They fought like demons
May 27, 2013 11:41 AM   Subscribe

 
Great post. There are examples of this throughout history; the most famous Russian one is Nadezhda Durova, who not only fought heroically while disguised as a man but was allowed by tsar Alexander I, who took a personal interest in her, to stay in the army even after her secret was uncovered. She died at 83 and was buried with military honors.
posted by languagehat at 2:13 PM on May 27, 2013 [3 favorites]


I recommend "They Fought Like Demons", the book mentioned in the article. It's a good read.
posted by Pallas Athena at 3:07 PM on May 27, 2013 [1 favorite]


Ah, Deborah Sampson! There's a statue dedicated to her standing outside the Sharon Library in Sharon, Massachusetts. I say "dedicated to her" because they had her great-granddaughter, who looked nothing like her, pose for the statue. Fascinating story.
posted by rednikki at 3:57 PM on May 27, 2013


This pdf (subtitled Social Reaction to Female Cross-Dressing and Gender Transgression in America 1850-1880) has additional examples beginning about halfway through (~pg 32.)
posted by maggieb at 4:18 PM on May 27, 2013


Great article. Thanks, maggieb.
posted by homunculus at 4:50 PM on May 27, 2013


Confederate Gen. Jubal Early, who, as head of the Southern Historical Society, carefully crafted the noble Lost Cause narrative of the war, dismissed Velazquez as a hoax and other women soldiers as prostitutes.

Gee, a white supremacist found some free time to dedicate to erasing the legacy of women in war. What a charmer.
posted by gingerest at 6:30 PM on May 27, 2013 [4 favorites]


Nice chap. I'd like to have heard what these women would have said to him.
posted by arcticseal at 8:50 PM on May 27, 2013 [1 favorite]


Cool.
posted by bardophile at 4:14 AM on May 28, 2013


Confederate Gen. Jubal Early, who...
Gee, a white supremacist...
Just because he was a Confederate general does not make him a White Supremacist. Half a minute on his Wikipedia page would have shown that.

Comment flagged for ranking somewhere between juvenile and just plain stupid.
posted by Blue_Villain at 5:35 AM on May 28, 2013 [1 favorite]


Just because he was a Confederate general does not make him a White Supremacist. Half a minute on his Wikipedia page would have shown that.

Comment flagged for ranking somewhere between juvenile and just plain stupid.

Uh ... is there some sort of sarcasm afoot here that I am unable to detect? Because the very Wikipedia page you link to states quite clearly:
Early was an outspoken believer in white supremacy and despised the abolitionists. In the preface to his memoirs, Early wrote about former slaves as "barbarous natives of Africa", whom he believed were "in a civilized and Christianized condition" as a result of their enslavement.
It then goes on to quote Early's own memoirs which support this statement quite unmistakably.
posted by tocts at 6:23 AM on May 28, 2013 [4 favorites]


You might want to do a little reading about the construction of the 'Lost Cause ' mythology, Blue. White supremacy was a cornerstone. And yes, Wikipedia calls Early a white supremacist.
posted by gingerest at 10:44 PM on June 2, 2013


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