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Life During the Civil War
Soldiers
• Johnny Reb
– 750,000 (18-45) served
– 1 out of 3 died
• Billy Yank
– 2.1 million (18-45)
served
– 1 in 10 died
• Pay: approximately
$13.00/month
Camp Life
• Some pleasant moments:
– Songs, stories, letter writing/reading, baseball,
read bibles/newspapers, poker
• Generally dull and boring:
– Drills, marches, rain, bad food, cleaning
weapons, etc
The Reality of War
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Huge losses
Trench Warfare
Technology and Tactics don’t match
Horrible Medical Facilities
Many desertions:
– 1 in 11 Union
– 1 in 8 Confederate
The Union Army Ambulance Corps
(Union hand stretchers at Maryre's Height's, May 1864)
Harper's weekly-1862 Article
The Influence of woman
Women
• Spies
– Elizabeth Van Lew and Harriet Tubman (Union)
– Bell Boyd, Loretta Janeta Valazquez, Rose O’Neil
Greenhow (Confederate)
• Soldiers
– Loretta Janeta Valazquez
• Nurses
– Clara Barton (Red Cross), Dorthea Dix (military
nurses), Sally Tompkins (S)
Roles
• Women worked to
manufacture arms,
ammunition, uniforms, and
other supplies for the
soldiers.
• Prior to its destruction,
women in the Fayetteville
arsenal made some 900,000
rounds of small arms
munitions in 1864.
• People were grateful for the
contributions of women in
the war, and newspapers
reported their work.
Women in the War
• The women of the war formed
groups like the Sick Soldier's
Relief Society and the Soldier's
Aid Society.
• In the South and in the North
too, women made bandages for
the wounded and knit socks to
keep the soldiers' feet warm and
dry.
• A few, Louisa May Alcott,
author of Little Women, among
them, volunteered to nurse the
wounded.
Ladies of the state of Michigan relief association help out with
Union wounded in Virginia.
Union Sanitary Commission nurse with her patients in a
field hospital near Fredericksburg, Virginia.
Women As soldiers
• Both the Union and
Confederate armies forbade the
enlistment of women.
• Women soldiers of the Civil
War therefore assumed
masculine names, disguised
themselves as men, and hid the
fact they were female .
• Estimates place as many as 250
women in the ranks of the
Confederate army .
• Sarah Edmonds Seelye served
two years in the Second
Michigan Infantry as Franklin
Thompson.
– In 1886, she received a
military pension.
Opposition to the War
• Peace Democrats/Copperheads
– Political and economic reasons
• Feared social change, against Lincoln, wanted to negotiate
with the Confederacy
• Draft Evaders
– Refused to respond to the draft call
• New York Draft Rioters
– A “rich man’s war/poor man’s fight” (hoppers)
• Quakers
– Religious reasons—A matter of conscience
U.S. Draft
THE CIVIL WAR DRAFT RIOTS: The finest hour of the Metropolitan
Police was their heroic defense of the city during the draft riots of 1863.
Angry mobs, protesting the conscription plans of Lincoln's embattled
administration, murdered African-Americans, burned precinct houses and
other buildings, and beat Police Superintendent John Kennedy senseless
The Economy
• The war was financed by:
– Borrowing money—War
bonds (high interest)
• N—2 billion, S—700
million
– Increasing taxes including
an income tax
– Printing Paper Money
– “Greenbacks”
The Economy—North
• Inflation
– Prices rose faster than wages—80% rise
• Northern economy booms
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RR traffic increase
Boom in coal, iron, and clothing production
Farms prospered—need for food for soldiers
More efficient methods of production
The Economy—South
• South lay in ruins
– 1000s homeless, cities
burned
– RR and farmland
devastated
• Northern blockade
– Severe shortages
– Food riots
• Inflation
– Prices rose 9000%