Mary Elizabeth Massey (1915–1970)

Originally entitled Bonnet Brigades, book was reprinted with editor John Berlin and retitled. Author looks at the ways in which women worked to contribute to the war effort. Includes nurses Clara Barton, Dorothea Dix, and Mother Bickerdyke, and spies Pauline Cushman, Belle Boyd, Anna Ella Carroll, Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth. Editor points out that author understood southern women better than northern ones because of her own life in the south. Editor also points out that the author's reliance on memoirs skews her story towards depicting mainly well-off women. However the book is written by a well repected professor and is scholarly and footnoted for all it is somewhat old fashioned and current research has progressed so much further. Still the author estimated that 400 women served disguised as men in the armies, an estimate that holds true today! And there is tremendous wonderful detail on the lives of women unavailable in other books.… (more)