Women Doing Laundry for Federal Soldiers, ca. 1861 Some northern women were forced by their desperate financial circumstances to wash soldiers’ dirty clothes to make a living. Army camps were difficult places for “respectable” women to work. One Union soldier discouraged his wife even from visiting, noting, “It is not a fit place for any woman, for there is all kinds of talk, songs and everything not good for them 2 hear.” ©CORBIS.