Review: Women of the Revolution

Title: Women of the Revolution : Bravery and Sacrifice on the Southern Battlefields

Author: Robert M. Dunkerly

Date Completed: 30 March 2016

This is one of those short books/long essays that The History Press publishes regularly. The title caught my attention as I have read a few other books about women during colonial/revolutionary times. Unfortunately the stories often passed down are overly-romanticized to the point of myth. While Dunkerly did a good job of filtering out the myth, what was left felt generic and dry. Only a handful of women were mentioned by name, but the rest of the book felt like a list of places the camp followers were probably left during the battles and a reminder that they did a lot of laundry....not the most exciting thing to read.

Granted documentation is scarce, and as the author states: "Women were probably so common that writers, who were mostly men, did not take notice of them. they were part of the army, part of the camp and part of the experience. Like horses and wagons, women were present but not often specifically mentioned." So I'll give him credit for trying to prevent the spread of the usual legends.