Many history books paint the Civil War as a man's war, where foot soldiers marched gallantly off to fight for freedom and honor, but there is another side to this story. For women, the Civil War became a crucial turning point. The war resulted in not only a battle over freedom for slaves, but also a struggle for independence for all women. This is the story of women in both the North and South who played a variety of roles in the war.

Hidden among the photographs, uniforms, revolvers, and war medals of the Civil War are the remarkable stories of some of the most unlikely heroes: women. North, South, black, white, Native American, immigrant - the women in these small drama biographies are wives, mothers, sisters, and friends whose purposes ranged from supporting husbands and sons during wartime to counseling President Lincoln on strategy, from tending to the wounded on the battlefield...

"Examining the relationship between middle- and planter-class white women who supported the Confederacy, this book demonstrates that elite and middle-class white Southern women--active at home and abroad--played an integral role in the construction of Confederate nationalism as both actors and symbols, and it traces the impact of and the memories surrounding these women's wartime activism into the twentieth century"-- Provided by publisher.

The story of Sarah Emma Edmonds, who adopted numerous persona to spy on the Confederate army during the U.S. Civil War.

"The never-before-told story of four real-life women who risked everything to take on a life of espionage during the Civil War"--Provided by publisher.

Confederate Brigadier General J.E.B. Stuart entrusted a secret album to Laura Ratcliffe, a young girl in Fairfax County, "as a token of his high appreciation of her patriotism, admiration of her virtues, and pledge of his lasting esteem." A devoted Southerner, Laura provided a safe haven for Rebel forces along with intelligence gathered from passing Union soldiers. Ratcliffe's book contains four poems and forty undated signatures of Confederate...