cover image Patriots in Disguise: Women Warriors of the Civil War

Patriots in Disguise: Women Warriors of the Civil War

Richard Hall. Paragon House Publishers, $21.95 (224pp) ISBN 978-1-55778-438-4

His failure to incorporate the arguments and conclusions of recent feminist theory on women warriors restricts freelance writer Hall's work to a simple narrative, but his book has its strengths. He concentrates on women, disguised as men, who served in the Civil War as soldiers, and succeeds in clearing away many of the romantic assumptions about the subject. What emerges is a compendium of fact and legend, interesting as much for its mythic aspect as for its historical accuracy. The text devotes too little space to the roles played during the war by soldiers' wives and their children. But despite its flaws, the book makes a useful contribution to a growing body of literature on ``women who run with the wolves.'' Photos not seen by PW. (Feb.)