Traveling to History: Twenty Eight
AN ENDURING LEGACY: THE VITAL ROLES OF WOMEN AT FORT MONROE, VIRGINIA
By James F. Lee
Emily Hoffman, Visitor Engagement Manager at Fort Monroe Authority, gives an overview of the “Impactful Women” tour. (Photo by James F. Lee)
The Pie Woman
Everybody wanted Charlotte White’s pies. That’s why she was called the Pie Woman.
White was one of the thousands of freedom seekers who journeyed to Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia during the Civil War to escape slavery. A talented baker and entrepreneur, she created a successful business selling her enormously popular pies.
Charlotte White’s story was the first stop on our recent tour “Impactful Women of Fort Monroe,” an hour-long history walk given at the historic fort in honor of Women’s History Month. The tour will be offered throughout the year.
Our group of about twenty met at the Visitor and Education Center and were greeted by guide Emily Hoffman, Visitor Engagement Manager at Fort Monroe Authority.
A photograph of Charlotte White, the “Pie Woman,” taken in the 1880s. (Courtesy of Fort Monroe Authority Archives)
During our walk, we learned that women had played a crucial, yet largely unappreciated, role throughout the history of the U.S. Army. Hoffman shared their stories and brought to light the important role Fort Monroe played in the gender and racial integration of the armed forces.
In Charlotte White’s case, she became a respected figure in the Hampton and military communities.
“She had a skill, she built a business, and she became famous here,” said Hoffman.
In addition to selling her pies, she worked for the family of Colonel John Tidball, a Civil War hero and later commandant of the coastal artillery school at Fort Monroe. That Tidball employed White to care for his busy household with five young children was a testament to the trust in which she was held and highlighted the role of women as caregivers assisting those in uniform.
Women Helping Women
Our second stop was in front of the mustard colored Victorian house at 32 Ruckman Road, formerly single officers’ housing around the time of World War I. In 1918, one of the officers living there, Lt. F.G. Epling, married Helen Young.
Fort Monroe from the air, 2004. (U.S. Army photo, {{PD-US}})
As a young Army wife, Helen Epling quickly learned the problems faced by other military wives, running a household on their own, and making decisions they may not have faced before, especially if their husbands were away fighting.
During the World War I era, the Army didn’t provide much support for spouses, so women like Helen Epling formed their own communities.
“Women had to pick up the empty spaces, they had to fill in those gaps. And that’s what they did with the help of each other,” said Hoffman.
The skills Helen Epling learned from other women became especially important after World War II, when the U.S Army formalized assistance available to spouses through Army Wives Clubs.
Under the auspices of Army Wives Clubs, Epling and others organized thrift stores and lending closets at Army bases throughout the country to help newcomers adjust to their new roles. They hired outside experts to teach women new skills, such as managing finances and maintaining households. Proceeds from those enterprises went into scholarship funds for their children.
The Women’s Army Corps
A stop along the “Impactful Women” tour under the live oaks of Fort Monroe. (Photo by James F. Lee)
We next stopped under the shelter of a giant live oak on the edge of the Fort Monroe parade ground. Hoffman pointed out a large brick building, a former barracks that was converted into offices for the Women’s Army Corps (WAC). The WAC was created in 1943 during the height of World War II, when women were needed to fill vital roles to support the war effort.
Prior to the creation of the WAC, women’s roles in the U.S. Army were limited and without full benefits. The WAC gave women full military status, allowing them to serve in non-combatant positions such as mechanics, drivers, stenographers, air controllers, bakers, and office workers.
Despite the positive changes brought by the Women’s Army Corps, women still faced challenges. “Women were second-class citizens, they had restricted training, they had limited jobs and did not have the same opportunities or allocations that went for schools for men,” Major Flo Dunn once said in an interview read to us by Hoffman.
Dunn, whose long career in the Army stretched from 1956 to the Vietnam War, previously served in the very building we observed.
Women in general weren’t fully integrated into the Army until 1978, when the Women’s Army Corps was disestablished.
Before moving to our next stop, Hoffman explained that the U.S. military remained racially segregated until 1948, when President Truman’s executive Order 9981 banned racial segregation in the armed forces.
And here Fort Monroe and women led the way.
According to Hoffman, the first fully integrated WAC unit was located at Fort Monroe.
“They were housed together, cooked together. They went from zero to 100,” said Hoffman.
A WAC recruiting poster. (Source: Women of World War II. {PD-US})
Harriet Tubman, 1868-69 by Benjamin F. Powelson. This is a carte-de-visite (visiting card) of Tubman’s taken several years after her service at Fort Monroe. (Collection of the National Museum of African American History and Culture shared with the Library of Congress. {{PD-US}})
U.S. Army Nurse Corps
At our final stop, a former base hospital, Hoffman said that women have served as nurses and caregivers since the American Revolution, citing the Molly Pitchers who carried water to men during battle. By the Civil War, women served as trained nurses, many under the auspices of the U.S. Sanitary Commission.
One of those was Harriet Tubman, who had considerable experience as a nurse. In 1865, she briefly served as matron of the Colored Hospital at Fort Monroe, tending to sick and wounded Black troops.
The first professional women nurses at Fort Monroe were contracted from the Red Cross, caring for Spanish-American War soldiers suffering from typhoid fever and other ailments.
Eventually, the Army saw the merit in employing trained nurses permanently, forming the U.S. Army Nurse Corps in 1901. While an improvement over the previous volunteer and contract employment, these nurses were paid, but initially received no pensions or benefits.
One member of our group, Bowman Kell of Williamsburg, was particularly interested in this part of the tour. Her mother worked at Fort Monroe in the 1930s as a medical transcriptionist.
“It [the tour] really highlights how women have been overlooked in our history,” she said.
But as Hoffman added, “The stories are now being told.”
Army Nurse Corps recruiting poster. (Source: National Archives and Records Administration, and Women of World War II. {{PD-US}})
IF YOU GO
Building 83, 20 Ingalls Road, Fort Monroe, VA 23651
Hours: Various tours are offered throughout the year (check website)
Phone: 757-637-7778
Tickets: Free admission
