This photograph of Southern nurse Anna Bell attending to wounded soldiers represents a position taken up by many women who wanted to aid the Confederacy. Nursing seemed like a natural duty: caring for men as they would their own husbands and sons. The Confederate health system lacked the funds and organization of the North's U.S. Sanitary Corps, but Southern women managed nonetheless, often opening up their homes to wounded soldiers from both sides. Through nursing, some women even gained managerial positions, and all faced gruesome situations that challenged the preconceived notion of Southern women's frailty.
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