Civil War Women Blog

Rose Farm

2013-06-14T22:38:00.001-04:00

The Battle for the Wheatfield at the Rose Farm

Rose Farm was at the center of some of the fiercest fighting on the second day of the battle, July 2, 1863. Its features include Stony Hill, Rose Woods, and a twenty acre field that has come to be known simply as the Wheatfield. There, over 20,000 men engaged in brutal and often hand-to-hand combat leaving over six thousand killed or wounded.

The Pride of Erin by Dale Gallon
At less than fifty yards, the men of Colonel Pat Kelly's famed Irish Brigade prepare to fire their first volley into General Joseph Kershaw's South Carolinians in the Wheatfield at Gettysburg.Read more »

Civil War Women Soldiers

2013-06-05T21:12:00.000-04:00

Soldier Women of the Civil War

They were determined to fight, no matter the cost. They dressed in men's clothing and assumed masculine names; bound their breasts; rubbed dirt on their faces to simulate whiskers; learned to talk, walk, chew and smoke like men; and hid in every conceivable way that they were female. They were soldiers in the Civil War.

Image: Drawing of Michigan Bridget courageously carrying the Union flag amidst a violent battle.

Bridget Devens
Joining the First Michigan Calvary along with her husband, Bridget Devens (Divers or Deavers) - often called Michigan Bridget - spent much of her time behind the front lines tending the wounded. However, author Mary Livermore wrote: "Sometimes when a soldier fell, she [Devens] took his place, fighting in his stead with unquailing [determined] courage. Sometimes she rallied the troops - sometimes she brought off the wounded from the field - always fearless and daring, always doing good service as a soldier."
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Lillie Devereux Blake

2013-05-29T09:33:00.000-04:00

19th Century Author and Women's Rights Activist

Lillie Devereux Blake was a leading feminist and reformer, as well as a prominent fiction writer, journalist, essayist and lecturer, who worked with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony for women's suffrage (the right to vote).

She was born Elizabeth Johnson Devereux on August 12, 1833 to planters George Pollock Devereux and Sarah Elizabeth Johnson Devereux in Raleigh, North Carolina, but spent much of her early childhood on a plantation in Roanoke, Virginia. It was George Devereux who called his daughter Lily because of her fair complexion, and she continued through life as Lillie.
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