Customer Reviews

I'll Pass For Your Comrade: Women Soldiers in the Civil War

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It wasn't uncommon for women to want to join the ranks of either the Union or the Confederate armies during the Civil War. In fact it was much more common that many would suspect. Literally hundreds of women joined the ranks. Some were spies, some became nurses, many helped with the laundry while others even disguised themselves as men to join the ranks of the fighting men at the front. Still others like Julianna Parker Monroe were so anxious to join their husbands they actually left their children behind!

One very unusual woman, Malinda Blalock, who called herself Sam, fought for both the Union and the Confederacy. It wasn't all that difficult for many women to actually enlist because the physical was brief and they were not required to disrobe. Others just skipped the whole process, found a uniform and showed up for battle. It was more difficult to find a private moment to go to the bathroom undetected than it was to fight!

Illness was also one way many women could be discovered and one woman, Sarah Emma Edmonds, contracted malaria. Private Franklin Thompson, as she was known, did not want to risk discovery and fled. She didn't want to be a known deserter, but she had no alternative. "I would rather have been shot dead than to have been known to be a woman and sent away from the army."

This fascinating page turner is very well done and thoroughly researched. There is a wealth of Civil War photographs, not only of the women, but also related items such as engravings, battle scenes and one of Jennnie Hodgers's (Albert D. J. Cashier) tombstone with her military history engraved upon it. A solid appendix is included. This is a quality book that can easily find a home in a variety of settings from the classroom, the library to the homeschool.

This book, though good, really didn't live up to my expectations. Granted there isn't a lot of information out there about these ladies, but I think it could have been "filled out" more, and made them more real. I wouldn't really recommend for someone looking to reasearch the subject, but, as a general read it's okay.