Florida Women During the Civil War

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Ladies Soldiers Friend Sewing Society, Tallahassee, 1861

Photo Credit: Florida State Archives

Florida's women made do with short supplies, occupations and increased duties, often without many of their loved ones, during the Civil War.

While thousands of Florida men served on battlefields across the South, Florida’s women performed a variety of roles on the home front. At the beginning of the conflict, they sewed uniforms and flags, prepared farewell suppers and gave parties for departing troops. The state's female population also performed various activities to raise money for the war effort, and worked as nurses and matrons in hospitals established both in and outside the state. They dealt with shortages of most civilian products, both essential and luxury. The price of available items rose dramatically and the use of substitutes became commonplace.

Women corresponded with their loved ones in military service, and faced the possibility that their husbands, fathers, sons and brothers might never return.

With so many men serving in the Confederate armies, women played a greater role in the operation and administration of farms and plantations, undertaking many activities formerly considered the responsibility of men. Many female Floridians also endured the occupation of their towns and farms by Union soldiers.

Women corresponded with their loved ones in military service, and faced the possibility that their husbands, fathers, sons and brothers might never return. "Bereavement," writes historian Tracy Revels, "stripped away the illusions of rapid, heroic triumphs. . . . Unidentified remains and unknown graves tormented many grieving families. Mourning clothes were increasingly in short supply, (and) women comforted each other, urging widows and orphans to accept death as the will of God."

The war's end brought sadness and despair for many white Florida women, but undoubtedly for some a sense of relief.

To learn more, see: Grander in Her Daughters: Florida’s Women During the Civil War by Tracy Revels, University Press of South Carolina, 2004.