DEL INSPECTOR FISCAL

Francis Henry Underwood (1825-1894) described his generation as “wearing all unconsciously the masks which custom had pre- scribed.”1_{In the 1860s, those “masks” were clearly marked and rig-}

idly fixed by race, class, and gender. The war would do much to trans- form the racial masks that custom had prescribed, and masks of class would change as the middle class and nouveau riche emerged out of the surge of business and industry in the postwar years. The war would also affect the conventions of gender. Women would make un- precedented contributions to the war effort, and yet the resistance of tradition-bound officials would not make their path easy. Patriarchal

society, bound up in generations of primogeniture, mores, and cus- tom, would not yield readily to the notion of women taking an active role outside the home.

Jane West (1758-1852), author of the many-editioned Letters to a

Young Lady(among her other epistles of nineteenth-century manners and taste), described the “mask” of domesticity women were ex- pected to wear throughout the era. Speaking for the women of her age, the ubiquitous “Mrs. West” declared that marriage was

the most extended circle in which (generally speaking) Provi- dence designed us to move. Nor is that circle so circumscribed as to give cause to the most active mind to complain of want of employment; the duties that it requires are of such hourly, such momentary recurrence, that the impropriety of our engaging in public concerns becomes evident, from the consequent un- avoidable neglect of our immediate affairs. A man, in most situ- ations in life, may so arrange his private business, as to be able to attend the important calls of patriotism or public spirit; but the presence of a women in her own family is always so salutary, that she is not justified in withdrawing her attention from home, except in some call of plain positive duty.2

The armed forces of both the North and South held to this notion and allowed women to assist the troops through the provision of extra supplies or nursing but not directly attached to the units they would serve—something that would not occur until the next century. During the Civil War, women’s role would consist of civilian service.3_{Yet by}

1861 many women did, in fact, see their active involvement in the war effort as a plain positive duty. At least 3,200 would serve as salaried nurses, and many more gave aid and relief to soldiers on a voluntary basis.4

Women specifically served in three capacities, each of which en- tailed some modicum of pharmaceutical care. The first was as vivan-

diéres, sometimes referred to as cantiniéres. Vivandiéres was a term

derived from the Napoleonic campaigns when the French army de- cided to regularize the female camp followers by allowing them to sell food and drink to the troops.5_{In the American Civil War the word}

ticized Francophile borrowing meaning virtually any kind of femi- nine military support. Many vivandiéres were wives or daughters of officers in Union or Confederate volunteer regiments. Although not officially recognized by the armies of either side, the issuance of

vivandiéreuniforms for volunteer regiments implies that the regular army brass tolerated their presence. They provided much-needed nursing care, and their ever-present flasks of spirituous “stimulants” show that their ministrations took on at least the rudimentary form of medicinal relief.6 _{About the vivandiéres little more need be said.}

Their existence warrants some mention, but their numbers were few and their appearance was more of a novelty than a regular means for enlisting feminine aid in the machinery of war.

The second and more significant capacity in which women per- formed service in the war was through organized effort. In the South this was primarily through community societies and associations that were formed at the church, city, or county level. In the North, women contributed their energies and skills to similar organizations but most importantly through the U.S. Sanitary Commission (see Figure 3.1). Unlike the other relief agencies, the Sanitary Commission had a truly national character.

The third way for women to assist in the war was through individ- ual contributions: the setting up of relief stations near encampments; gathering together a few interested neighbors to establish a hospital in a donated building or even a home; wild-crafting remedies in the woods; or growing or foraging medicinal plants in the surrounding country- side. This was common throughout the South and by far the most prevalent assistance rendered by the mothers, sisters, and daughters of the Confederacy.

Both organized and individual contributions would be the two main avenues open to women who wanted to assist in the war effort. As will be seen, these two very different contexts of service were founded on social expectations largely determined by geopolitical distinctions peculiar to the North and South. Of the two, surely the most remarkable was the Sanitary Commission. Historian Allan Nevins has called this “the most powerful organization for lessening the hor- rors and reducing the losses of war which mankind had thus far pro- duced.”7_{Actually, as will be explained, womankind was chiefly re-}

FIGURE 3.1. Despite this maudlin portrayal so typical of the Victorian period, the contributions of women through the U.S. Sanitary Commission were deeply appreciated, as showcased in this illustration fromHarper’s Weekly. Image

THE UNITED STATES SANITARY COMMISSION