Those Panting Women

Editors sometimes displayed a sense of humor when reporting on women soldiers.  The following blurb appeared in newspapers throughout the country and across the pond in England as well.

Vermont Transcript, June 17th, 1864

Of course, the writer is playing on "pants," which women were not allowed to wear.  Doing so was both socially unacceptable and illegal.  When he refers to them "having a pair of pants," women had to acquire a pair somehow since they just didn't own the article of clothing.  Most of them more than likely secretly commandeered trousers from a male relative or even purchased them when they decided to go as a soldier.  And because Victorian women didn't typically wear pants, nobody really knew what they looked like wearing them.  That made a woman soldier more secure from detection.

Until next formation......rest.