Mary Ann Bickerdyke Essay
Introduction
While there is a common belief that woman shared the same roles in the civil war. This paper will provide a closer examination of the life of Mary Ann Bickerdyke and proves that her role at the Civil War front was different from the roles allowed women during the Revolutionary War. the life of Mary Ann Bickerdyke
Mary Ann Bickerdyke was a nurse and health care provider to the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Bickerdyke was born on July 19, 1817, near Mount Vernon, Ohio. She attendant Oberlin College where she was fortunate to attendant because currently in the United States higher education was not open to women. Bickerdyke became a nurse after she left Oberlin College. She assisted doctors in
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There is very little written record of their service though a few of the more famous names left accounts. At the beginning of the war, nurses were merely volunteers who showed up at military hospitals. But after Battle of Bull Run, Clara Barton and Dorethea Dix organized a nursing corps to help care for the wounded soldiers. http://www.historynet.com/civil-war-nurses Most of the women valorized for their contributions to the war effort were white. Yet African American women, for whom the outcome was of the greatest importance, found their own way to the battlefields. Some were free black women from the North who went south to attend to the welfare of freed slaves living in areas occupied by the Union army. But others were themselves fugitives from slavery, who provided an important source of support labor for the northern war effort. These women served as cooks and laundresses for the Union troops and as servants for the officers. Although much of their labor was subservient, they were participating in an enterprise that would bring their people freedom, and this gave their labor new …show more content…
These women spy usually gathered valuable military information by flirting with male soldiers at parties, dinners or other social events. These women also smuggled supplies, ammunition and medicine across enemy lines by hiding them underneath their large hoop skirts. One significant woman in this movement was Emeline Pigott from North Carolina. She was a Confederate spy, she would have gathered military information by entertaining Union soldiers at dinner parties in her