The overall decline in food supplies, made worse by the collapsing transportation system, led to serious shortages and high prices in urban areas. But food shortages only worsened, especially in the towns. The Georgia legislature imposed cotton quotas, making it a crime to grow an excess. The households were severely hurt by inflation in the cost of everyday items and the shortages of food, fodder for the animals, and medical supplies for the wounded. They used ersatz substitutes when possible, but there was no real coffee and it was hard to develop a taste for the okra or chicory substitutes used. They cut back on purchases, brought out old spinning wheels and enlarged their gardens with peas and peanuts to provide clothing and food. Food that formerly came overland was cut off. īy summer 1861, the Union naval blockade virtually shut down the export of cotton and the import of manufactured goods. African American women, on the other hand, had experienced the breakup of families for generations and were once again dealing with this issue at the outbreak of war. Mothers and wives were able to keep in contact with their loved ones who had chosen to enlist by writing them letters. They saw the men as protectors and invested heavily in the romantic idea of men fighting to defend the honor of their country, family, and way of life. Confederacy Īt the start of the war, Southern women zealously supported the men going off to war. They also sent shirts, sheets, pillows, pillowcases, coats, vests, trousers, towels, handkerchiefs, socks, bandages, canned fruits, dried fruits, butter, cheese, wine, eggs, pickles, books, and magazines. Some had encouraging messages sewn on them.
Quilts and blankets were often given to soldiers. Besides having to tend to the home and children while the men were away at war, women also contributed supplies.
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While men were fighting, many Northern wives needed to learn how to farm and do other manual labor.
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Nursing and vital support services were provided not only by matrons and nurses, but also by local volunteers, slaves, free blacks, and prisoners of war. Several thousand women were just as active in nursing in the Confederacy, but were less well organized and faced severe shortages of supplies and a much weaker system of 150 hospitals. She was an energetic organizer who established the American Red Cross, which was primarily a disaster relief agency but which also supported nursing programs. Clara Barton (1821–1912) gained fame for her nursing work during the American Civil War. After the war some nurses wrote memoirs of their experiences examples include Dix, Livermore, Sarah Palmer Young, and Sarah Emma Edmonds. Mary Livermore, Mary Ann Bickerdyke, and Annie Wittenmeyer played leadership roles. The middle class women North and South who volunteered provided vitally needed nursing services and were rewarded with a sense of patriotism and civic duty in addition to opportunity to demonstrate their skills and gain new ones, while receiving wages and sharing the hardships of the men. She was a successful administrator, especially at the hospital for black soldiers at City Point, Virginia. She worked in hospitals after the battles of Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg. She supervised supplies, dressed wounds, and cooked special foods for patients on a limited diet. Gilson (1835–68) of Chelsea, Massachusetts, who served in Sanitary Commission. They gave good cheer, wrote letters the men dictated, and comforted the dying.
They assisted surgeons during procedures, gave medicines, supervised the feedings and cleaned the bedding and clothes. North and South, over 20,000 women volunteered to work in hospitals, usually in nursing care. Dorothea Dix, serving as the Commission's Superintendent, was able to convince the medical corps of the value of women working in 350 Commission or Army hospitals. During the Civil War (1861–65), the United States Sanitary Commission, a federal civilian agency, handled most of the medical and nursing care of the Union armies, together with necessary acquisition and transportation of medical supplies.