One reason this is a plot in The Shadow Campaigns is that the Napoleonic/ACW era in real life was like the golden age of "women in male dress serving as soldiers", after mass mobilization but before good hygiene and medical practice
Django Wexler
Happy Pride to the memory of the transgender veterans of the US Civil War.
Women presenting as men — whether to escape the stifling construct of feminine life or to stay close to husbands or brothers who went to war — have been serving in combat for centuries.
