There are undoubtedly some exceptions to this rule: a woman may have deemed her letters or her journal an inappropriate place for that type of personal information or may have been so deeply concerned for her loved one that she could not write about it. These conclusions are based on the assumption that if a woman knew a man involved in the war she would mention him in her letters or diaries. Those who did not mention the war service of a family member, however, had less of a tendency to do something for the war effort, and if they wrote of the war at all it often consisted of war news culled from local newspapers and gossip about their local areas. The women who wrote of a husband, brother, or son participating in some way were more likely to feel the need to contribute themselves, even if that meant simply sewing garments and sending them to soldiers they knew. It became clear there was typically a distinction between women who had a loved one fighting or working for the government in Washington and those who did not. These younger women, often under the age of 30 and unmarried, were capable of being more active because they were mobile, often childless, and unencumbered with family or social constraints imposed upon many married women. Younger women interested in helping the Union cause seemed more willing to do something a distance from their homes, such as traveling to Washington or the battlefields with such organizations as the United States Christian and United States Sanitary Commissions. For the most part, older women were more likely to participate through local organizations such as their churches or nearby hospitals by donating needed items or volunteering their personal time. Those women who did help with the Union cause appear to fit into a general pattern, with few exceptions. Some Philadelphians, who did not believe the war was fought for the right reasons, demonstrated in their writings that all northern women were not in support of the war. Jones Taylor, and Mary Clendenin Payne) provide a stark reminder of the Confederate perspectives on the war.

Women from the states of Virginia and Georgia (see the letters of Augusta Chaucey Twiggs, Margaretta H. While the vast majority of the papers reviewed here were written by ardent union women committed to the war effort, a few southern women are represented as well as some northern women who were not particularly interested in the war.

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