Paying the Price: The Consequences of Discovery

My friend and fellow author, Mark Flotow, periodically sends me accounts relative to my research.  He is the author of In Their Letters, In Their Words:  Illinois Soldiers Write Home.  Visit his website to learn more about him and his research:  http://www.markflotow.net/.  Most of the accounts Mark sends me  have a Springfield, Illinois connection since that is where he is from.  His latest submission involved a civilian named Ellen Nolan who was discovered wearing male attire in the city.  Mark commented, "Note the fine amount versus being drunk on 'bad whisky.'"

 

The $7 discrepancy is a whole different topic, but it gave me the idea to discuss the price women paid - both socially and financially - for daring to overstep the bounds of propriety.

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.