Women at Fort Warren: Civil War

A historical military installation like Fort Warren on Georges Island is often imagined as a masculine space. But during the Civil War, women lived and worked within the Fort’s walls, caring for the soldiers and the prisoners they guarded.

Just as organized militaries depend on rigid hierarchy to function, there existed a social hierarchy among the women at Fort Warren. The wives of commissioned officers were positioned higher than the wives of non-commissioned officers, who in turn had a superior social rank than the wives of the enlisted men as well as the laundresses and servants who worked at the Fort. The former two groups rarely mixed with the latter two.

Colonel Dimick and wife on George’s Island, 1990.

Contributor: Janet M. Burgermeister. Courtesy of the University Archives & Special Collections Department, Joseph P. Healey Library, University of Massachusetts Boston: Mass. Memories Road Show collection.

Wives of Commanding Officers

Mary Constantia Waldron was the wife of Colonel Justin E. Dimick, the commander of Fort Warren during the early years of the Civil War. As the wife of a career Army officer, Waldron accompanied her husband at his various postings around the country. When Colonel Dimick was transferred from Fort Monroe in Virginia to Fort Warren, she moved in as well. Waldron lived in Bastion D with her two daughters, Mollie and Mary, along with her son Justin Jr.

Being a military post on an isolated island, Fort Warren was not especially comfortable as a place to live. If Mary Waldron wanted to receive visitors, she had to get a written order from her husband allowing them visit the fort. She regularly interacted with a Confederate prisoner, Charles MacGill, who also served as a doctor at the Fort. At one point, Mollie supplied Dr. MacGill with sewing material.

Due to Colonel Dimick’s poor health, the Dimicks left Fort Warren in late 1863. Not long after they left, Mary Waldron died in Washington, DC in 1864 of natural causes. She is buried in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where she was born.

Mary Rice (Marsh) Appleton was the wife of Major John Appleton, Fort Warren’s commander in August 1865. She and her daughter Mabel were very friendly with Fort Warren’s most high-ranking political prisoner, Vice President of the Confederacy Alexander Stephens, and frequently conversed with him. Even after the Appletons left Fort Warren, Mary Appleton sent Stephens a letter and two photographs of herself, though neither the letter nor the photographs have been located. Stephens’ response indicates the close relationship he had with the family during their short time together:

Please present my highest regards to the Major when you write to him. Give little Mabel a kiss for me. The whole group—father, mother, and the little darling—will ever hold a cherished place in my memory.^[1]

Mary Appleton also maintained a friendship with Ann Seaverns, the wife of Fort Warren’s doctor, Joel Seaverns. While living at Fort Warren, Mary and Mabel resided on the east side of the sally port, near Bastion D.

Anna Winthrop (Chapman) Livermore took Mrs. Appleton’s place when her husband, Captain Charles Livermore, took over as commanding officer of Fort Warren. Like Mary Appleton, Anna Livermore engaged in polite conversation with Stephens, to whom she loaned a book written by her husband’s uncle, George Livermore. The book, An Historical Research Respecting the Opinions of the Founders of the Republic on Negroes as Slaves, as Citizens, and as Soldiers, was a staunchly anti-slavery text. Livermore apparently attempted to change Stephens’ mind on the subject, but he had little to say about the book. Stephens had a positive opinion of Livermore, though, whom he referred to as "very agreeable and well educated."^[2]

Women Workers and Volunteers

Fort Warren’s laundresses, who lived in quarters outside the Fort’s walls, worked there during the 1800s and are frequently mentioned in accounts from Confederate prisoners. They are variously described as being Irish and “Dutch” (in the parlance of the time, "Dutch" usually meant Deutsch or German). The name of only one laundress is known, Mrs. Nutler, whose son Charles was another friend of Alexander Stephens. After 1875, however, no available primary sources mention laundresses on the island.

During the war, at least one woman was employed as a contractor to the Fort. Mrs. Fanny Vining sold goods such as milk and soap, and she provided room and board for 85 of Fort Warren’s soldiers in May 1862.

Throughout the Civil War, the citizens of Boston made frequent donations of goods and commodities to Confederate prisoners held at Fort Warren. Some did it out of Christian charity, while others had more political motivations. The Salter family was part of the latter camp. Mrs. Salter, the sister of a Confederate officer, was a staunch Confederate sympathizer to the extent that she was barred from entering the Fort during the war. She and her daughter Mary sent food, newspapers, and other goods to the prisoners, including Alexander Stephens.

Women lived and worked at Fort Warren throughout the Civil War. Whether they were wives of high-ranking officers or laundresses and servants, women played an important role in maintaining Fort Warren during this crucial period of its history.

Contributed by: Raphael Pierson-Sante, SCA Historic Preservation Corps Crew Member

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Footnotes

[1] Alexander H. Stephens, Recollections of Alexander H. Stephens (New York: Doubleday, 1910), 521.

[2] Stephens, Recollections of Alexander H. Stephens, 452.

Sources

Stokinger, William A. and Beth Jackendoff, Fort Warren George’s Island Fort Tour Background Package, Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, 2008.

Snow, Edward Rowe, Historic Fort Warren, Boston Printing Company, 1941.

"Women at Fort Warren." Boston Harbor Islands Interpretive Binder. Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation.