Women's role changed during Civil War

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Editors note: This essay was written as one of Branham's 2011 Bushwhacker Days royalty requirements.

When thinking about what it meant to be a Bushwhacker in Vernon County during the Civil War, many comparisons came to mind immediately. Working conditions, living conditions and social events resembled nothing that any of us who live in Vernon County today would recognize. Thinking of women's roles during that time brings an even more stark reality of how different things are today.

Working conditions for women before the war would have included taking care of the home and children. Cooking three square meals a day, without the availability of take out or fast food when you are in a pinch for time. Thinking about the routines that are established in my household, cereal for breakfast would not have been an option 150 years ago. Sandwiches for lunch -- made with deli meat from the store and store-bought bread, again, not available. The luxury of being able to purchase every single item used in our current day kitchens so as to not have to grow our own fruits, vegetables and grains is something that we all take for granted. Working conditions for women changed during and after the war.

Women, whose men volunteered for the Confederate Army or who had duties as an "irregular" guerrilla force, known as the Bushwhackers, would have assumed the roles of their husbands in the rural areas. This would have included daily farming chores, tending to the family's livestock -- which was the means of transportation and food for the family, and general upkeep of the entire property. Since Vernon County furnished more men to the Confederate cause than any other county in Missouri, the chance that your husband would have been gone during the war was very likely. Not only did the women assume the roles of their husbands, but they also had to keep doing all of their prior duties as mother and woman of the home. Women also started to clothe the soldiers and Bushwhackers, taking in sewing on the side to earn extra money. During the Civil War, women were permitted to enter the nursing field -- both officially and, in many instances, unofficially. Women cared for the wounded and sick as well as the dead.

Living conditions during the war saw a change for what was then referred to as Nevada City. In May 1863, those that remained in our town were given 20 minutes to remove all of their household goods due to an order given by Captain Anderson Morton. Entering Nevada from the south, on what we know as Adams Street, and then congregating on the square, groups of two and three soldiers went to each home and notified everyone in the approximately 75 homes to remove their household goods or they would be burned.

In August 1863, Order No. 11 required all individuals to prove their loyalty to the Union in order to retain their property, however they still had to move to an area of safety near a military camp. Those that could not prove their loyalty had to flee the area entirely. In 1865, after Order No. 20 permitted the loyal Union families to return to their homes, citizens of Nevada City and Vernon County began to rebuild the area literally, from the ashes.

Few women joined the ranks of the Bushwhackers. Historian Patrick Brophy defined a bushwhacker as a backwoodsman, or "one accustomed to beat about or make his way through the bush." Ella, Sallie and Lenora Mayfield were all notable women who helped the Bushwhacker cause. Filling the roles of scouts, spies, guides and couriers -- whatever was needed. They broke people out of prison, buried the dead -- including their husbands, and delivered messages traveling more than 125 miles in less than 24 hours by horseback.

Regardless of the roll, women or men -- to be a Bushwhacker in Vernon County meant to defend what was right in their eyes; a cause many died for and to support the Confederate cause and defend our area from the Union and Jayhawkers.

Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: