00:00 - Ok. I'm Diana Peters and I am

00:02 - here today with the second South

00:04 - Carolina Palmetto guard at the

00:06 - National Civil War Museum.

00:08 - I am actually portraying a

00:09 - female soldier in the second

00:11 - South Carolina. Unbeknownst to a

00:13 - lot of people there were women

00:15 - soldiers that fought during the

00:16 - Civil War.

00:17 - The numbers are completely

00:18 - unknown because all of the women

00:20 - that fought had to be completely

00:21 - disguised.

00:22 - For the most part if they were

00:23 - found out they were thrown out.

00:25 - A couple of women actually were

00:27 - known to be in there, but they

00:28 - were known by their husbands who

00:30 - they were serving with.

00:32 - I read one account where there

00:33 - was one woman that the

00:34 - commanding officer knew that she

00:35 - was a female, but she was a good

00:37 - shot.

00:38 - He figured she could handle it.

00:39 - So he allowed her in.

00:41 - Women did all the same things

00:43 - that the men did and they did it

00:44 - completely in disguise.

00:46 - There was actually one woman who

00:48 - went to one tailor and had her

00:50 - uniform, to another tailor and

00:52 - had a wire cage made that helped

00:54 - hide her shape.

00:56 - So some of the women were very

00:57 - determined to fight.

01:00 - One woman actually was fighting

01:02 - with her husband, ended up

01:03 - pregnant during the war, left

01:06 - camp, had the baby, left the

01:06 - baby with relatives.

01:09 - And two weeks later returned to

01:10 - camp to finish fighting the war.

01:13 - The numbers of women that fought

01:15 - are unknown because they were

01:16 - disguised and for the most part

01:17 - when they left their term of

01:19 - service they kind of faded back

01:21 - into their former lives.

01:23 - Original estimates were

01:24 - somewhere around 400 for both

01:25 - north and south.

01:26 - Now there are upwards of 750 and

01:28 - obviously that could be a lot

01:29 - greater.

01:30 - They also were found dead on

01:33 - battlefields.

01:34 - So it was known that some were

01:36 - fighting.

01:37 - There was a couple that were

01:38 - found.

01:38 - The men discovered during burial

01:40 - details at Antietam,

01:42 - Fredericksburg so they did

01:44 - pretty much everything that the

01:45 - men did.

01:46 - Hopefully more numbers will be

01:47 - out and there are some fine

01:48 - books coming out that help

01:49 - document more of the women.

01:51 - Thanks for listening.