Women have dedicated their lives to creating a clean, comfortable and welcoming home for their husbands and children. During the Civil War, however, women turned their attention to the world beyond the home. Thousands of women joined volunteer units and signed up to work as nurses during the war. It was the first time in American history that women played a significant role in the war effort. The civil war had become a women's war. The prolonged conflict has opened up even more opportunities for women. “When men left in uniform, women often took their jobs. Five hundred female employees became government employees, more than a hundred of them in the Treasury Department alone. Other women went to the front lines of the fighting. More than four hundred women accompanied the men into combat, posing as soldiers” (Kennedy & Cohen,