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Full-Text Articles in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
A Woman In Soldier’S Dress: Then And Now, Elizabeth A. Smith
A Woman In Soldier’S Dress: Then And Now, Elizabeth A. Smith
The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History
This post is the second in a three-part series on women soldiers in the Civil War and during modern reenactments. Also check out the introduction of this series.
I was thirteen years old when I joined the 5th Kentucky Orphan Brigade, a Confederate reenactment group based out of south-central Kentucky. At fourteen, I “saw the elephant”—a Civil War term for seeing battle—for the first time as a soldier. It was the most terrifying thing I’ve ever done, but seven years later I credit that decision to go through with it as bringing me to where I am now, …
A Woman In Soldier’S Dress: Taking The Field, Elizabeth A. Smith
A Woman In Soldier’S Dress: Taking The Field, Elizabeth A. Smith
The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History
The year was 1989. The place, a Civil War reenactment at Antietam National Battlefield. Lauren Cook (then Burgess) had been participating in reenactments for two years. Her portrayal of a fifer required her to wear a soldier’s uniform rather than in a civilian woman’s dress. She did her best to portray a soldier, disguising her sex so she could pass the “fifteen yard” rule, which meant that at fifteen yards she could not be identified as a woman. The call of nature proved to be her undoing, however, when an NPS official “caught” her coming out of the women’s restroom. …