The Civil War had a greater effect on American women than any other conflict in the nation's history. Women from both the North and the South played a wide range of roles during the war. "Although conditioned in contrasting environments and schooled in opposing philosophies, women stepped forward as defenders of their respective causes," Mary Elizabeth Massey wrote in Women in the Civil War. "Emotions, energies, and talents that even they did not realize they possessed were unleashed."

Many women made direct contributions to the war effort as nurses, spies, government employees, factory workers, and members of aid societies. Some even hid their identities in order to join the fight as soldiers. In order to serve their country, these women had to overcome traditional attitudes that had limited them to roles as homemakers and mothers in the past. Many other...