Lessons from Gettysburg

Women did not fight in the Civil War. There were some brave ladies who pretended to be men and entered the battlefield, but for the most part women were not combatants. They contributed though, to the war effort, in ways great and small. Women didn’t hold guns; they worked, suffered, and sacrificed. They gave their fathers, husbands, and sons to the war, and many did not get them back. Some women lost all three. They worked farms, ran businesses, raised children, and did what needed to be done to keep the home front going. Women cared for the wounded, fed the hungry, made clothes for soldiers, and prayed for an end to war and for the souls of those lost to it. Their contributions often seem invisible to historians but they are valuable nonetheless. Patriotism and service come in many forms. One need not be on a battlefield to contribute to the defense of freedom, democracy, equality, justice. Men from Pennsylvania who served in the Civil War recognized this truth with a monument I saw on a recent trip to the battlefields of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.