This is a timeline of women in warfare in the United States before 1900.This list includes women who served in the United States Armed Forces in various roles. It also includes women who have been Warriors and fighters in other types of conflicts that have taken place in the United States. This list should also encompass women who served in support roles during military and other conflicts in the United States before the twentieth century.
18th century
1750s 1755
Nancy Ward, Nan'yhi (Cherokee) received the title of Beloved Woman after fighting in the Battle of Taliwa.
1770s 1775
March: Prudence Wright organized a militia of women in Pepperell, Massachusetts. The militia went on to capture two spies.
1776
November: Margaret Corbin was wounded fighting next to her husband during the attack of Fort Washington. She eventually earned a military pension for her service.
1777
April: Sibyl Ludington rode to alert New York militia that the British were burning Danbury; these accounts, originating from the Ludington family, are questioned by modern scholars.
1778
Mary Hays aided Revolutionary soldiers in the Battle of Monmouth, bringing water and later being known as "Molly Pitcher."
1780s 1780
Esther DeBert Reed raised money for the war effort.
1782
Deborah Sampson disguised herself as a man and fought under the name, Robert Shurtliff in the Fourth Massachusetts Regiment.
19th century
Ojibwa Chief Earth Woman accompanied men on the warpath after claiming to have gained powers from a dream. Gouyen, an Apache woman, assassinated a Comanche chief who killed her husband in battle. She later fought beside other Apaches in a battle against a party of miners.Robinson, Sherry. 2000. Apache Voices: Their Stories of Survival as Told to Eve Ball, Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.Stockel, H. Henrietta (2000). Chiricahua Apache Women and Children: Safekeepers of the Heritage. Texas A&M University Press. p. 68. . Pawnee woman Old Lady Grieves The Enemy changed the course of a battle with the Ponca and Sioux by attacking the enemy, thus shaming the men into fighting when they were in retreat. Late 19th century: Lozen and Dahteste acted as compatriots to Geronimo in his rebellion against the United States.Gatewood, Charles B.; Kraft, Louis (2005). Lt. Charles Gatewood and His Apache Wars Memoir. U of Nebraska Press. p. 246. .Ball, Eve (October 19, 2015). In the Days of Victorio: Recollections of a Warm Springs Apache. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. p. 15. .Kraft, Louis (2000). Gatewood & Geronimo. UNM Press. pp. 114–116, 163. .Ove, Robert S.; Stockel, H. Henrietta (1997). Geronimo's Kids: A Teacher's Lessons on the Apache Reservation. Texas A&M University Press. pp. 15–16, 36–37. .
1810s 1811 The U.S. Navy included women nurses at its hospitals for the first time in its history. 1812 During the War of 1812 Mary Marshall and Mary Allen worked as nurses for U.S. Commodore Stephen Decatur on the United States. 1819 Manono II, fought along with her husband Keaoua Kekuaokalani, in the Battle of Kuamoo, where both perished in defense of the kapu system.Fornander, Abraham (1880). Stokes, John F. G. (ed.). An Account of the Polynesian Race: Its Origins and Migrations, and the Ancient History of the Hawaiian People to the Times of Kamehameha I. 2. Trübner & Co.Kamakau, Samuel (1992) . Ruling Chiefs of Hawaii (Revised ed.). Honolulu: Kamehameha Schools Press. .
1830s
Women were first officially assigned as keepers in the Lighthouse Service of the U.S. Coast Guard beginning in the 1830s. Previously, many wives and daughters of keepers had served as keepers when their husbands or fathers became ill. Women continued as lighthouse keepers until 1947.
1830 Pine Leaf of the Crow tribe was recorded as having counted coup. 1836 The Warner Sisters came to Constitution Island. For a half century, Susan and Anna Warner wrote popular novels and taught Sunday School to West Point cadets. Susan wrote a Wide Wide World, one of the nation's best sellers, in the 1850s. Anna wrote the words to the children's verse "Jesus Loves Me." They later donated the island to the United States Military Academy in 1908. The remains of both sisters were interred in the West Point cemetery.Public Affairs – Home
1840s 1842 Kuilix, a female warrior of the Pend d'Oreilles headed a group of warriors which rescued another group from the Blackfeet. Women of both the Pend d'Oreilles and the related Flathead tribe actively participated in warfare, entering battles and dancing in war dances. 1846 Mexican War (1846–1848): Elizabeth Newcom enlisted under the name Bill Newcom in the Missouri Volunteer Infantry. She served briefly before being discovered and discharged. Sarah Borginnes was hailed as the "Heroine of Fort Brown" following her actions during the Siege of Fort Texas. She went on to operate a series of inns providing food, lodging, liquor, and prostitutes to Zachary Taylor's troops. Kuilix participated in a fight against the Crow.
1850s
Woman Chief (Crow) was the third-leading warrior among a group of Crow lodges.
1850 Hanging Cloud became the first and only woman of the Ojibwa tribe to become a full warrior. 1851 Eliza Allen published her memoirs about her experiences of disguising herself as a man and fighting in the Mexican–American War. 1858 Battle of Spokane Plain. Colestah of the Yakama tribe was a participant. 1859 From 1859 to 1862 Maria Andreu (a.k.a. Maria Mestre de los Dolores) served as the Keeper of the St. Augustine Lighthouse in Florida, becoming the first Hispanic-American woman to serve in the U.S. Coast Guard and the first Hispanic-American woman to oversee a federal shore installation.
1860s
Civil War (1861–1865): Women were involved in civilian volunteer work where they aided troops on both sides of the war. Biologically female soldiers on both sides wore male clothing to serve; some of them, such as Albert Cashier, were transgender men. By the end of the war, over 500 fully paid positions were available to women as nurses and in the United States Military. 1861 Dorothea Dix was appointed Superintendent of Army Nurses for the Union Army on June 10, 1861, and quickly created and implemented guidelines for nursing candidates. In October 1863, after the U.S. the War Department introduced Order No. 351, which granted both the Surgeon General (Joseph K. Barnes) and the Superintendent of Army Nurses (Dix) the power to appoint female nurses, Dix managed a U.S. Army nursing program that was staffed by more than 3,000 women. Dr. Mary Walker was a doctor who served with the Union Army in the First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas) on July 21, 1861, and three later major engagements. Commissioned as a captain, she was captured on April 10, 1864, becoming the first female prisoner of war; she was released on August 12, 1864, in exchange for a Confederate major who was being held as a POW by the Union Army. At war's end, she received the Medal of Honor for her service and for hardships endured as a POW. 1861–1863: Lizzie Compton disguised herself as a man and fought on the side of the Union.Eggleston, Larry G. (2003). Women in the Civil War : extraordinary stories of soldiers, spies, nurses, doctors, crusaders, and others. Jefferson, NC [u.a.]: McFarland & Co. .Massey, Mary Elizabeth; Berlin, Jean V. (1994). Women in the Civil War (Bison Book ed.). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. . 1861–1865: Harriet Tubman, an abolitionist who had previously been enslaved,Larson, Kate Clifford (2004). Bound For the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero, pp. 72–80. New York: Ballantine Books. . served as a scout, nurse, and a spy for the Union Army. As the leader of a band of scouts, she provided key intelligence to Union military leaders, and became the first woman to lead an armed assault during the Civil War in the Raid at Combahee Ferry in 1863. In 1913, Tubman was buried in Ft. Hill Cemetery in Auburn, New York and received full military honors at the service. 1862 Susan King Taylor became the first African American to work as an army nurse in the United States. March 20: Malinda Blalock disguised herself as a man and registered as "Samuel Blalock" in the Confederate military. She fought in three battles with her husband, who was her sergeant.Mays, Gwen Thomas (2008). Frank, Lisa Tendrich (ed.). Women in the American Civil War. ABC-CLIO. p. 132. .Eggleston, Larry G. (2003). Women in the Civil War: Extraordinary Stories of Soldiers, Spies, Nurses, Doctors, Crusaders, and Others, page 50–54. April 6–7: Laura J. Williams participated in the Battle of Shiloh with a company that she raised and led, all while disguised as a man.Aleman, Jessie (2003). The Woman in Battle: The Civil War Narrative of Loreta Janeta Velazques, Cuban Woman and Confederate Soldier (introduction). University of Wisconsin Press. p. xvi. .The Civil War Book of List. Combined Books. 1993. p. 179–182. . Four nuns from Holy Cross and five African American women worked as nurses on the Navy's Red Rover. 1863 Pauline Cushman, an actress, served on the Union side as a spy dressed in male uniform. She was given a volunteer reserve commission as a major and became known as Miss Major Cushman. By the end of the war in 1865 she was touring the country giving lectures on her exploits as a spy, and was presented by P.T. Barnum in New York.Hall, Richard H. (2006). Women on the Civil War Battlefront. Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas. p. 233. .Tsui, Bonnie (2006). She Went to the Field: Women Soldiers of the Civil War. Guilford: Two Dot. p. 99. . Ann Bradford Stokes enlisted as a ship's nurse in the Navy. 1864 Clara Barton, the "Florence Nightingale of America", was appointed by Union General Benjamin Butler as the "lady in charge" of the hospitals for the Army of the James in 1864. Already known as the "Angel of the Battlefield""Clara Barton | American Red Cross Founder | Who is Clara Barton". American Red Cross. Retrieved December 9, 2016. for rendering aid to an overwhelmed surgeon following the August 1862 Battle of Cedar Mountain in northern Virginia, as well as for her repeated assistance to troops in the battles of Fairfax Station, Chantilly, Harpers Ferry, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Charleston, Petersburg and Cold Harbor,Howard, Angela; M. Kavenik, Frances (1990). Handbook of American Women's History, Vol. 696. NY: Garland. pp. 61–62. she came under fire during an incident in which a bullet pierced the sleeve of her dress, traveled through it and killed the soldier she was nursing. Rose O'Neal Greenhow worked as a Confederate Spy until her death in October 1864.
1865 Florena Budwin became the first American woman to be buried in a national cemetery. Prior to her death, she had disguised herself as a man to join the Union Army.Hall, Richard H. (2006). Women on the Civil War Battlefront, p. 148. .Blanton, DeAnne (2002). Women Soldiers in the American Civil War: They Fought like Demons. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press. pp. 79. . February 17: Confederate soldier Mollie Bean was captured by Union forces while disguised as a man. When questioned, she said she had served for two years and had been wounded twice.Leonard, Elizabeth D. (1999). All the Daring of the Soldier: Women of the Civil War Armies. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company Inc. pp. 222. .Hall, Richard H. (2006). Women on the Civil War Battlefront, p. 150. .