A noticeable change in society during the American Civil War was the change in the role of woman. Women in both the North and South not only entered factories, sewing rooms, and arsenals but also became saloonkeepers, bankers, steamboat captains, teamsters, teachers, and morticians. Women also aided in the war as nurses, clerks and copyists, few even disguised themselves as men and joined the soldiers on the theater of war.

"During all periods of the (Civil) War, instances occurred of women being found in the ranks, fighting as common soldiers, their sex remaining unsuspected, and the particular motive in each case often unknown," F. Moore, 1886 (Wilbur 73)

By 1864, three years into the war, women in the Union held down one-third of all jobs in the manufacturing plants. Still, women replacing the men who had previously held those jobs received lower wages than the previous worker did...