DISGUISED WOMEN SOLDIERS IN THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR: As Presented in American Historical Fiction (Hard Cover)

Historical fiction authors use hindsight when adding to the record of tumultuous times in history. Most clearly described as writing that “dramatizes a specific historical period a few decades at least before the time of writing and focuses on a central character… who is affected directly in some way by real historical dramas,” historical fiction takes readers to a past time and place which is known but unfamiliar. This text investigates historical fiction about disguised female soldiers in the American Civil War whose role in American history is gaining renewed recognition. Three works are discussed: the books Behind Rebel Lines (1988) by Seymour Reit and I Shall Be Near to You (2014) by Erin Lindsay McCabe, and the film My Brother’s War (2005) by Whitney Hamilton. Scrutinizing these narratives is significant because they expand on women’s lives left unexplored or overlooked in canonical Civil War literature and contest the prevailing understandings of nineteenth-century military and gender boundaries.