5.22.13

They Fought Like Demons

This is what I have been reading lately, and I really am enjoying it. It is not my usual choice for books. It is actually more like a history book than the types of reading I have been doing lately. I knew about a few of the soldiers that Blanton and Cook wrote about but they have so many more details and documented stories of others I did not even know about. 

Instead of setting each chapter to detail one woman at a time, the authors put together topics and then related information from the women known to have served on one side or the other. For instance, I never gave a thought about why a woman would choose to enlist but many of them had more at stake than following sweetheart, husband, brother or father.

They Fought Like Demons

 

For some, it was the only way to make a living wage--living as men. Some may even have been the first women to vote in a national election since they were disguised as men!

Other chapters include details about their experiences in combat, time served as POWs, and the regard and esteem their fellow soldiers had for them. More than one or two became officers, though none, I think, above the rank of Captain or perhaps Major. A woman may go disguised as a male youth, but a young "man" in "his" twenties does not get promoted to general. Interestingly, some of the officers gave birth while at war, surprising their fellows. Well, maybe not ALL of their fellows.

It is not a quick read because it is not filled with fluff. It is a pleasure to find myself back into reading every night and I am glad to have come across this book in my local library.