Valerie Peters 2-26-13 Writing Assignment #2 Confederate Women in the Civil War As the title suggests, Drew Gilpin

Fausts article Alters of Sacrifice: Confederate Women and the Narratives of War gives a detailed description on how the lives of white southern women were lived during the Civil War. War has its effect on everyone, but usually the stories you hear are the stories of courageous fighting, or the armys living standards, or well thought out battle plans and tactics. Fausts article had nothing to do with that. It centered entirely on the women of the time. Women were not allowed to fight in the war but they were expected to support it completely and without question. They were supposed to proudly send their sons and husbands away to die, and to stifle their sadness when they received word that they had passed away. Women began to think themselves useless no matter what they did to assist their men. They even started depriving themselves of their living necessities. It was unacceptable for them to show emotion and miss their sons and husbands. It was considered an honor to have your men die, to devote yourself to martyrdom and sacrifice all that you had if you were a woman. After all, that was the only way women could feel remotely useful. Fausts argument, to put it bluntly, was that women were a rather large contributing factor to the outcome of the Civil War. Even though they werent allowed to be soldiers, they had a great impact on the soldiers themselves. It was up to the women to keep the morale of the men up. Women were supposed to urge the men on, and to refrain from writing needy letters begging them to come home and help take care of them. Faust says it may have been

because of its women that the South lost the Civil War.1 Faust uses diaries and magazines of the time era so that we could better understand the mindset and the way women felt about the war. Women were constantly writing about how useless they were and how much better it would be to be a man.2 The roles of sexism are quite evident in this article. Faust is demonstrating to us the inequalities between the genders practiced during the time of the Civil War. When I think about womens roles during a war, the first thought that popped into my head was: since women are not allowed to fight, they would help the soldiers in other ways. Like supplying them with weapons, food and clothing, or taking care of the wounded. Or getting jobs to support their children while the men were gone. What surprised me most was the ideology that was practiced at the time with such reverence. The ideology that women were insignificant, and that they had to act so reserved and incapable of anything besides feeling useless. Women were basically ordered to behave and feel a certain way, and they were not given any choice but to do and feel as they were told. Or as society believed acceptable. I do agree to an extent with Fausts argument. I think that women had a great impact on the Civil War. These women were being neglected and throwing themselves into poverty. Its not surprising to hear that the desertion rate increased in the army.3 If some men were to hear that their families were starving to death, they may find it more of a duty to go home and take care of their family than they would to be fighting a war. That may not be the case for all men. Some may find that fighting for their country is worth the lives lost. The role I think women played in
1

Drew Gilpin Faust, Alters of Sacrifice: Confederate Women and the Narratives of War in the Journal of American History, Vol. 76, No. 4 (1990), p. 1200-1228 2 Faust, 1207 3 Faust, 1224

the Civil War was to keep morale up. To make sure that everyone thought that the war was necessary, to hold the war and its purpose in reverence, and to make it seem like what they were fighting for was worth it. When men have a reason to fight for something, doesnt that make them better soldiers? When women are stuck at home wishing they could do more, theyre supporting the war. They wanted to help so badly. Without support, armies would fail rapidly. I think the support of women was very important, what they were doing wasnt useless and I dont think women should have felt that it was. Even though women didnt seem to matter at that time period, its evident they had an effect.