During the American Civil War the United States faced two problems: preventing the Southern United States from withdrawing from the Union, and keeping their southern neighbor, Mexico, from falling into the hands of France. However, this proved more easily said than done, and so, from 1862 to 1867, France and the United States stood on the brink of war.

In 1861, as the southern states announced their withdrawal from the Union and war fever gripped the American people, Benito Juarez, the president of Mexico, announced that Mexico would not honor it's debts to European nations. Those being chiefly England, France, and Spain, who in 1862 sent a 10,000-man joint military expedition to Mexico to collect by force the money they were owed. Washington, aware of this movement, did nothing to hinder the operation, feeling that the action was justified. Louis Napoleon, Emperor of France, however, was intent on more than just collecting an unpaid debt. He wanted to depose Juarez, set up a puppet state in Mexico, and emulate in the New World a grand Catholic empire to rival the Protestant colossus of the United States. England and Spain were able to resolve their debt problems and withdrew their soldiers in May of 1862. France, on the other hand, soon had 30,000 troops in Mexico intent on overthrowing the government despite an American warning from United States Secretary of State William Seward that stated, "The United States would not tolerate a European monarchy in the Western Hemisphere imposed by force."(1)

Washington supported the Juarez government and viewed the French incursion as, "A blatant violation of the Monroe Doctrine."(2) United States President Abraham Lincoln, watching his own country being torn apart by a bloody civil war, could do little to aid the Mexican regime, as the bulk of his nation's material and manpower was going towards battling the South. Louis Napoleon had often expressed his support of the Confederacy, but had been reluctant at first to offer diplomatic recognition unless Britain did as well. So in July 1862, he turned down Confederate President Jefferson Davis' offer to support his Mexican enterprise in exchange for formal recognition and naval aid in breaking the Union blockade of the Southern ports for fear of facing the Union Navy without British assistance. In the fall of 1862, however, facing some small supply problems, Napoleon tried to institute a six month armistice between North and South, hoping somehow that this action might benefit him. Napoleon hinted that if the North rejected the proposal, it might give France reason to recognize the South officially or even to intervene militarily. Yet in early 1863, when the French ambassador to Washington suggested bringing the North and South together for negotiations, Congress formally resolved that any foreign government making such proposals was committing an "unfriendly act".(3)

Abraham Lincoln could do little but watch as the French army captured Mexico City in June 1863, and Louis Napoleon had Archduke Maximilian of Austria crowned Emperor of Mexico. Though this action worried Washington, fearing what Napoleon might do next, they knew they had to deal with more immediate concerns. Bloody battles against Confederate forces, such as Gettysburg, and The Wilderness throughout 1863 and 1864, had constantly drained he Federal armies of experienced officers and enlisted men, posing a problem for Washington if they were to subdue the sessionist states in the coming year.

However troublesome the southern situation looked, Lincoln was well aware of the threat posed by France, and so to thwart any possible French attack, Lincoln diverted some of his soldiers from strategic areas in the mid-West to present an impotent show of force along the Mexican border, an area of military insignificance in the war against the Southern states. As the year 1865 dawned and the Confederacy was visibly on the verge of collapse Secretary of State Seward sent a message to Napoleon announcing that "Washington would recognize only the government of Benito Juarez and that the United States would take an increasingly active role in seeing that government reinstated."(4) No sooner had this occurred and the guns fallen silent over Appomattox in April, that Lincoln sent a veteran force of 50,000 federal troops, designated by Congress as the "Army of Observation"(5) under the command of the bellicose General Philip H. Sheridan, to the Rio Grande River in Texas, as a planned expeditionary force into Mexico. (When the Union armies were canvassed for potential volunteers- 109,000 offered to go.) At the same time, crates of new American Springfield rifles and ammunition found their way across the Rio Grande, while American emissaries began to meet with Juarez's representatives to discuss how the Yankees might best help expel the French. Finally, a plan was agreed on that would call for the Union fleet to attack and sink the French fleet in Vera Cruz, thus eliminating the French retreat, then the Federal Army would advance into Mexico through Texas and, with the aid of Mexican forces destroy the French army in detail.

Louis Napoleon was ultimately a realist. He knew it was one thing to ask his 30,000 men to beat a rag-tag Mexican force, but that it was quite another to ask them to face an American army on land and a Federal fleet of ironclads along the coast. So in 1865 Napoleon capitulated, agreeing on the gradual withdrawal of his troops from Mexico. In 1867 Napoleon ordered the last contingent of French troops from Mexico City back down the road to Vera Cruz, thus eliminating France's threat to United States' security.

Though the invasion of Mexico by American forces never took place, and no formal battle was ever fought between American and French forces, the events that transpired in Mexico if continued on course, would have drawn both sides into a conflict that neither wanted nor was fully prepared for. However, the French incursion into Mexico showed the resolve of the United States, even in the midst of civil war, to hold firm to its belief in the Monroe Doctrine and not be swayed by the presence of a foreign power.

Many women did more than wait at home while the men went off to fight the Civil War. Wives and mothers of both the north and south took over farms, worked in factories, tended to the wounded and dying, and knitted clothing for the soldiers. Some of the more adventurous women even served as spies. And bolder still were those who disguised themselves as men and actually fought in the war. (Colman 98)

At the time the war began, everyone believed a woman's place was in the home. Women were expected to stay home and cook and clean for their family. Unmarried women were never even let out of the house without a chaperon (Cosner 4). Nonetheless, ladies' societies directed their attention to the care, feeding and nursing of the armies on both sides. Along with collecting and distributing supplies, these relief societies trained nurses for work in hospitals and on the battlefield (American Civil War Association).

There were very few doctors available to care for the thousands of wounded soldiers, so women wanted to help. But it was highly unlikely in the 1800s for a woman to be asked for here assistance in a hospital or on the battlefield. Doctors resisted the thought of women in hospitals. They thought women would be "useless annoyances" who would talk too much and spoil the patients (Cosner 5).

At the beginning of the Civil War, the only women authorized to care for male patients were those with religious orders. The first female nurses carried abroad in a wartime hospital ship were four sisters from the Order of the Holy Cross who boarded the Red Rover. The Red Rover was a steamer that was being used as a "floating hospital" for Confederate soldiers (Cosner 5).

Women stood up for their rights and demanded to be allowed in the hospitals. One who succeeded was Mary Ann Bickerdyke, described as "a large, heavy woman with muscles of iron and nerves of the finest steel". When the war broke out she went to the nearest hospital to help but was told there was no room for her. She simply refused to be turned away. Mary Ann firmly said that she was not leaving and that if they put her out one door she would come through another. "And if you bar the doors, I will come through the window. In fact, if anyone leaves, it will be you!" Hundreds of other women wanted to help in hospitals so desperately that they disguised themselves as male doctors (Cosner 5).

Both the Union and Confederate governments eventually realized the great potential women had for tending to the diseased, wounded and dying. In August, 1861, Dorothea Dix was made Superintendent of Nurses for the Union army. She set up strict conditions for the training of women. Dorothea proclaimed that women must be at least 30 years old and plain looking if they wished to be a nurse. She did not like hoops, bows, curls, or jewelry but preferred women who wore ordinary gray, brown or black dresses (Burstyn 61). Some women such as Georgeanna Woolsey who was 28, and Cornelia Hancock, whose "cheeks were too rosy" were turned down by Miss Dix. But they got on the train with the rest anyway, and when they arrived in Gettysburg, help was needed so badly that they were received happily even though Miss Dix had not chosen them (Cosner 8).

Over 3,000 women became army nurses during the Civil War. Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, was one of them. She had been interested in nursing since she was eleven years old when she had to care for her brother for two years after he fell off the roof of a barn. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, she asked for permission to help at the battlefields. Eventually she was allowed to take a mule team loaded with medical supplies for the wounded and dying (Cosner 8). "While our soldiers stand and fight," said Clara "I can stand and feed and nurse them" (American Civil War Association). Her great efforts and accomplishments resulted in world fame and the title "Angel of the Battlefield" (Cosner 8). When the war ended, Clara continued to help by supervising a "systematic search for missing soldiers" (Barton 1).

"The touch of a woman's hands came to have a meaning all its own during the war. The rough kindness of a comrade was as nothing compared to the gentle ministrations of a thrice-blessed damsel" (American Civil War Association).

Many women who started as nurses in the army were later made scouts and spies. Women proved to be very effective spies. Since they were viewed as passive observers, they were more easily able to obtain and relay military secrets. They were suspected less quickly than men and punished less severely if caught. Although they usually were not hanged, as male spies were, many were arrested and imprisoned (American Civil War Association).

A great number of women risked the various dangers of spying. Some hid on the enemy's territory and sent messages out with couriers. Others traveled back and forth themselves, relaying the vital information they overheard. Some used clever disguises.

Spies had a variety of creative ways to send the crucial information they obtained. A secret message could be written with invisible ink in-between the lines of an ordinary letter or written on onion skins and then slipped into a slit on the sole of a messenger's shoe. Sometimes they were written on pieces of silk and sewn into a piece of clothing or hidden behind large metal buttons. Confederate spy Elizabeth Carraway Howland sent information in the hollow bone of a ham. Another Confederate spy, known as Mrs. M, wrapped a message around her dog's body and then sewed a layer of fake fur around it (Colman 19).

Women also made great spies because of their clothing. All sorts of things could be hidden in the bonnets, long corsets, false hair, and drawstring bags. The rings of steel wires that puffed out their full hoop skirts were perfect for hanging military maps, secret diagrams, bottles of medicine, guns, swords, and army boots. Sometimes a person could be hidden in one of these full skirts. Southerner, Mary Chesnut wrote: "All manner of things, they say, come over the border under the huge hoops now worn. So they are ruthlessly torn off. Not legs but arms are looked for under hoops. And, sad to say, found" (American Civil War Association).

Women Civil War spies were brave, committed and clever. They led an extremely dangerous life and risked a lot to help their side win a battle. Their stories are amazing and often unbelievable.

The soldiers helped by these females spies were truly grateful. A message was sent from Major Thomas Jordan to the spy Rose O'Neal Greenhow after the Confederate victory at the Battle of Bull Run. It read: "Our President and our General direct me to thank you. We rely upon you for further information. The Confederacy owes you a debt." General-in-Chief Ulysses Grant wrote a message to Union spy Elizabeth Van Lew after his troops captured Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy. This one said: "You have sent me the most valuable information received from Richmond during the war" (Colman 16-17).

The Civil War touched the lives of the women in the United States just as much as it affected the lives of the men. They played numerous roles ranging from nurses to spies. "Truly woman's influence over the destiny of a nation was never more proclaimed, or sincerely acknowledged and felt, than during the late struggle" (American Civil War Association).

The armaments of man have undergone radical changes since their conception in ancient times. Mankind has progressed from stone wielding cave-dwellers to urbanites capable of destroying entire cities at great distances. Marking a new age in modern warfare, many of the monumental changes in military technology originated in the period between the American Revolutionary War and the Civil War. In marked contrast, the weapons of the Civil War were more capable weapons than their predecessors had been. The development of the modern rifle is one such weapon whose origins are derived from such advances as those utilized during the American Civil War.

For ages prior to the Civil War, warfare was conducted mainly with the rapidly aging flintlocks. The archaism of this method inspired a new era of progression. An epochal development in ignition systems was the invention of the percussion lock by Reverend Alexander Forsyth1. The Scottish minister experimented with chemical fulminates as primers and discovered that it exploded more readily when struck sharply rather than being burned like blackpowder.2. Forsyth's discovery of a new form of ignition paved the way for the invention of the Shaw cap lock. An English artist residing in Philadelphia, Shaw used Forsyth's fulminate to dispense with the priming pan that was indicative of all earlier systems altogether. In Shaw's lock, a small steel nipple stuck upwards from the barrel with a small hole connecting the nipple to the interior powder chamber. The invention called for a small steel cap, which he would later change to cooper, to be fitted over the nipple. The cap contained a small pellet of fulminate and when struck with the hammer, the fulminate exploded and set off the main charge. The cap itself was blown to pieces and the lock was ready for another shot.3. Completed in 1816 and adopted by the United States Army in 18424. Shaw's lock paved the way for a new breed of weapon.

Test carried out to compare the performance of flintlocks versus cap locks showed that the British Brown Bess (a flintlock) failed to fire one thousand out of six thousand times. The new percussion cap lock failed just six times out of six thousand shots.5 Practice also showed that the Brown Bess was inaccurate at ranges greater than one hundred yards.6 At one hundred yards, a percussion cap lock was capable of accurately hitting and penetrating eight inches of pine.7 With the cap lock's advantages of reliability, range and accuracy, in addition to speed, it was clear that the days of the flintlock's domination were ended.

Another significant development in the field of firearms was that of the barrel. Early muskets had been smoothbore, that is, a plain inner surface which was best suited to firing a round ball. In order for the ball to be slid down the barrel, however, there had to be a small gap between the ball and the bore. This gap allowed the propelling gases to escape and thus lessened the power of the shot. This gap also caused the bullet to bounce around inside the barrel before exiting, thereby causing inherent inaccuracy.8 With the rifled barrel, however, spiral grooves were cut into the barrel. On its way out of the barrel, the projectile engaged those grooves and began to spin. The rotation thus acquired continues during flight, giving gyroscopic stability which equalizes any erratic flight which may occur due to irregularities or density of the shot.9 This simple yet effective innovation allowed for greater precision on the field of battle.

In conjunction with the improvement of the barrel was the improvement of the projectile that it fired. The slug fired by early muskets were universally lead balls, but with the dawn of rifling, these proved to be obsolete. Methods evolved which eventually led to the ideal bullet. The French had developed a method by which rows of soft lead studs were places around the slug and corresponded to the rifling grooves. The shooter would line up the studs and the slug rammed home. This way, the bullet was guaranteed to spiral.10 Despite the occasional innovation such as this, the spherical projectile remained relatively unchanged until 1823, when a new elongated bullet was invented in England by Captain Norton.11 His invention, the Minie ball, revolutionized firearms. Shaped much like the modern bullet, the Minie ball contained a small iron cup fitted into a hallowed-out base and was slightly smaller than the bore of its gun. The bullet slid easily down the barrel and when fired, the exploding gases pressing into the iron cup which pressed apart the base, thus expanding it into the rifling. Because the expanded base gripped the rifling more tightly, it produced a more accurate shot due to the more effective gyroscopic stability. Also, the expanded base sealed off the bore, allowing no gases to escape. The entire force of the gas was therefore propelling the bullet without wasted energy. This improvement was a milestone in the development of the bullet and lended to the efficiency of firearms.12

The development of the percussion rifle used during the Civil war ushered in a new era in firearms. It is these monumental changes in the methods with which man combated on another that spawned many of the modern weapons systems of today. With the developments made during the time period of the American Civil War, the face of warfare was radically and irrevocably altered in its production of more efficient and more powerful killing machines.