Heroics in a hoopskirt.
They became outlaws to join the army.
Sarah Rosetta Wakeman enlisted in the 153rd New York Infantry as Private Lyons Wakeman. / Via ghostsofdc.org
Women were so eager to fight for the cause they cross-dressed to enlist as soldiers — a flagrant flouting of the law, as both the Union and Confederate armies forbade the enlistment of women. About 400 women traded their bonnets and dresses for a cap and trousers, passed a cursory medical exam, and went off to war. One Northern woman was a staunch abolitionist who fought because "slavery was an awful thing." A Southern counterpart was more bloodthirsty, yearning to "shoulder my pistol and shoot some Yankees." People were so accustomed to seeing women's bodies molded into exaggerated shapes with corsets and hoopskirts that no one could fathom what the female form might look like in pants, let alone an entire army uniform. Most of the ladies got away with their deception, with a few notable exceptions — including one corporal from New Jersey who gave birth while on picket duty.
Speaking of hoopskirts, they raised smuggling to an art form.
Cartoon depicting the more subversive benefits of crinoline: hiding quinine and weaponry. / Via The American Civil War Museum
Fashions of the times included crinoline, the rigid, cage-like structure worn under skirts, that, at the apex of its popularity, reached a diameter of six feet. Ladies capitalized on this cumbersome piece, using it to conceal all manner of goods as they passed through enemy lines: opium, cavalry boots, rolls of flannel, cans of preserved meats, bags of coffee, and even weapons. A network of rebel women crept about Union camps, gathering thousands of unattended sabers and pistols and tying them to the steel coils of their hoopskirts. They also enlisted their daughters in their smuggling efforts, packing quinine in sacks of oiled silk and tucking them inside the hollowed papier-mâché heads of dolls.
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