Army’s archives, and they carefully preserved all records created during the War. One of the duties of the AGO was maintenance of the U.S. It is possible, however, that there may have been a few instances of women having served as soldiers for a short time without their sex having been detected, but no record of such cases is known to exist in the official files. I have the honor to inform you that no official record has been found in the War Department showing specifically that any woman was ever enlisted in the military service of the United States as a member of any organization of the Regular or Volunteer Army at any time during the period of the Civil War. She received a swift reply from the Records and Pension Office, a division of the Adjutant General’s Office (AGO), under Ainsworth’s signature, which read in part: I am anxious to know whether your department has any record of the number of women who enlisted and served in the Civil War, or has it any record of any women who were in the service? On October 21, 1909, Ida Tarbell of The American Magazine wrote to Adjutant General F. Army tried to deny that women played any military role in the Civil War. The motives of these women were perhaps open to speculation, but not their actions, as numerous newspaper stories and obituaries of women in uniform testified.ĭespite recorded evidence to the contrary, the Adjutant General of the U.S. The reading public was well aware that these women rejected the social constraints that confined them to the domestic sphere. The existence of female soldiers was no secret during or after the Civil War. Some joined the army out of loyalty to their cause, some for the adventure, while poverty pushed others to join for a soldier’s meager pay. Because they passed as men, it is impossible to judge how many women soldiers served in the Civil War. Both the Union and Confederate Armies forbade the enlistment of women, but historians have estimated that some 400 women went to war (there were probably more), some without anyone ever discovering their gender.
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