Women In the Ranks -- Intro

Female Civil War Soldiers

Although I've started revisions on my time travel romance, Erin's Rebel, I'm also revising an outline for a new Civil War romance I'm calling, Katie Rose. Katie is a widowed Irish immigrant who takes up the rifle while disguised as a man in the Confederate ranks.

Through my research for this upcoming book, I've learned many interesting facts and have read biographies of the women who actually served in both the Union and Confederate armies pretending to be men.

Since women weren't allowed to join the army during this period in history as they can today, this was the only way they could serve as soldiers.

How did so many accomplish this and hide the fact that they were women?

A few of the women I'll highlight include: Sarah Emma Edmonds, Jennie Hodgers and Sarah Rosetta Wakeman. Although these three all served in the Union Army, I'll also include stories of female Confederate soldiers.

The main reference book I'll be using is All the Daring of the Soldier: Women of the Civil War Armies by Elizabeth D. Leonard, but I'll also use a few other source books as well as supply interesting links for further reading.

In past blogs on this site, I've talked about women who served as nurses and even one who was a Union surgeon. But through this series of blogs, I plan to highlight the true stories of these brave, unsung women heroes who fought alongside the men in battle. I'll talk about why and how they hid their identities, as well as their day to day challenges. I'll also provide interesting links for further reading.

Hope you enjoy.

Source: All the Daring of the Soldier: Women of the Civil War Armies by Elizabeth D. Leonard: Penguin Books, copyright 1999: ISBN: 0-14-029858-4