Page 25 - Civil War Curriculum Book

impending battle, Belle had to pass through the Union lines in Front Royal. She
accomplished this feat, as usual, with the gracious aid of a Yankee official. After sending
Union Colonel Fillebrowne a nice bouquet of flowers, Belle attached a note requesting his
permission to return to Front Royal. Permission was granted, and Belle’s useful information
gave the advantage to Jackson’s troops. (viii)

Belle Boyd’s exploits have become a thing of legend. Her manipulation of gender
expectations allowed her the freedom to aid her beloved Confederacy while claiming
blamelessness. Though the Union eventually imprisoned her, the confinement lasted only
two months, during which time she received special treatment, became friends with the
superintendent of the prison, and became engaged to a fellow prisoner. (ix)

The American Civil War dramatically altered the roles women played in American society, if
only temporarily. Gender roles became malleable as even white, middle-class women
stepped out, or were forced out, of their traditional private sphere. At home, they took over
the duties of running the household previously performed by their husbands. On the
battlefront, they bandaged wounds or fought side by side with men. Somewhere in between,
one particular woman enchanted men with her femininity, bewitchingly betrayed them, and
consoled herself that “All was fair in love and war.” (x)

Endnotes

i. Sara M. Evans Born for Liberty. (New York: Free Press Paperbacks, 1997) p.117.
ii. ibid., p.113.
iii. Linda Grant DePauw Battle Cries and Lullabies, Women in War from Prehistory to the Present. (Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press, 1998) p.156.
• ibid., p.151.
• Drew Gilpin Faust, Mothers of Invention, Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War. (Chapel
Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1996) p.217.
vi. ibid., p.215.
vii. ibid., pp.215-216.
viii. ibid., p.217.
• ibid.
• ibid., p.216.

Sources
1. DePauw, Linda Grant Battle Cries and Lullabies, Women in War from Prehistory to the Present. Norman: University of Oklahoma

Press, 1998.
2. Evans, Sara M. Born for Liberty. New York: Free Press Paperbacks, 1997.
3. Faust, Drew Gilpin Mothers of Invention, Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War. Chapel Hill: The University of

North Carolina Press, 1996