Women Who Wear the Breeches: The REpresentation of Female Civil War Soldiers in Mid-Nineteenth Century Newspapers

Abstract

It has been estimated that approximately 400 women disguised themselves as men and fought as soldiers in the Civil War. Using newspaper articles from the midnineteenth century, this essay tells the story of these soldiers and demonstrates how wartime public knowledge of them was widespread and that they were regarded positively considering the strict gender boundaries that they crossed. It also argues that the estimate of the number of female soldiers should be much higher than previous historians have reported.