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Wars come at a terrible cost. 250,000 soldiers died in the Civil War (1861-65). Michigan’s 11th Infantry left with 1000 members and only 340 would come back. At the start of the Civil War the government supplied the soldiers with partial uniforms and old guns. “Fighting Joe Hooker” is known to have many “camp followers”. Some fighting and wounded solders were cared for by their own mothers and sisters who followed them as they moved from battle to battle. Inspired by Florence Nightingale and Clara Barton, they helped the wounded and improved conditions in army camps and hospitals. Followers (called Hooker’s women) helped with relieving the stress of war in the camps.
On the home front women organized aid societies, raising money, collecting supplies for the troops, sewing uniforms, knitting socks and contributed nearly $15 million in supplies to the Union Army. They also advocated for abolition, civil rights and suffrage. Women also took care of and ran the businesses and farms for their husbands, fathers, sons and brothers.
In1862 at the Allegheny Arsenal, Allegheny, PA, 158 women and girls worked making cartridges. 78 workers were killed in the Sept. 17 factory explosion. Believed to come from a spark of a horseshoe on the cobblestone road, the fire followed loose gun powder into the building. 54 unidentified bodies were buried in a mass grave. That same day the Battle of Antietam halted Lee’s invasion of Maryland. It gave Lincoln the needed support of the war.
Roles in the Civil War included: 400 to 1000 women (on both sides of the conflict) served as soldiers by enlisting and fighting as men. Women improved conditions in army camps and hospitals. Harriet Tubman, who escaped slavery in 1849, set up a vast espionage ring for the Union. She was paid $200 for her three years of service during which she lead an armed expedition that disrupted Confederate supply lines and liberated more than 700 slaves. In 1862 Major Dr. Jonathan Letterman started the Ambulance Corps which got the wounded off the battle field in 24 hours instead of a week. Wounds were attended to in hours (not days).
Good inventions from the war: telegraph, newspaper printing typesetter, photography, canned food (1858 food cooked in cans) used by Union Army near the end of the war. The Civil War was called “The War That Altered The Course Of American Industry”. Next time:
Part 3. Residents of Hooker Ave.
Submitted by Anna Smith, a Three Rivers history and mystery lover.
