It is interesting the number of stories you'll find where there is talk of a woman who disguised herself as a man in order to join the fight.
Then there are other stories like the stories of the woman Confederate guerrilla who kept the yankees hopping in Kentucky.
It turns out that the "woman" actually probably never existed and her exploits were those of a male guerrilla.
The story spread though probably because of the great appeal it had to think that one Confederate woman could give so many yankees a thrashing.
Of course, southrons like LE and myself know that one southron woman can whoop a whole mess of yankees but back then it may have seemed like something new
;)