Court invalidated this act. The rewritten law is awaiting Congress approval.
The road to ratification was not quick nor easy. This right of citizenship would be the result of thousands of individuals and nearly a century of organized effort. Women empowered by their new roles during the Civil War would make huge contributions in pushing suffrage forward. On August 26, 2020 we will celebrate one century of this success.
Description
Join Museum Technician Marna Bastian as she explores the connection between the changing roles of women during the Civil War and the drive to pass the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Duration
7 minutes, 1 second
Credit
NPS
Date Created
08/19/2020
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