Women were important to the war effort.    Click the right and left photos for more information.    Read about Kady Brownell, Daughter of the Regiment, on the left and proper Civilian clothing for the ladies on the right.    The Civil War marked the first time that women in many cases needed to go to work in shops, farms and factories while their men were off fighting for "Uncle Abe".    Although Women's Suffrage was not realized until 1920, the fact of women in the American Work Force during the Civil War and WWI advanced the cause to amend the Constitution.    However, during the Civil War some more worldly or desperate women resorted to a socially unexceptable means to survive.    The center photo was a soldier's favorite; a "Pin Up Gal", who all the men dearly admired on those long campaings and marches through the South night and day fighting the Rebs.

LEFT:Matchmakers
For the first time in America women went to work in factories in great numbers, keeping the home front going strong.

CENTER: Three women textle loom weavers
Women quickly learned skilled trades.

RIGHT: Women at work in a wollen mill.
After the war women stepped aside and allowed men returning from the war to take their place, but the Civil War did much to advance the cause of Suffrage.

LEFT:Mary Bishop Burnside
She was a kind and stately woman who stood by General Burnside's side supporting and encouraging her husband throughout his career as a soldier, Rhode Island Governor and R.I. U.S. Senator.

CENTER: Kate Chase Sprague
She was by far the most popular socialight in Washington D.C. Kate was the wife of Rhode Island Governor, Senator and wealthy industrialist William Sprague. She was also the daughter of President Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury, Solmon P. Chase.

RIGHT: Paulina Kellog Wright Davis
Paulina was perhaps the most well known Abolitionist of Rhode Island. She was also an outspoken activist for women's suffrage. She also encouraged Governor Sprague to select known abolitionists to be commissioned officers of the 1st and 2nd Rhode Island Volunteer Infantry Regiments as a fitting action symbolizing and defining the Union Cause during the early days of the Civil War.

All ladies of quality or proper and good up-bringing as well as "true" gentlemen, were thoroughly educated in the "Private Conversation" or "Secret Language Of The Fan", often displayed widly but very discreetly at social gatherings, especially by young ladies courting.    The words of the fan language were never spoken in public.    The fan language was often used while simultaneously carrying on a spoken conversation with someone else, unrelated to what the lady was saying to another with her fan.    Anyone who did not find a way to acknowledge or failed to understand the fan messages being conveyed by a proper lady and her fan, risked greatly offending her.    At an early age, women were taught never to get a tan, never eat like a field hand in public, always have perfect posture, speak intelligently, have good manners, never cut her hair, wear a dress that never showed her feet, and do her best to maintain an hour-glass figure.    Mothers and Grandmothers were socially duty bound to teach their young girls these rules without exception.    The regular practice of shaving legs and under-arms for ladies came in the 1890s and later, when the safety razor was invented and in many cases still later in the early 20th century when women were allowed to reveal their legs with their normal clothing.    During the Civil War Period, on hot days, men and women were never allowed to bath together or swim together as a group, and all men and women, "including soldiers" bathing as a "gender oriented group", bathed in their undergarments, never totally un-clothed.    This social standard was "strictly" observed in the military.    The Language of the Fan at times went against proper standards or acceptable Victorian Period social behavior.    Young-people enjoyed the language of the fan as a way of rebelling against strict Victorian Standards imposed upon them as a normal aspect of evryone's life-style, especially during the Civil War.    There were two forms of fan gesture:   Discrete messages conveyed by women to women; and daring messages that women conveyed to men.    Gestures conveyed from women to women were usually gossip oriented.    The gestures conveyed by women to men were most often gestures of a lady’s desire for romance or an effort to make it clear to men that a romantic encounter or relationship was not possible before any words are spoken.    The most common fan gestures were fan movements conveyed by women to men.    Therefore men needed to know the language just as much as women if they wanted to find a suitable mate, especially amidst high society.    The gestures below were perhaps the most used language of the fan; the language women conveyed discretely to men in social settings.

Above:Great examples of the finest fans
Top: Catherine Littlefield Greene, wife of Rhode Island Major General Nathanael Greene of the Revolution
Bottom: Martha Dana Barot Greene, wife of Rhode Island Major General George Sears Greene of the Civil War
Anna Day, daughter of General George Sears Greene.