In antebellum society, women were regarded as ideal nurses
because of their sympathetic natures. However, they were expected
to exercise their talents only in the home; nursing strange men in
hospitals was considered inappropriate, if not indecent.
Nevertheless, in defiance of tradition, Confederate women set up
hospitals early in the Civil War and organized volunteers to care
for the increasing number of sick and wounded soldiers. As a
fledgling government engaged in a long and bloody war, the
Confederacy relied on this female labor, which prompted a new
understanding of women's place in public life and a shift in gender
roles.
Challenging the assumption that Southern women's contributions
to the war effort were less systematic and organized than those of
Union women, "Worth a Dozen Men "looks at the Civil War as a
watershed moment for Southern women. Female nurses in the South
played a critical role in raising army and civilian morale and
reducing mortality rates, thus allowing the South to continue
fighting. They embodied a new model of heroic energy and
nationalism, and came to be seen as the female equivalent of
soldiers. Moreover, nursing provided them with a foundation for
pro-Confederate political activity, both during and after the war,
when gender roles and race relations underwent dramatic
changes.
"Worth a Dozen Men" chronicles the Southern wartime nursing
experience, tracking the course of the conflict from the initial
burst of Confederate nationalism to the shock and sorrow of losing
the war. Through newspapers and official records, as well as
letters, diaries, and memoirs--not only those of the remarkable and
dedicated women who participated, but also of the doctors with whom
they served, their soldier patients, and the patients' families--a
comprehensive picture of what it was like to be a nurse in the
South during the Civil War emerges.
General
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