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Army at Home: Women and the Civil War on the Northern Home Front (Civil War America)

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This work provides an insightful portrayal of women in a ravaged Civil War Union home front, adding momentum for gender studies in recent Civil War scholarship. Author Judith Giesberg traverses a treacherous landscape dotted with accounts of women who desperately labored to keep their families, property, and their own honor intact during the turbulent years of the War Between the States. Focusing on women who were left to fend for their own livelihood, Giesberg reveals fascinating reports of government neglect, financial abandonment, and social rejection. This feat is accomplished through the scouring of dense collections of public records in an effort to provide an accessible compilation of primary sources. The women of Army at Home are faced with the conundrum of assuming financial responsibility of their family while maintaining their delicate dignity. Through this pursuit, they fought to prove their patriotism as nobly as any army of the Civil War.