IIt is an accepted convention that the Civil War was a man's fight. Images of women during that conflict center on self-sacrificing nurses, romantic spies, or brave ladies maintaining the home front in the absence of their men. The men, of course, marched off to war, lived in germ-ridden camps, engaged in heinous battle, languished in appalling prison camps, and died horribly, yet heroically. This conventional picture of gender roles during the Civil War does not tell the entire story. Men were not the only ones to fight that war. Women bore arms and charged into battle, too. Like the men, there were women who lived in camp, suffered in prisons, and died for their respective causes.

    Both the Union and Confederate armies forbade the enlistment of females. Women soldiers of the Civil War, therefore, assumed masculine names and disguises, effectively hiding their feminimity. Because they passed as men, it is impossible to know with any certainty how many women soldiers served in the Civil War. Estimates place as many as 250 women in the ranks of the Confederate army. Writing in 1888, Mary Livermore of the U.S. Sanitary Commission remembered that:

      "Some one has stated the number of women soldiers known to the service as little less than four hundred. I cannot vouch for the correctness of this estimate, but I am convinced that a larger number of women disguised themselves and enlisted in the service, for one cause or other, than was dreamed of. Entrenched in secrecy, and regarded as men, they were sometimes revealed as women, by accident or casualty. Some startling histories of these military women were current in the gossip of army life."

    Livermore and the soldiers in the Union army were not the only ones who knew of soldier-women. Ordinary citizens heard of them, too. Mary Owens, discovered to be a woman after she was wounded in the arm, returned to her Pennsylvania home to a warm reception and press coverage. She had served for eighteen months under the alias John Evans.

    In the post-Civil War era, the topic of women soldiers continued to arise in both literature and the press. Frank Moore's Women of the War, published in 1866, devoted an entire chapter to the military heroines of the North. A year later, L. P. Brockett and Mary Vaughan mentioned ladies "who from whatever cause . . . donned the male attire and concealed their sex . . . [who] did not seek to be known as women, but preferred to pass for men." Loreta Velazquez published her memoirs in 1876. She served the Confederacy as Lt. Harry Buford, a self-financed soldier not officially attached to any regiment.

    The existence of soldier-women was no secret during or after the Civil War. The reading public, at least, was well aware that these women rejected Victorian social constraints confining them to the domestic sphere. Their motives were open to speculation, perhaps, but not their actions, as numerous newspaper stories and obituaries of women soldiers testified. If you would like to read more about women soldiers you can visit the National Archives



    Other pre-lables buttons include: Uniforms, Soldiers, Maps, and Weapons


    I cannot say exactly what prompted me to create this set. I have always had a passion for history, and have studied the Civil War with great interest, sadness and a wish for a complete healing for our great nation. Sadly I know it's yet to happen. I grew up in the "Wild West" part of the country, where the memory of the Civil War is not as painful, nor as commemorated, yet I know the loss and sorrow touched all of our land. It's somewhat fascinating that people seek to keep the memories of the Civil War alive by getting together and performing reenactments of famous battles. They go to great lengths to have the most authentic uniforms, the proper insignias, and the real weapons of the period. Many had family members who fought and died, or survived to tell their incredible tales. This set is for those who keep historical archives, wish to share a family history or groups who reenact the battles.

    I know how frustrating it is to search for art that will represent the ideas that I am trying to express on a web page, and not be able to find anything that is suitable. Hence, I learned how to create my own. I sympathise with this frustration, and so we we accept the fact that some of our sets will not have wide audiences, but will make a select few very happy. Sometimes, just pleasing some of the people some of the time is rewarding enough.

    "Civil War" is available for free, to use how you wish. Please do not link to these images, download them to your own server. Several appropriate buttons are included, as well as blanks for the title and button areas, so you can make your own buttons if you prefer. A portion of the Images used in "Civil War" were purchased from Art Today. The remainder were pixed by hand. The programs used to create the set include Paint Shop Pro, iPhoto Plus and Micrographix Paint. The font used here is Heritage and the title font is Jacques Roughcut.


    INCLUDED:

    • The Background Images
    • The Title
    • Prelabeled and Blank Buttons with Mouse Overs
    • Navigational Buttons
    • Guest Book
    • Bullets and Bar
    • Frame for photos or art





    REMINDER: When using any of Barefoot Graphics art, please consider your skill level with both your own graphic design programs and your HTML coding skills. Barefoot Graphics does NOT provide coding assistance with free downloads. There are many tuturials available on the internet, please look at our resources page to find assistance with HTML. We cannot trouble shoot code problems for you. If you have questions about the code on this page, please view the code that comes with this set, that is the extent of the support that we can provide for this fee. This page can expand, both vertically and horizontally, to adjust to your visitor's browser resolution.




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