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BOOK REVIEW - Amazing Women of the Civil War - by Webb Garrison

© Katie Anne Gustafsson

I recently purchased this book as part of the research for the novel I am writing, and as soon as I started reading it I knew that I just "had" to review it for Women's History here at Suite101! I know from feedback I have received on articles about the American Civil War that there are many visitors that come here who are interested in this period who would find this book as interesting as I did.

Broken down into five parts, the book deals with women who played a role of some sort during the War between the States. Although there are women who most people who have read up on the period will have heard of, such as Belle Boyd, Dorothea Dix, Rose Greenhow and Mary Walker, there are many others who are not so well known. Women such as Phoebe Pember, Katharine Prescott Wormeley and Mary Ann Ball Bickerdye, have their war stories and contributions told within the pages of this fascinating book. Along with those who contributed to the war effort with skills medical or espionage, there are those who picked up a different weapon - the pen. Amongst those in this category are Harriet Beecher Stowe, Julia Ward Howe and Louisa May Alcott.

In his book Webb Garrison has been careful not to get into North and South battles! He takes each lady on her own merit with what she contributed to the war effort. Where the evidence of her involvement is somewhat hazy, as in the story of Barbara Frietchie, he is clear to point out that the story is coloured by years of local belief as opposed to facts about what really happened. Each profile is told in a lively way that lets you see a little of the person who kicked against the inactivity expected of females of the day. The only person in the book who I am not sure earned her place is Mary Custis Lee. Reading her story alongside those of her heroic, selfless or just plain determined peers left me whether she was only there for balance against Julia Dent Grant.

For anyone who has a passion for the American Civil War, and the women who lived during it in particular, this is a "must read". Short biographies of 28 noteworthy women who include women who took on the medical profession, women who faced the death penality if caught spying, women who were married to Army leaders, not to mention the wives of the Presidents of North and South. Two groups of women are also highlighted - one of which is an unsolved mystery, the women (and children) of Roswell who vanished during 1864 and whose whereabouts are still uncertain today. This is not a difficult to read academic book. It is written in an entertaining but instructive way, and taken as a whole, gives a good insight as to how women's attitudes were starting to change during the period.

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