Talk to explore roles of women in Civil War

~ Patti House tells tale of 'unwanted, untrained, indispensable' women

The Cape Girardeau County Genealogical Society will honor some of the unsung heroes of the Civil War at its Tuesday meeting.

The society will focus on the women who stepped up to become nurses, despite a lack of training or extensive medical knowledge. To offer some insight on the significance of these women, Patti House, a Civil War re-enactor and volunteer events coordinator for the Fort D Historic Site, will deliver her presentation "Four Women and a Boat."

House said she frequently delivers presentations on women who were "thrown into nursing" after the Civil War began, but "Four Women and a Boat" is a presentation given from a much narrower viewpoint.

"This is an interesting tale of four women following their husbands to Cape Girardeau and how they were thrown into battle," House said. "There were thousands of women that stepped up to be nurses, and this is just a very, very small explanation of these four women as nurses, who were not trained, and just happened to be in the right place at the wrong time -- or maybe it was the right time."

House said these women are featured on an interpretive sign at Fort D that reads "unwanted, untrained, indispensable." These words not only describe the four women who traveled to Cape Girardeau, she said, but all of the estimated 20,000 women who served as nurses throughout the Civil War.

According to House, the nurses typically were not welcomed by their male counterparts, but the services they provided to the soldiers and the doctors were "indispensable."

The efforts of these nurses also played a large role in the future of women in the workforce.

"It's important to realize at this time period, women were not working out of the home," she said. "Their sacrifices led to careers for women in the field of medicine."

After the Civil War, House said women became trained in nursing, which opened to door to becoming doctors and surgeons.

Bill Eddleman, president of the Cape Girardeau County Genealogical Society, said the group makes an effort to focus not only on genealogy, but also history.

"We just try to get presentations on history, especially local history," he said.

Eddleman also said House's Civil War-centered presentation interested the group because 2014 is the penultimate year of the war's 150th anniversary.

The Cape Girardeau County Genealogical Society meeting begins at 7 p.m. at the Cape Girardeau County Archive Center in Jackson, 112 E. Washington St. The event is open to the public.

srinehart@semissourian.com

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Pertinent address:

112 E. Washington St., Jackson, Mo.