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Women’s War: Fighting and Surviving the American Civil War
“As Stephanie McCurry points out in this gem of a book, many historians who view the American Civil War as a ‘people’s war’ nevertheless neglect the actions of half the people.”
―James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom
“A stunning portrayal of a tragedy endured and survived by women.”
―David W. Blight, author of Frederick Douglass
The award-winning author of Confederate Reckoning ―a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize―challenges the idea that women are outside of war by revealing their transformative and long-neglected role in the Civil War.
We think of war as a man’s world, but women have always played active roles in times of violence and been left to pick up the pieces in societies decimated by war. In this groundbreaking reconsideration of the Civil War, the award-winning author of Confederate Reckoning invites us to see America’s bloodiest conflict not just as pitting brother against brother but as a woman’s war.
When the war broke out, Union soldiers assumed Confederate women would be innocent noncombatants. Experience soon challenged this simplistic belief. Through a trio of dramatic stories, Stephanie McCurry reveals the vital and sometimes confounding roles women played on and off the battlefield. We meet Clara Judd, a Confederate spy whose imprisonment for treason sparked heated controversy, defying the principle of civilian immunity and leading to lasting changes in the laws of war. Hundreds of thousands of enslaved women escaped across Union lines, upending emancipation policies that extended only to enslaved men. The Union’s response was to classify fugitive black women as “soldiers’ wives,” regardless of whether they were married―offering them some protection but placing new obstacles on their path to freedom. In the war’s aftermath, the Confederate grande dame Gertrude Thomas wrestled with her loss of status and of her former slaves. War, emancipation, and economic devastation affected her family intimately, and through her life McCurry helps us see how fundamental the changes of Reconstruction were.
Women’s War dismantles the long-standing fiction that women are outside of war and shows that they were indispensable actors in the Civil War, as they have been―and continue to be―in all wars.
―James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom
“A stunning portrayal of a tragedy endured and survived by women.”
―David W. Blight, author of Frederick Douglass
The award-winning author of Confederate Reckoning ―a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize―challenges the idea that women are outside of war by revealing their transformative and long-neglected role in the Civil War.
We think of war as a man’s world, but women have always played active roles in times of violence and been left to pick up the pieces in societies decimated by war. In this groundbreaking reconsideration of the Civil War, the award-winning author of Confederate Reckoning invites us to see America’s bloodiest conflict not just as pitting brother against brother but as a woman’s war.
When the war broke out, Union soldiers assumed Confederate women would be innocent noncombatants. Experience soon challenged this simplistic belief. Through a trio of dramatic stories, Stephanie McCurry reveals the vital and sometimes confounding roles women played on and off the battlefield. We meet Clara Judd, a Confederate spy whose imprisonment for treason sparked heated controversy, defying the principle of civilian immunity and leading to lasting changes in the laws of war. Hundreds of thousands of enslaved women escaped across Union lines, upending emancipation policies that extended only to enslaved men. The Union’s response was to classify fugitive black women as “soldiers’ wives,” regardless of whether they were married―offering them some protection but placing new obstacles on their path to freedom. In the war’s aftermath, the Confederate grande dame Gertrude Thomas wrestled with her loss of status and of her former slaves. War, emancipation, and economic devastation affected her family intimately, and through her life McCurry helps us see how fundamental the changes of Reconstruction were.
Women’s War dismantles the long-standing fiction that women are outside of war and shows that they were indispensable actors in the Civil War, as they have been―and continue to be―in all wars.
320 pages, Hardcover
Published April 15, 2019
26 people are currently reading
327 people want to read
About the author
Stephanie McCurry
4 books20 followersStephanie McCurry is a specialist in nineteenth-century American history, with a focus on the American South, the Civil War era, and the history of women and gender.
McCurry attended college in Canada at the University of Western Ontario and moved to the United States for graduate school. She received her M.A. from the University of Rochester and her Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Binghamton. She taught at the University of California, San Diego, Northwestern University, and the University of Pennsylvania before becoming Professor of History at Columbia University. In 2006-2007 she was a visiting professor of history at Princeton University.
McCurry attended college in Canada at the University of Western Ontario and moved to the United States for graduate school. She received her M.A. from the University of Rochester and her Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Binghamton. She taught at the University of California, San Diego, Northwestern University, and the University of Pennsylvania before becoming Professor of History at Columbia University. In 2006-2007 she was a visiting professor of history at Princeton University.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
September 19, 2019
Not another book on the Civil War? Yes but with a twist.The book consists of three sections:
1.) Enemy Women and the Laws of War- Southern women that is, who discovered too late that they would not be considered 'innocents'. As the war continued, new laws embolden generals to reconsider and laws rewritten and of course is history.
2.) The Story of the Black Soldier's Wife - When the first wave of salves fled to the Union camp, the officers were caught without a clue. Seriously what did the Union expect. s the rebels retreated the slaves certainly weren't gong to sit around waiting, who would. There was a nonexistent marriages inn the white sense of he word and after the Union finally woke up decided to form African-American units there was stil the problem of what to do with the omen and children. A very sad history of how the federal government failed in the newly freed slaves.
3.) Reconstructing a Life Amidst the Ruins - Focuses on one Ella Gertrude Thomas, her husband and not only the sacking of the plantations and the freeing of slaves, but the very dirty secrets of the men who fathered many children with their female slaves. The quick descent of the Thomas', which Gertrude moved from privilege to poverty, living in the world of men and wives having no say in finances, that bankrupted the family. Even after she began to assert her rights, she still lived under the thumb of the sins of both her father and husband.
Al in all a better book than all the battles, generals and leaders, though there is alot of politics from both sides showing that neither the north or south was ready for such a upheaval. Billy Sherman said it "all war is hell." Ture today as it was then
1.) Enemy Women and the Laws of War- Southern women that is, who discovered too late that they would not be considered 'innocents'. As the war continued, new laws embolden generals to reconsider and laws rewritten and of course is history.
2.) The Story of the Black Soldier's Wife - When the first wave of salves fled to the Union camp, the officers were caught without a clue. Seriously what did the Union expect. s the rebels retreated the slaves certainly weren't gong to sit around waiting, who would. There was a nonexistent marriages inn the white sense of he word and after the Union finally woke up decided to form African-American units there was stil the problem of what to do with the omen and children. A very sad history of how the federal government failed in the newly freed slaves.
3.) Reconstructing a Life Amidst the Ruins - Focuses on one Ella Gertrude Thomas, her husband and not only the sacking of the plantations and the freeing of slaves, but the very dirty secrets of the men who fathered many children with their female slaves. The quick descent of the Thomas', which Gertrude moved from privilege to poverty, living in the world of men and wives having no say in finances, that bankrupted the family. Even after she began to assert her rights, she still lived under the thumb of the sins of both her father and husband.
Al in all a better book than all the battles, generals and leaders, though there is alot of politics from both sides showing that neither the north or south was ready for such a upheaval. Billy Sherman said it "all war is hell." Ture today as it was then
July 12, 2020
As someone who is more interested in what was happening at the homefront rather than on the battlefield during the Civil War, I knew I had to read this book. Professor McCurry focuses on the women of the South during the war - both free and enslaved - and how the policies and actions of wartime leaders affected them for generations to come. This is a scholarly book, meant for academics and Civil War experts, and it is not the narrative nonfiction that is so popular right now. However, the story it tells is one of importance. From the Southern women who were considered enemy combatants, much to the surprise of Northern soldiers, to the enslaved women who found freedom but no real rights with the Union army, women’s rights were transformed by the war. I was fascinated to consider the plight of the women after the war through learning about Gertrude Thomas, a wealthy Confederate who fell into poverty and homelessness in the aftermath of the war. McCurry raises several issues that I had never considered and lays bare the struggles that all women of the time had with the patriarchal society.
June 2, 2021
I need to preface this review by saying I listened to the audiobook version and it was, like... comically bad. The narrator had this faux haughty cartoonish "accent" she would use to read quotes, which absolutely does not work when detailing extremely warfare and slavery. It was so incredibly off-putting I think I couldn't even focus on the book.
I loved the main argument of Women's War, but it didn't really work for me in the execution. I thought this would be more of a broad social history based on the description and blurbs, but it’s actually more of a historical analysis on how specific groups of women’s participation played more of a role in events and outcomes than traditionally acknowledged.
The book is based on a truism that women have traditionally been viewed as "outside" of war and essentially innocent due to gender norms and public policy. Of course, this is far from true, and Stephanie McCurry demonstrates that women were not apolitical non-combatants but active participants in the Civil War with vested interest in the cause. She uses the experiences of three different groups of women to show how this played out in the context of a “people’s war” like the American Civil War: Southern women who worked on behalf of the Confederate cause, black women who escaped slavery into Union refugee camps, and the aftermath and consequences of the war as experienced by Southern women.
I think I would have liked any one of the sections of Women's War as a standalone reading, but as a book, it didn't really work for me. The first two sections are extremely policy-based and focus on the language and intent of non-combatant and emancipation policies and how they matched up to reality and affected outcomes. The third half of the book is essentially just an analysis of Reconstruction and emancipation through the experiences of a Southern plantation owner's wife.
The result for me was kind of muddled, and I feel like these were just really disjointed examples that kind of support the book without really doing much to enrich my broader understanding of women’s experiences in the Civil War. I always struggle with books like this. If you swing too broadly, you overlook certain experiences, but if you get too specific like Women’s War, it’s hard to see the forest through the trees.
I loved the main argument of Women's War, but it didn't really work for me in the execution. I thought this would be more of a broad social history based on the description and blurbs, but it’s actually more of a historical analysis on how specific groups of women’s participation played more of a role in events and outcomes than traditionally acknowledged.
The book is based on a truism that women have traditionally been viewed as "outside" of war and essentially innocent due to gender norms and public policy. Of course, this is far from true, and Stephanie McCurry demonstrates that women were not apolitical non-combatants but active participants in the Civil War with vested interest in the cause. She uses the experiences of three different groups of women to show how this played out in the context of a “people’s war” like the American Civil War: Southern women who worked on behalf of the Confederate cause, black women who escaped slavery into Union refugee camps, and the aftermath and consequences of the war as experienced by Southern women.
I think I would have liked any one of the sections of Women's War as a standalone reading, but as a book, it didn't really work for me. The first two sections are extremely policy-based and focus on the language and intent of non-combatant and emancipation policies and how they matched up to reality and affected outcomes. The third half of the book is essentially just an analysis of Reconstruction and emancipation through the experiences of a Southern plantation owner's wife.
The result for me was kind of muddled, and I feel like these were just really disjointed examples that kind of support the book without really doing much to enrich my broader understanding of women’s experiences in the Civil War. I always struggle with books like this. If you swing too broadly, you overlook certain experiences, but if you get too specific like Women’s War, it’s hard to see the forest through the trees.
October 18, 2019
McCurry performs a much-needed service in shattering the myth that women are mere passive players in war, specifically in the American Civil war in this telling. By tracing three narrative arcs - women considered as combatants in Lieber's Code; the exclusion of enslaved African American women from emancipation during the war; and the tortured deconstruction of a Southern white planter-wife amid Reconstruction - McCurry shows that women were not simply witnesses to the bloody and cruel war waged between North and South, but rather active participants.
While men (particularly young men) fought and died on the battlefields, women waged a war of offense and defense at home. Southern women, in particular, found ways to harass Union armies, deliver intelligence to local Confederate organizations, and make life miserable for the occupying Yankees. Lieber's Code, the basis of the rules of both the Civil War and future codifications of international warmaking, acknowledges this fact in blurring the lines between civilian and combatant, a response to the role played by women in the war.
McCurry's most fascinating revelation, though, is that enslaved black women were not truly freed, even by the Emancipation Proclamation. McCurry shows that marriage was the key to emancipation for such women, even though marriage was explicitly outlawed for slaves up until the destruction of the peculiar institution. While the Union could destroy chattel slavery, many Unionists could not reckon with a death knell to patriarchy. Thus, the institution of marriage largely preserved these women as property, though no longer to white slavemasters and instead to husbands.
Finally, McCurry relays the tale of Gertrude Thomas, a Georgia plamter-wife who struggles with her family's economic and social ruin after the war, as well as knowledge of her husband's fiscal incompetence and past sexual dalliances with slaves. In Thomas, we see the very inversion of the "Gone With The Wind" heroism of Southern belles - instead, bitter women who scoff at any social equality clutched at by free blacks.
While the book lacks the intimacy and power of, say, a Svetlana Alexeveich history, this short academic work goes a long way in bringing women back into the picture of wartime history.
While men (particularly young men) fought and died on the battlefields, women waged a war of offense and defense at home. Southern women, in particular, found ways to harass Union armies, deliver intelligence to local Confederate organizations, and make life miserable for the occupying Yankees. Lieber's Code, the basis of the rules of both the Civil War and future codifications of international warmaking, acknowledges this fact in blurring the lines between civilian and combatant, a response to the role played by women in the war.
McCurry's most fascinating revelation, though, is that enslaved black women were not truly freed, even by the Emancipation Proclamation. McCurry shows that marriage was the key to emancipation for such women, even though marriage was explicitly outlawed for slaves up until the destruction of the peculiar institution. While the Union could destroy chattel slavery, many Unionists could not reckon with a death knell to patriarchy. Thus, the institution of marriage largely preserved these women as property, though no longer to white slavemasters and instead to husbands.
Finally, McCurry relays the tale of Gertrude Thomas, a Georgia plamter-wife who struggles with her family's economic and social ruin after the war, as well as knowledge of her husband's fiscal incompetence and past sexual dalliances with slaves. In Thomas, we see the very inversion of the "Gone With The Wind" heroism of Southern belles - instead, bitter women who scoff at any social equality clutched at by free blacks.
While the book lacks the intimacy and power of, say, a Svetlana Alexeveich history, this short academic work goes a long way in bringing women back into the picture of wartime history.
May 6, 2024
This is a book that sets out to show that women took part in the Civil War and were affected too. In the case of the South, many women actually got involved with guerrilla tactics like cutting telegraph lines. In the case of black women, their very lives were dependent on who won, and they were uprooted in either case when the military seized control (and often land went back and forth through various wins and losses). They attempted to follow husbands, sons, and fathers in the army and were often diverted by the Union to plantations to work, and those plantations would subsequently be raided and the women would be attacked, raped, and murdered.
The book tends to be repetitive; for example, the prologue mentioned the Lieber Code (or Lieber’s Code as the author says) which became a template for following codes like The Hague and Geneva conventions then at the very beginning of the first chapter said the same thing again. This happened frequently, with repeated information about black soldiers obtaining their freedom first, provisions being made for Lincoln to utilise descendants with African blood howsoever he saw fit, and so on.
For a book about women in the Civil War, there sure is a whole lot about men. The first chapter (there are only three chapters in this book!!) is essentially all about the Lieber Code (and a little about Lieber), and while I understand it made it so women could be targeted as helping the Confederate Army when they had been afforded special privilege prior to that, it just goes on and on and on and ON.
I thought there’d be more instances of women fighting and spying and have that be explored rather than just one damn code looked at in rigorous detail. I thought in general there would be more instances of actual women and what they went through. The last chapter IS about a woman (Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas) and her extensive diaries over decades, but there aren’t as many dives into other women of the time. When the author looks at the suffering black women endured with examples given of men in Union states torturing and threatening to kill their slave women because their husbands went off to fight, that adds punch and really reflects that women were affected by the war too and weren’t just idly sitting by wondering what would happen. I just wish such examples appeared more often.
The book tends to be repetitive; for example, the prologue mentioned the Lieber Code (or Lieber’s Code as the author says) which became a template for following codes like The Hague and Geneva conventions then at the very beginning of the first chapter said the same thing again. This happened frequently, with repeated information about black soldiers obtaining their freedom first, provisions being made for Lincoln to utilise descendants with African blood howsoever he saw fit, and so on.
For a book about women in the Civil War, there sure is a whole lot about men. The first chapter (there are only three chapters in this book!!) is essentially all about the Lieber Code (and a little about Lieber), and while I understand it made it so women could be targeted as helping the Confederate Army when they had been afforded special privilege prior to that, it just goes on and on and on and ON.
I thought there’d be more instances of women fighting and spying and have that be explored rather than just one damn code looked at in rigorous detail. I thought in general there would be more instances of actual women and what they went through. The last chapter IS about a woman (Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas) and her extensive diaries over decades, but there aren’t as many dives into other women of the time. When the author looks at the suffering black women endured with examples given of men in Union states torturing and threatening to kill their slave women because their husbands went off to fight, that adds punch and really reflects that women were affected by the war too and weren’t just idly sitting by wondering what would happen. I just wish such examples appeared more often.
February 8, 2022
Overall, the book offered some interesting anecdotes and logical conclusions as to why women should be more readily included in American Civil War history. The section on Gertrude Turner, a plantation owner, was especially interesting. Yet, the first part of the big dragged on a bit. And I felt the book was very repetitive. If you are interested in Women’s studies and Civil War history, I still would recommend!
July 25, 2019
Interesting perspective on the role of women in the Civil War. Lots of diary excepts, which I enjoyed, but I’d hoped for more on the issue of sexual exploitation of slaves and how it impacted families.
March 12, 2024
another incredible book i had to read for class. really made me rethink everything i thought i knew about how marriage plays into social structures and how that can even go so far as to reconstruct the laws of war. i will be EATING UP the in class discussion about this 🤭
March 11, 2020
Chapter 3 was the best, as the research was based on a a white woman's diary of her experiences during reconstruction.
October 18, 2025
I was expecting more real-life examples, but the first two sections were quite policy heavy.
March 27, 2023
looks at 3 experiences of women during the Civil War in not so United States: 1) Women as rebels themselves and the need to redefine their role in active warfare 2) The role and legal ramifications of the Black Soldiers Wife both during and after the war and 3) the role and experience of the white southern women during reconstruction.
July 17, 2024
2019 rating: 3 stars
2024 rating: 3ish stars
I'm giving it 3 stars because it is a good book but I was super disappointed by the fact that it had more to do with what MEN said and thought ABOUT women in war, not actually women in war. The final chapter includes excerpts of one woman's diary in regards to reconstruction which is probably the best part of the book in regards to a woman's thought on war.
Don't get me wrong, this is a good book to have in your Civil War era library, just know the title is misleading.
2024 rating: 3ish stars
I'm giving it 3 stars because it is a good book but I was super disappointed by the fact that it had more to do with what MEN said and thought ABOUT women in war, not actually women in war. The final chapter includes excerpts of one woman's diary in regards to reconstruction which is probably the best part of the book in regards to a woman's thought on war.
Don't get me wrong, this is a good book to have in your Civil War era library, just know the title is misleading.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews