Table of Contents
I. Introduction and Scope
II.
Subject Headings and Browsing Areas
III. Autobiography and Biography
IV. Dictionary and Encyclopedia
V.
Periodical Articles
VI. Internet Sources
Introduction and Scope
There were women who
defied all gender norms to pass as men so that they could enlist and fight in the U.S. Civil War. At the time the only examination
given prior to enlisting was verbal questions. There was no physical exam. Thus, women who dressed and acted like a man were
able to fight in the arm. Sometimes their gender was revealed by army doctors
or when they died but the majority of women who fought carried their secret with them when the war was over. Some female soldiers
were buried as men, some deserted if they were wounded so that they could avoid discovery, a few tried to live out their days
as men.
This pathfinder offers
a layperson a chance to read about women who fought as men and later revealed their stories. A few former female warriors
were discovered when they revealed their past because they applied for an army pension.
Others left letters that have come to light. A few more wrote autobiographies that described their experiences. The works cited here reveal the most famous of these women – the first ones
to be written about and researched. Interest in these women has grown in the last thirty years as the field of women’s
history has become legitimized and expanded.
The information listed in this pathfinder is limited due
to the nature of the subject. It is challenging to find these stories when women were often reluctant to share their stories
because they had so greatly violated the Victorian gender norms and their tales were quite shocking. It is thought that many
drifted back into their feminine roles and lived out their lives in obscurity. As their male names may have had no relation
to their female names another level of secrecy was added to hide them from history. However, information continues to appear,
letters and journals are found in attics and military records are found and as they do they are scoured by historians seeking
to bring these stories into the light. Many more stories are out there waiting
to be discovered.
All of the works referenced
in this pathfinder can be found in the University of Maryland library system.
Subject Headings and Browsing Areas:
“Women Soldiers Civil
War”
“Women Civil War”
“Female Soldiers Civil
War”
“Women Soldiers Civil
War”
“Civil War Soldiers
Women”
Call Numbers
LOC – Civil War E461-655
UB416-419 Minorities, women, etc. in armed
forces
Biographies and Autobiographies
This section contains the autobiographies and biographies of women who fought
in the U.S. Civil War that are available in the University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland. The biographies describe the
roles the women played in the war and what life was like for them within these roles.
They also provide a woman’s view of the war, which is uniquely different from the majority of books available
on the subject of the Civil War.
Abbott, D.L.: Kristoffer, G. (2004).
Honor Unbound. Dallas: Hamilton Books.
Focusing solely on her role in the Civil War, this book examines Sarah
Emma Edmonds' role as a soldier.
Blanton, D.: Cook, L.M. (2002).They
Fought Like Demons: Women Soldiers in the American Civil
War. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. (E628 .B52)
This book discusses what have become the better known women
soldiers from the Civil War. Included are photographs of the women as soldiers
and the same women dressed as women. It also contains a fairly extensive bibliography. DeAnne Blanton has worked as an archivist
for many years at the National Archives and has researched this subject quite extensively.
Burgess, L. C. (1994). An Uncommon
Soldier : The Civil War letters of Sarah Rosetta Wakeman, alias Private
Lyons Wakeman, 153rd Regiment, New York State Volunteers. Pasadena, Maryland: The Minerva Center. (E628 .W35)
This collection of letters contains a foreword by James
McPherson who gives the basic scenario in which Wakeman’s private letters are contextualized. Having joined the war for financial purposes, these letters reveal the private thoughts and struggles of
Wakeman’s life in the Civil War.
Edmonds, Sarah. (1865, 1975). Nurse
and spy in the Union Army; comprising the adventures and experiences of a woman in hospitals, camps and battle-fields.
Hartford, W.S. Williams & Co.; Philadelphia [etc.] Jones Bros. & Co. (Microfilm. New Haven, Conn., Research
Publications, 1975. 1 reel. 35 mm. (History of women, Reel 324, no. 2213)
This autobiography, written by a female veteran of the
Civil War, describes her life in the army and beyond. Historians have critiqued
the book as being partially inaccurate based on battle records but it remains a fascinating, first-hand account of the war
from a woman who defied gender norms and fought as a man.
Gansler, L.L. (2005). The
Mysterious Private Thompson: The Double Life of Sarah Emma Edmonds, Civil War
Soldier. New York: Free Press. {E628 .G36 }
This book considers the life that Sarah Emma Edmonds lived,
both as a soldier and spy in the Civil War. It also discusses Edmonds’ life as a woman who twenty years after “deserting”
from the army applied for a pension and surprised her former comrades.
Hall, R. (1993) Patriots in Disguise
: Women Warriors of the Civil War. Richard
Hall. New York: Paragon House. {E628 .H35}
While not exclusively about women soldiers in the Civil
War (nurses and spies are included here) this book utilizes historical documents, letters, and diaries to tell these women’s
stories.
Hall, R.H. (2006). Women on the Civil War Battlefront. Lawrence : University Press of Kansas. {E628 .H35}
This book is a recent account of many of the women who
fought as men in the Civil War. This book contains information that continues to come to light about the large number of women
soldiers in the Civil War.
Leonard, E. (1999). All The Daring of the Soldier: Women of the Civil
War Armies. New York : W.W. Norton & Co.
{E628 .L45}
This author looked at memoirs, archives and the work of
other researchers to give a broad account of women who fought in the Civil War.
Velazquez, L.J. (2003, updated version). The Woman in Battle : The Civil War
Narrative of Loreta Janeta Velazques, Cuban woman and Confederate soldier. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
{E605 .V43}
An autobiographical piece written by a female veteran of
the Civil War, this book focuses on the author’s account of the war itself and the role that she played in it. Historians
are divided as to the accuracy of the entire book.
Dictionary and Encyclopedia
This section contain reference
material some of which contains information about specific women fighting in the Civil War as well as more generalized information
to help contextualize the war in which the women found themselves embroiled. Encyclopedias are terrific ways to begin your
research into a subject, and these encyclopedias are no exception.
Heidler. D.S.&Heidler
J.T. (Ed). Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: a political,
social, and military history. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 2000. {E468 .E53 2000}
You can search this encyclopedia using the names of the
most famous women soldiers in the Civil War (Sarah Emma Edmonds, Albert Cashier) and many results will come up.
Harper, J.E.
(Ed.). Women during the Civil War [electronic resource]: an encyclopedia. accessed at {http://www.netlibrary.com/Details.aspx}. {E628 .H37
2004eb}
This encyclopedia offers information about women soldiers
in the war. It also discusses all of the other roles that women played and gives biographical information about many of these
women.
Boarner, M.M. III & Northrop,
A.C. & Miller. L.I. (Eds.).The Civil War Dictionary. New York, N.Y.: McKay, 1 {E468 .B7 1988}
This dictionary does not relate directly to women soldiers in the Civil War but it
does provide a good overview of the most important battles, people and events in the war.
Index
Academic Search Premiere. Academic Search Premiere is a searchable database that contains the full text for over 4,000
scholarly publicaions. The database offers a bit of information about women soldiers in
the Civil War. The key search words to be used are the specific names of the female soldiers, i.e. Sarah Emma Edmonds, Albert
Cashier, etc.
Journal Articles
Below are journal articles that talk specifically about the female soldiers
in the war – both some of the famous and the newly discovered (Cathay Williams.) Each one is helpful in understanding
the women who took up arms in the war.
Blanton, D.A. (1994, Spring). “Women Soldiers of the Civil War.”
Prologue Magazine, 25(1).
The Army had tried to erase all traces of women from
the records but Blanton reasserts female soldiers who fought in the Civil War.
Grant, K. (2007, March). “A Private’s Secret”. American Legion, 162(2) 15.
The article focuses on the ability of African American
slave Cathay Williams to disguise gender for two years in the U.S. Army. Williams began a two-year stint with the 38th Infantry of the Buffalo Soldiers in November 1866.)
Anonymous (2008, November). “Count Off 8”. America's Civil War,21(2). 15.
This is a sidebar article which mentions 8 different
facts about the Civil War – one of which is about women who fought in the war
Derrick, T.(2002, August/September). “Soldier Girl: the Emma Edmonds Story”, Beaver, 82(4),
26-32.
This is an overview of the life of Sarah Emma
Edmonds, female soldier in the Civil War.
Internet Sources:
This mixture of websites provides a great deal of information about the women
who fought in the Civil War. Some of the sites are about specific women and some offer more of an overview of female soldiers.
Included in this list are websites that discuss the regiments that two of the women fought in, offering an in-depth look at
the battles and skirmishes in which they fought.
http://womenshistory.about.com/od/civilwar/a/sarah_edmonds.htm
This website offers information about Sarah Emma Edmonds.
There are links to a section of her autobiography as well as visual images.
http://www.feminist.com/resources/artspeech/remember/rtl6.htm
This website offers a general overview of how and why women
fought in the Civil War.
http://www.outlawwomen.com/WomenSoldiersoftheCivilWar.htm
This website about the most well-known of the female Civil
War soldiers is written by researcher Deanne Blanton. It gives accounts of the women and offers photos as well as copies of
their Civil War documents in the National Archives.
http://www.hallrichard.com/civilwomen.htm
Written by female soldiers in the Civil War scholar and
author, Richard Hall, this website gives an excellent accounting of a few of these women.
http://albertcashier.com
Devoted entirely to one woman who fought in the Civil War,
Albert Cashier, this website offers a great deal of information. Photographs
and links to copies of her war records make this a fascinating and informative website.
This blogspot contains the more women soldiers than found on any of the other websites here.
Many women who are not yet known in the history books are here, complete with some wonderful drawings of the women.
http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/soldiers.cfm
This site allows you to look up the Civil War records of
all soldiers, including women who made it into the system by filing for a pension, who fought in the Civil War and tells you
what company they served in. It also gives a detailed account of where that company fought.
http://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-sarahwakeman.html
An accounting of Sarah
Wakeman’s life in the Civil War. It begins with her entrance into the 153 Regiment of the New York Volunteer
Army and ends with her exit from the military life. Included are two photographs.
http://www.civilwararchive.com/Unreghst/unnyin10.htm
This website gives a complete accounting of all New York
Regiments, including that of Sarah Wakeman’s. It provides a detailed history of every battle that the regiment was involved
in.
http://historynet.com
This is a historical
magazine online database that lists major American History magazines. After going to this website go to the search tab. Type
in “female soldiers Civil War” and articles from both the Civil War Times and American Civil War that are relevant
will appear and simply need to be clicked on. Also, anyone seeking additional, contextual information about the war can peruse
other articles
This
pathfinder was created by Beth Emmerling, updated 9/13/2018
