Forwarded from the Watson list....interesting reading. To: <WATSON-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, June 08, 2002 11:12 AM Subject: [WATSON] Women in the Civil War > Many courageous females wanted to fight and even die for the North and South. > > Back then, gals were forbidden to join the armed forces. But that didn't > stop these intrepid females. They simply bound up their breasts, cut their > tresses and signed up. > > What surprised me the most is that these women did something so unacceptable > to society at that time, but they were so accepted by the men they served in > the ranks with," says DeAnne Blanton, a military archivist at the National > Archives in Washington, DC, and co author of the new book They Fought Like > Demons: Women Soldiers In The American Civil War. > > "On the battlefirle people couldn't afford to indulge in social conventions." > > Blanton's research began when she met Lauren M Cook, who had been > participating in Civil War reenactments. Cook began her quest into the > buried secrets after being kicked out of the Amtietam National Battlefield in > > Sharpsburg, Md. She went there disguised as a man, but then she had to used > the restroom. > > "Someone told a park ranger he saw a soldier coming out of the ladies' room," > > remembers Cook. > > The ranger informed her there were no women soldiers and told her to hit the > road. > > She sued the National Park Service and won. > > During the highly publicized suit, Florida resident Ruth Goodier wrote Cook > to tell her about her g grandmother's older sister Sarah Rosetta Wakeman, who > > had served two years in the 153rd New York Volunteer Infantry as a man named > Lyons Wakeman. Goodier sent a picture and also the letters her g aunt wrote > home before dying in an Army hospital from the effects of chronic diarrhea. > Cook got the fascinating notes published in a tome called An Uncommon > Soldier (Oxford University Press), but still wanted to find others like > Wakeman. > > While at the National Archives, she met Blanton. The two scoured the country > > for letters, diaries, old newspaper clippings and army rosters. They found > 250 women, such as Sarah Edmonds, who fought under the name Franklin > Thompson, and detailed their lives as civilians and as soldiers. > > And that number, they say, is just the tip of the iceberg. Many of the brave > > females were either unmasked immediately and sent home in shame or lasted > until the war's end and returned to become wives and mothers who hid their > battle adventures from a society that would not approve. > > Most satisfying to Cook was the discovery that the park ranger who tossed her > > out was wrong. At least eight female soldiers dressed as men DID serve at > Antietam, where on Sept 17, 1862, 22,000 Union and Confederate troops were > killed in the war's bloodiest single day. > > Five of those who died on the battlefield were women. > > Linda in California > > > AlienWebResearch.com > >