Elizabeth Cobbs

While this isn't a bad book, I'm going to admit that it seemed a little slighter than I expect. A lot of this is probably due to how the author had to offer a lot more background information on the Great War than I really needed, but which the typical reader of this story is going to need. I will admit that I took the most interest in the circumstances that forced the U.S. Army to recruit these women in the first place; the rudimentary (even for the time) French telecom system, the technical requirements, and the need for these telephone operators to be bilingual. With the added complication of operating in near-frontline circumstances, which dignified these women as soldiers, not just civilian contractors.… (meer)

Any student of Civil War-era history has some basic knowledge of Harriet Tubman, but perhaps not much beyond her role on the Underground Railroad. If nothing else, this book will deepen the reader's understanding of her ongoing role in liberating slaves throughout the War itself. Cobbs focuses on Tubman's actions as a scout for the Union Army at their camp in Beaufort, South Carolina. Tubman, or "Moses", as she was known by the "contraband" freed slaves, both recruited other scouts and helped to organize the slaves on the nearby plantation so that they would be ready to move when the Army came to free them.

A good novel of historical fiction makes the past come alive in a way that non-fiction can't. Unfortunately, I can't really say that Tubman leaps off the page in this book. Rather, it reads more like a work of narrative non-fiction from a close third-person point of view. However, readers interested in either the Civil War or Harriet Tubman will learn a lot from Cobbs's research and the information goes down very easily.… (meer)