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 * Civil War Essay

The civil war was a dehumanizing act that did not only impress a change in the men's life reflecting from the battlefield, but the women's. Depict yourself having the role of a women in the 19th century. You would do laborous hours of work each day incessantly. Now, envision your husband going off to war, and you are left with the responsibility to do your work, as well as his. Do people only wonder what the fighting men went through on the blood streaked grass throughout the battlefield.... or cogitate what hard tasks were left for the women at home? Throughout a women's day, she would be left with countless things to do, but four are very essential ventures. These affairs are clothing, running a tavern, volunteer service, and the endless producing of food. If you think about clothes during the civil war, you presumably think of a simple daydress. In this case, that is fallacious.** **If you contemplate all the different styles of dresses back to date in the 1900's, you would be staggered to find that their were quite a few. The intricate designs and perplexing ways to make them were very tiring mentally and physically. Mind you, women in this era did not own or operate sewing machines, therefore had to produce these dresses handmade. There were five types of apparel to create: elegant dresses, day dresses, tea dresses, promeade dresses, and the childrens clothing. Imagine making dresses everyday, by scratch. We all know clothes get dirty. Not only did the women make all of these clothes, but they also hand washed them and put them up to dry. Washing clothes took a lot of arm muscle, leaving you with sore arms and dry, cracked hands aching for some rest. This may seem like an easy job, sitting in a chair sewing, or washing clothes, but it far exceeds that. Running a tavern is a very difficult thing to do. Running a tavern that is also used as a bed and breakfast is even more challenging. Not only do you have to wash your own sheets and linens, but you have to supply your clientel with a fresh supply of clean linens, also. This develops an extra burden, creating more soreness erupting throughout your arms and in your back from bending over and scrubbing sheets. You also have to wake up early in the morning to make a breakfast not only for yourself and children, but for the travelers that have resided there the night before, and expect a hot meal. This means pure exhaustion and lack of sleep, which makes it harder to perform the tasks at hand and throughout the course of the day. Additionally, they would make baked goods and would place them in the ice house to cool. In the winter, they would have to cut ice from the river and then lay it down in the sawdust in the icehouse to keep the food persevering throughout the hot summer. How would you feel having to use all your strength and endurance cutting through rock hard ice, and then have to haul those massive, solid blocks to your ice house?

Just this seems like enough undertakings for one day, but we are not finished yet.

Volunteer service was very meaningful in a woman's perspective. Most women volunteered at local hospitals. They felt as though they should care for their wounded, brave-hearted soldiers, since they were jeopardizing their lives everyday for their loved ones. They spent hours daily forming aid societies to provide soldiers with socks, undergarments, shirts, gloves, blankets, shoes, comforters, handkerchiefs, scarves, bandages, and food. In more isolated areas, women worked as individuals to send supplies to the soldiers. They also planned and attended bazaars, fairs, concerts, raffles, and dances to raise money for army supplies. This took a lot of time and cooperation, as well as patience and physical labor to arrange these major occasions. While volunteering, women also took on the traditional male occupation of nursing, taking care of the wounded as best as they could. This gave women mental exhaustion and convulsion from seeing graphic, disturbing, and traumatizing things that have happened to soldiers fighting in the war. The last, main venture is what no man can live without: food. Women slaved around hot stoves for hours on end. They cooked for themselves and their children, and made food for the soldiers when volunteering at their local hospitals. As I have illustrated above, women lost sleep to cook for breakfast for travelers if they owned general stores or taverns, and cut ice out of frozen rivers to put in the ice house so the food can stay fresh. Making this food was hard labor for the women. It took a lot of energy and patience to create dishes that were expected to be excellent.

To conclude my beliefs about this topic, I would once again like to stress the importance of women throughout the Civil War Era. They were very respectable and independant people full of willpower and determination to go through their burdensome days of labor and exhaustion. So when you think of the Civil War, do not just think of the fighting men on the battlefield, but of the hard working woman that kept lives together back home.**