Did you know that hundreds of women fought in the American Civil War on both the Union and Confederate sides?

What is so unusual about that?

Well, for one thing, women were not allowed to serve in the army at the time. In each of the hundreds of known cases – and there are surely many more we don’t know about – the women entered the army and fought alongside the other soldiers disguised as men.

How could that have passed the standard physicals given to soldiers? Well, apparently the standard physicals where not terribly thorough – or particularly physical for that matter. As the war drug on and the need for new soldiers became ever more acute, most army surgeons did nothing more than give new recruits a quick – fully clothed – once over and sent them into the fields.

Once there it was pretty easy to maintain the disguise, late Victorian mores being what they were. Most people bathed very little, relieved themselves in the woods and no one really knew what a woman should look like in pants.

Furthermore, the very idea of a woman joining the fighting was so foreign to most men that the presence of a high voiced, slightly built, smooth cheeked soldier would never make them think twice. That and the fact that many other high voiced, slightly built, smooth cheeked soldiers were joining as boys aged 16 and younger were lying about their ages and enlisting.

Gotta share one last thing with you – One of the known women to serve along side the male soldiers in the Civil War was named – get this – Melverina Elverina Peppercorn. That’s enough to make you want to fight right there.