Hey! That's a GIRL!! (Female Soldiers)

Discussion in 'Civil War' started by Kate, Jul 30, 2014.

  1. Kate

    Kate Active Member

    Did you know that there were some (granted, not a lot) women who pretended to be men during the Civil War? From the women who were "discovered" from both sides, nine died and fourteen others were either wounded or captured. Impossible to estimate how many of the soldiers who were buried as they died may have been women as well.

    When it comes to my beloved Gettysburg, I really shouldn't talk about "the boys in blue and gray" that participated in the Pickett-Pettigrew-Trimble Charge. It's not really fair to the woman Confederate soldier who was also killed there at the wall.

    Another girl wounded at Gettysburg while pretending to be a male lost her leg.

    The women that did this most likely did it for the pay. Not all, though... some joined to be able to be with their husband or sweetheart. And I suppose some just wanted the same "excitement" that many of the male soldiers thought enlisting would offer. How very wrong they all were. :(
     
  2. May102014

    May102014 New Member

    I knew about women serving in the Civil War as well. The unfortunate part is this fact is rarely discussed. I remember years ago, perhaps my freshmen year in college, I told a roommate about women serving in the Civil War. She was nonchalant and said she wasn't surprised. I understand not every person who fought in the Civil War will have their names known. However, I feel it is also important to bring more attention to women who gave their lives for the country in this battle.
     
  3. Kate

    Kate Active Member

    It's absolutely important, May102014... and it always makes me feel terrible when I realize that I have to almost come across these women by accident in my research to find anything out about them.

    And the deeper I dig, the worse it gets. There is a soldier journal (many of them kept journals) from someone who was at a field hospital when they discovered that one of the "boys" was a woman. It's not clear whether the soldier or the doctor said it, but *someone* there said that if she'd "stayed home with her mother where she belonged, she wouldn't have gotten hurt." That's the lack of respect that was shown for someone on the table to get her LEG amputated for her sacrifice just like the males. :(

    Yeah, I know... that's a GRRRR for sure!
     
  4. preacherbob50

    preacherbob50 Active Member

    A little known thing for sure was that some women did indeed have 1st hand experience in combat. Not only the civil war, but in nearly all of the early wars fought when this land was young. Women were expected to marry, get pregnant and stay at home, while daddy went off to war. From the revolutionary war on, there have been women on the front lines doing what they thought was the duty of every person who valued freedom. The shame is, our history shows that women not only fought in combat, or as a nurse on the front lines, or helping to make bullets, but after their contributions for our country, they had to fight to even be allowed to vote.
    Women who study, like you Kate, get upset at the attitudes that men had at the time. Well, check out the attitude now. There is a lot of hoopla over whether to allow women in actual combat. Some of the lady soldiers say,"heck ya, lemme at em" while others are balking. If they leave it up to the guys you know that the answer will be a difinitive, "no." Too much distraction they will say. In my opinion, since I've seen how hard women from other countries could fight, American soldiers are a little intimidated by the ladies. Ya'll fight hard and dirty!
     
    Last edited: Sep 25, 2014

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