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Book Reviews These are some reviews from a recent issue of
The Civil War News:
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A Vast Army of Women: Maine’s Uncounted Forces in the American Civil War
by Lynda L. Sudlow.
Illustrated, appendices, notes, bibliography, index, 272 pp., 2000. Thomas Publications, P.O. Box 3031, Gettysburg, PA 17325, $24.95 plus shipping.
Most of the biographical sketches contain excerpts from the women’s firsthand accounts of their wartime experiences. Serving the Union in various ways many Maine women left home to become nurses, medical administrators, and relief workers. Their stories are all engrossing. For example, Hannah Chandler Ropes, who was an antislavery activist before the war, made the supreme sacrifice. While serving as a nurse, she contracted a fatal case of pneumonia. The author includes a particularly interesting chapter about women in the postwar era. She notes that their wartime experiences "changed the way women viewed themselves and their role in society forever." She also points out that "the war effort had made it far more acceptable for women to earn a wage outside the home." Sudlow has obviously done a great deal of careful research. Although the individuals she has chosen to profile are remarkable, most of them are little-known. She also lists some major Civil War hospitals, and includes the names of Maine women who served at these facilities. In addition, she records the Maine towns that operated soldiers’ aid societies to collect supplies for the army. This absorbing volume, which will appeal greatly to a regional audience, will also please general readers as well. The book is a reminder that other states have "uncounted forces" of women whose Civil War experiences deserve attention too.
Linda G. Black
Linda G. Black earned her M.A. at Trenton (NJ) State College. She has written articles for Civil War magazine and Gettysburg magazine. She is working on biographical accounts of little-known war nurses.
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