At the core of this well-researched investigation into the role of women in the Civil War armies is a sensitivity to the plight of Victorian-era women. Leonard (Yankee Women) notes that "domestic service continued in the late nineteenth century to represent the primary waged occupation for women." It's no wonder, then, that a few intrepid women decided that the war offered them a better chance to be all that they could be. A Colby College history professor, Leonard has plowed through archives to bring readers the stories of dozens of women who served in both the Union and Confederacy during the Civil War. Some were spies, but many more adopted men's names, dressed in men's clothes and lived and fought and died alongside mostly unsuspecting men. One Union general "became outraged when an unnamed sergeant under his command `was delivered of a baby,' which, he irately noted `is in violation of all military law and of the army regulations.'" Often, when women were discovered in the ranks, they were accused of being clever prostitutes who enlisted because of the promise of steady business. Leonard dismisses this theory, noting that there was hardly a need for prostitutes to go incognito. Leonard's engaging portraits of these female soldiers are neatly contextualized, and she makes it clear that women enlisted because they were patriots, because they wanted to be near husbands and brothers and, perhaps above all, because they felt the war offered them a chance at autonomy and adventure. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

A collection of stories about women who spied for the Blue or the Gray or who disguised themselves in male attire to join the Civil War armies. Leonard (History/Colby Coll.) writes of famous documented female spies such as Belle Boyd, who provided intelligence to Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah; Rose O'Neal Greenhow, who reported Union intentions and positions to Confederate general Beauregard at the First Battle of Bull Run; Antonia Ford, who cultivated a friendship with Union general Stoughton while feeding information to Jeb Stuart that led to the ambush and capture of Stoughton, his troops, and supplies; Elizabeth Van Lew of Richmond, an antislavery Southerner who provided much underground intelligence to Yankee officers and tended Union POWs in Libby Prison; and Pauline Cushman, who scouted and spied for the Union Army of the Cumberland. Since the war was fought mostly on Southern soil, most female spies were Southerners who knew the land and people. Leonard offers many tales of women dressing as men who tried to follow their husbands or lovers into recruiting regiments where physical exams were minimal or nonexistent and who would mix with teenage ``beardless boys.'' They were attracted by generous bounty money and steady pay that was much higher then what they could earn as domestics, but patriotism and desire for adventure also played a role. Most were discovered eventually but were treated with traditional chivalry; even spies were usually simply discharged and sent home. Other women performed valuable services'nursing, washing, cooking, and smuggling letters, scarce medicines, and supplies in their ample clothing'but were tagged with the derogatory term ``camp followers.'' Leonard also cites heroic female performances on the battle-fronts: women treating wounded, seizing fallen colors, and taking up arms themselves. Useful for its chronicle of an often forgotten facet of the Civil War.

Using a wide variety of fragmentary, fugitive, and contradictory sources, Leonard has pulled together in one account a history of women associated with the Union and Confederate armies in the field during the Civil War. She excludes women who served as nurses and physicians. Successive chapters discuss women spies, major and minor; so-called daughters of the regiment; and those who enlisted in disguise as men. Even when dealing with the last category the author pays little attention to problematic questions of gender identity. Admitting patriotism and romantic attachment as motivation in some cases, Leonard points out that most of the army women were working class. For them the military offered attractive economic incentives. The book's detail and prose is colorful enough to satisfy the enthusiast looking for good stories and restrained enough to satisfy those wary of sensationalism. If the book offers few surprises, its comprehensiveness will remind scholars of the range of women's involvement in the war, and will provide grist for undergraduate mills. All levels. A. Graebner; College of St. Catherine