They Fought Like Demons: Women Soldiers in the American Civil War (review)

Over the past decade, historians have focused new attention on the subject of gender and war, exploring how women have participated in the military. What limits and opposition to military service have they experienced? Under what conditions have new opportunities emerged? And how do American gender systems and military culture interact? To various degrees, the authors address these questions, examining how female soldiers enlisted in Civil War armies and avoided detection; what combat and noncombat duties they performed; under what conditions and with what consequences their sex was revealed; to what extent their activities were known; and by what criteria their behavior was adjudged.

The secrecy surrounding deviant behavior limits the authors' sources and qualifies their conclusions. Three collections of letters home exist, two published memoirs, and no diaries. Nevertheless, reports of women in uniform, usually nameless or pseudonymous, emerge from accounts by male soldiers, newspapers, and military records. The authors identify 250 female soldiers, of whom 70 percent fought for the Union and 30 percent the Confederacy. Their average length of service was two years. One of three died from disease, two from wounds, for a fatality rate of 11 percent. Casualties afflicted 44 percent of female soldiers while eighteen percent were captured. Most were discovered through casualty or accident (72 percent); 10 percent remained undetected; and 17 percent served openly.

The authors argue that these women passed as men seeking economic privileges and social opportunities closed to their sex, their efforts comprising a personal rebellion against gender conventions. Their soldiering differed little from men's. They served in every rank from musician to major. None were court-martialed for failure to perform their duty. Three deserted, two of whom re-enlisted. Additionally, the authors assert that female soldiers emulated the heroines of popular fiction featuring the woman warrior as plucky and attractive. So long as their histories reflected romantic themes (enlisting to accompany, revenge, or win their man), they garnered contemporary approval. Narrative construction aside, Blanton and Cook reveal military service in the Civil War to be a family affair: women enlisted with fathers, brothers, husbands, and sisters.

This material foregrounds matters of sex, gender, and sexuality. Women who sought to enlist openly were rejected, while those who presented themselves as men found acceptance due to cursory physical examinations and pressure to fill ranks. Officers reacted harshly to uncovered women, dismissing them from service and remanding them to civilian authorities for punishment. Enlisted men valued skilled soldiering and camaraderie above policing the boundaries of sex distinction. Blanton and Cook explain the mechanisms by which female soldiers transformed themselves, illustrating the ease of gender crossing and asking whether success rested upon a gender ideology of sex difference. Further discussion of how military service enhanced gender passing after the war would enhance our understanding of the relationship between the warrior and masculinity at mid-century. The working-class origins of female soldiers requires greater theorizing, and childbirth among female soldiers more analysis.

Although limited sources produce some repetition in a book organized topically, this is a well researched and highly readable account, rich in anecdotes, and recommended for general as well as scholarly readers.