In Civil War, Woman Fought Like A Man For Freedom
by Linda Paul
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104452266 (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104452266)
Weekend Edition Sunday, May 24, 2009 ยท Albert D.J. Cashier was the shortest soldier in the 95th Illinois Infantry. In one of the few existing photographs of Cashier during the Civil War, you can faintly detect the outline of breasts under his uniform.
But that's if you're looking for it. And the military apparently was not. "They didn't conduct physical exams in those days, the way the military does now," says Rodney Davis, a retired professor of history at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill. "What they were looking for was warm bodies."
http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Content.aspx?audioID=34370 (http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Content.aspx?audioID=34370)
Thank you for the websites. I read the article and was greatly moved by Albert Hodges story.
Gennee
Hundreds of women impersonated men to fight in the Civil War, for both sides. Rita Mae Brown wrote an excellent novel about one such, High Hearts.