Description
Focusing on middle-class women’s contributions to the northern Civil War effort, Patricia Richard shows how women utilized their power as moral agents to shape the best way men survived the ravages of war. Busy Hands investigates the ways wherein white and African American women used images of circle of relatives and domestic life of their relief efforts to counter the consequences of prostitution, gambling, profanity, and drinking, threatening men’s postwar civilian fitness.
Drawing on letters, diaries, and memoirs of Civil War nurses, sanitary workers, soldiers, and the warriors’ aid societies, Richard develops a new viewpoint on domestic influence at the war, as women sought to save lots of soldiers from the hazards of the military world.