OH-FOOTSTEPS-L Archives

Archiver > OH-FOOTSTEPS > 1999-11 > 0941862956


From: "Maggie Stewart" <>
Subject: Fw: Bio History -- Know Your Ohio-- Ohio in the Civil War -- Part 8
Date: Fri, 5 Nov 1999 23:35:56 -0500


----- Original Message -----
From: kathi kelley <>
To: <>
Sent: Sunday, October 31, 1999 12:46 PM
Subject: Bio History -- Know Your Ohio-- Ohio in the Civil War -- Part 8


***********************************************
Historical Collections of Ohio
>From the Diaries of S.L. Kelley
Know Your Ohio
by Darlene E. Kelley
***********************************************
Ohio in the Civil War-- Part 8

In his diary of the Civil War, Mr. Kelley writes-- The Civil War has
always fasinated me-- the stories handed down to me by friends and
relatives, who not only lived them and wrote about them, but brought
them to life, to be recorded, so that we will always remember the brave
and loved ones who each day faced the unknown----

Stress -- Jitters -- Women-- Of the Civil War

Suppose you have just left camp in a hurry with your regiment. Marching
down a dusty road with your fellow soldiers, you know where you are
going-- the telltale thud of artillery and the crackling of musketry
sound nearer and nearer. Your colonel orders quick time, and your heart,
already pounding out an alarm, shifts into an even wilder rhythm. Your
column leaves the road and heads toward a clearing. The gunfire is loud,
sulfurous smoke drifts by, and bloodied men limp past, heading for the
rear. Shouting above the clatter, the officers order you and your
comrades to shift positions and form a line of battle. Here and there,
men take care of urgent, last minute business. Some whisper prayers.
Some nerviously discard tools of sin: playing cards and risque pictures.
One fellow with a foreboding of doom writes his name in pencil on a
scrap of paper and pins it to his blouse. Some men can't stop talking;
others are silent as tombstones. And then it's over. The enemy has
retreated before you could join the fight. You march back to camp --
elated to be alive, but exhausted from the agony of preparing to die.
This scene barely hints at the stress Civil War soldiers faced before
every engagement. Most men experienced the instinctive response to
perceived danger known at the " fight or flight reaction." This reaction
made jobs like this so stressful. First your heart starts pounding, your
blood pressure rockets, you breathe heavily. and you get a rush of
adrenaline to make you hyper-alert. The whole incident ends peacefully,
and you are still shaking from the stress. Perhaps you will soon go
through the same drama again. After a while, your nerves begin to get
frazzled, unless you find a wholesome way to relieve the stress. Of
course, stressful conditions do not always end well, especially on
battlefields. Civil War soldiers were wounded or killed in huge numbers,
and it was this plain fact that brought on pre-battle jitters.
Meanwhile, far from the shooting, soldier's wives had their own jitters
and stress. A wife knew her husband ran a high risk of dying or being
permanently disabled or disfigured. She knew he could be changed by the
war. She knew that if he died in the war, she would be left without
enough income to support herself and the children. She knew that unless
her husband returned soon, she might not be able to keep the farm or
business running. Granted, the stress women experienced on the homefront
was not the same as what soldiers felt, but if the soldiers had the
choice, would they have traded places with their wives? Would they have
elected to sit and wait, knowing full well that the women they loved, or
at least depended upon, might be erased from the face of the earth, and
their was nothing they could do about it? I do not think so---. This was
the stress felt by the wives and love ones at home. Many a wife or
mother must of wished she could take the place of her soldier husband or
son, prefering to risk her own life than to endure the torture of
waiting and worrying while a loved one faced death. But she couldn't. So
she took steps to busy herself --to lessen the pain for both of them.
Women were more involved in the Civil War than any other war, since they
were able to see the war first hand. There were more written about
Southern women as they had more journels published and written, as they
were expected to learn to read and write at an early age. Northern women
were permitted to be active in other ways. The U.S. Sanitary Commission
was created by women who helped stop diseases that were killing
thousands of men before the they went into battle. They created
battlefield hospitals and ambulance corps, They fed the troops, both
North and South. They held fairs to raise money for the war effort,
which resulted into millions of dollars. They formed Ladies aid
societies who sewed , quilted, rolled bandages, packed suppies,
perserved food, collected medicines, raised crops of food and
animals,and etc. All for the cause of their loved ones.
Women were permited as civilians to volunteer as nurses in some field
hospitals, under the superision of the Sanitary Commission. For this
they had special training, usually under supervision of Military
doctors.
There were reports of some women disquising themselves as men, and
enlisting themselves to fight along side of the men. Many were later
found out and let go, however, some wives under hardship, were able to
follow their husbands and work as washer women. For this work they were
paid.
Other reports show women used as spies for the cause, and entertainers.
Charitable Balls were planned to cheer many of the soldiers when they
returned home for furlough.
These things were done with love and understanding of the hardships of
the soldiers efforts. Not forgeting, that life went on, and the
homefront and farms, and businesses must continuely be maintained.
Children had to be cared for and educated. They had to be both, mother
and father. Fields had to be maintained, to pay the bills. Food had to
be grown to fill the hungry.
The Civil War changed the outlook of women. Finally they were being
recognized and realization began, that the war could not have been won,
without the help of the woman.
**********************************************
Continued in part 9.

This thread: