They Fought Like Demons: Women Soldiers in the Civil War

They Fought Like Demons: Women Soldiers in the Civil War is a fascinating account of the women who cut their hair, pulled on pants, and marched off to fight in the Civil War. I had some vague notion that women had done this, but I had never given it much thought before reading I Shall Be Near You earlier this year. The protagonist of that book, Rosetta Wakefield, is partially based on a real woman, 21-year-old Sarah Rosetta Wakeman, who was remarkable not only for what she did, but the fact that so many of her letters home survived, providing a unique window into the life of women soldiers.

Using Wakeman's correspondence, as well as letters from other women soldiers and from male soldiers that mention women soldiers, as well as newspaper articles and contemporary accounts - including two published autobiographical texts (those of Sarah Emma Edmonds and Loreta Janeta Velazquez), De Anne Blanton and Lauren M. Cook create a well-rounded profile of the women who fought from their motivations (love, money, patriotism) to their experiences in the field (blood, death, burial duty, prison camp, and - for a lucky few - childbirth) to their lives after the war (generally hard work, a healthy dose of awe and respect from those around them, and the occasional fight with the government for a veteran's pension).

In many ways, They Fought Like Demons reminds me of Debs at War: it is broader than it is deep, delving into the stories of individuals, but carefully keeping the reader focused on the bigger picture. Yet, the women could not be more different. While the latter looks at the favored daughters of the English aristocracy, the former is a portrait of hardscrabble women unconcerned with society's judgment who plunge headlong not into the war effort, but into the war itself.