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Rating: 
Summary: Essential for reenactors portraying a woman in the ranks
Review: Blanton gives us documented evidence of the many women who fought on both sides of the War Between the States, their motivations and how they hid their gender. Any reenactor who wants to portray a woman soldier should read this book, and it's also interesting for students of the war and those who insist women "can't hack it in combat."
Rating: 
Summary: They fought like Demons
Review: I bought this book for my mother as she really likes to read about women in history. When I recieved it I thumbed through it and found it to read more like a text book and not something one would choose for an afernoon of pleasure reading.
Rating:
Summary: Female Soldiers
Review: I have read They Fought Like Demons . . . and loved every word of the test. I,too, have spent 2 1/2 years conducting research on female soliders of the Civil War. Blanton's and Cook's book has provided much needed informtion for my research. Whereas, They Fought Like Demons, is written for adults, I am focusing on 5 key women in the Civil War in writing a book for children. I am a university professor who teaches elementary and middle school social studies methods and have found it truly amazing that children as well as adults have no idea that women disguised themselves as men to fight in the Civil War. I am also a storyteller and share many stories about these various women in schools, roundtables,churches, and other organizations.The point of Blanton's and Cook's book is to provide and enlighten the reader with information on women who disguised themselves as soldiers to fight in the Civil War. It is NOT intended to provide an INDEPTH review of women in the war. NO book can provide that information unless it is fiction. The authors have not attempted, but have done a great job of undetaking a monumental task of documenting as many women as possible who did fight in the war. Many of these women were unknown and it is virtually impossible to find out who they were or where they were from. I highley commend these ladies for their wonderful product and want to thank them for providing me with information that would have taken me another five or six years to complete. Dr. Judy C. Pierce
Professor
Western Kentucky University
Rating: 
Summary: Boring
Review: I read this book because it was my book club's choice. The best thing about a book club is you sometimes read a book you might not have read otherwise and the worst thing about a book club is you sometimes read a book you might not have read otherwise. This one falls under the second. No continuity, no story, just a compilation of research results. It might work as a thesis to fulfill a degree program but not as general reading. Boring.
Rating:
Summary: This information needs to become part of the mainstream
Review: Last year I took out a book of Photographs on Women in American History and the Photo of the female soilder on the front cover of " They fought like Demons" was included inside only there she was listed as anonymous and there was no story. The photo has haunted me. Less than a month ago I walked into the Public Library and this book was staring at me from the recently purchased shelves.
I am still reeling from all the information that I had digested.In retrospect, I look at American History so differently and wonder why this is not part of our mainstream cultural history .How does this get placed into our American history books. Girls need heroines and here they are. Lets start writing about them,creating documentaries about them, making films about them. Lets put them back into the history books.
Rating: 
Summary: How Women Fought in the Civil War
Review: Neither the Union nor the Confederate Army in the Civil War authorized women to enlist or welcomed women combatants. Indeed, they were actively discouraged from the traditionaly male preserve of combat. Yet a small number of women had the drive to assume male disguise and to enlist and fight. This book helps tell their story. The authors of "They Fought Like Demons" DeAnne Blanton, a military archivist, and Lauren Cook, of Fayetville State University spent more than a decade in researching primary sources to recreate the role of women as Civil War combatants. Their book tells us something about roughly 250 women soldiers, who fought either for the Union or the Confederacy. The book spends a great deal of space on the motivations that caused women to disguise their sex and enlist. It finds that patriotism and devotion to their respective cause was the chief motive, as it was with men; but also finds that in many cases women enlisted to be with a male loved one, whether husband, lover, father, or brother. This latter motivation seemed important in the accounts and it seems to me different from the motivation of most male combatants. The book gives good detail on women soldiers and, in the process, of Civil War military life. It describes how many women managed to avoid detection (of course, many were unsuccessful in so doing, particularly if they were wounded), the strength with which they fought, how they were regarded by their peers, both when they were assumed to be men and following the discovery that they were women, how women were treated as prisoners of war, in hospitals, and the extent of female casualties in the war. The book discusses the lives of some of the women after their career as soldiers -- one of the most interesting aspects of the book -- and it recounts some of the literature that was published about women soldiers during the Civil War era. There was more of this than I had supposed. At the most basic level, Blanton and Cook make a convincing case that women fought in the war and contributed as soldiers on both sides. Women soldiers fought and sustained casualties at every major Civil War battle. I am a student of the Battle of Gettysburg and learned that a Confederate woman soldier died in Pickett's charge and that there were five women soldiers who were known to have fought at Gettysburg. There were also women prisoners at the notorious facility at Andersonville. The organization of the book makes it difficult to follow the activities of most of the women in detail. This difficulty is also the result of the nature of the historical records. But two or three of the female combatants left memoirs or other records which perhaps could have been highlighted more effectively in this account. It is worth remembering that there were about 2,750,000 combatants in the Civil War, 2 million for the Union, 750,000 for the Confederacy. Blanton and Cook document about 250 women soldiers and accept the general estimate of about 400 women soldiers serving in the War. This is statistically a very small amount. (One percent of 2.75 million is 27,500)It is also, of course, a tiny fractional percentage of the available pool of women. Thus, one should be hesitant about drawing broad global conclusions from this evidence. Blanton and Cook generally use their data wisely and circumspectly. The Civil War remains the pivotal experience in our Nation's history. In many respects, it remains a shared American experience. Thus, it is good to have inclusive histories and to remember the role played by women in combat. Blanton and Cook show that during Civil War times, it was known that there were small numbers of determined women in the ranks. This book does a service by recreating this part of of our national experience.
Rating:
Summary: How Women Fought in the Civil War
Review: Neither the Union nor the Confederate Army in the Civil War authorized women to enlist or welcomed women combatants. Indeed, they were actively discouraged from the traditionaly male preserve of combat. Yet a small number of women had the drive to assume male disguise and to enlist and fight. This book helps tell their story. The authors of "They Fought Like Demons" DeAnne Blanton, a military archivist, and Lauren Cook, of Fayetville State University spent more than a decade in researching primary sources to recreate the role of women as Civil War combatants. Their book tells us something about roughly 250 women soldiers, who fought either for the Union or the Confederacy. The book spends a great deal of space on the motivations that caused women to disguise their sex and enlist. It finds that patriotism and devotion to their respective cause was the chief motive, as it was with men; but also finds that in many cases women enlisted to be with a male loved one, whether husband, lover, father, or brother. This latter motivation seemed important in the accounts and it seems to me different from the motivation of most male combatants. The book gives good detail on women soldiers and, in the process, of Civil War military life. It describes how many women managed to avoid detection (of course, many were unsuccessful in so doing, particularly if they were wounded), the strength with which they fought, how they were regarded by their peers, both when they were assumed to be men and following the discovery that they were women, how women were treated as prisoners of war, in hospitals, and the extent of female casualties in the war. The book discusses the lives of some of the women after their career as soldiers -- one of the most interesting aspects of the book -- and it recounts some of the literature that was published about women soldiers during the Civil War era. There was more of this than I had supposed. At the most basic level, Blanton and Cook make a convincing case that women fought in the war and contributed as soldiers on both sides. Women soldiers fought and sustained casualties at every major Civil War battle. I am a student of the Battle of Gettysburg and learned that a Confederate woman soldier died in Pickett's charge and that there were five women soldiers who were known to have fought at Gettysburg. There were also women prisoners at the notorious facility at Andersonville. The organization of the book makes it difficult to follow the activities of most of the women in detail. This difficulty is also the result of the nature of the historical records. But two or three of the female combatants left memoirs or other records which perhaps could have been highlighted more effectively in this account. It is worth remembering that there were about 2,750,000 combatants in the Civil War, 2 million for the Union, 750,000 for the Confederacy. Blanton and Cook document about 250 women soldiers and accept the general estimate of about 400 women soldiers serving in the War. This is statistically a very small amount. (One percent of 2.75 million is 27,500)It is also, of course, a tiny fractional percentage of the available pool of women. Thus, one should be hesitant about drawing broad global conclusions from this evidence. Blanton and Cook generally use their data wisely and circumspectly. The Civil War remains the pivotal experience in our Nation's history. In many respects, it remains a shared American experience. Thus, it is good to have inclusive histories and to remember the role played by women in combat. Blanton and Cook show that during Civil War times, it was known that there were small numbers of determined women in the ranks. This book does a service by recreating this part of of our national experience.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book
Review: They Fought Like demons is a great book that tells about women portraying men in the Civil War. This book is very informative and helped make the fact that women fought in the Civil War as well as men noticed. In text books the fact that woman fought in war is glided over and not highlighted. With this book you can learn about all of the women that were nurses, detectives, and even lutenents. Although if you are looking for a book that is only about the Civil War in general, this is not the book for you. Although They Fought Like Demons is an entertaining book, it also has its slow parts. The book goes from exciting to slow to exciting and back to slow again. But it is still a great book. One part I find interesting is the appendix. It shares information about other books such as The Lady Lieutenant, a love story, and Castine, Also a form of a love story. The appendix has a summary of both books and has encouraged me to read both of those also. All in all I think They Fought Like Demons is a wonderful book that expresses the acomplishments and hardships of woman in the Civil War, and also helps enlighten us about at least some of the women involved in the American Civil War.
Rating:
Summary: slightly biased
Review: this was an interesting book, but it does not contain hardly any information on women from the south. there are some opinions expressed that show the authors are biased toward the union. so if you are searching for information pertaining to the Confederate women, don't read this book.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book
Review: This was my first book I have read written by these authors, and I was not disappointed. Although it was a little hard to follow because they switched characters a lot, I did enjoy it. I thought only a few women participated in the wars throughout the years, when in fact there were many. The book was separated into different sections to make it easier to follow and go along with. One of the sections I enjoyed the most was when they described how women passed as men. There were also sections on "Life in the Ranks," and "Women discovered in the ranks." I learned that most of the women were not discovered as women until they were dead. This novel was very interesting, and proved just how far a women wold go to serve for her country. I admire the women who broke the mold and did what only men were thought to be able to do.
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