FORT LEE, Va. – It reads like a John le Carré novel. A young woman dresses as a man, enlists in the Army and engages in combat. Later, she becomes a spy, repeatedly crossing enemy lines disguised as an Irish peddler and a black laundress, among other identities.

Sarah Emma Edmonds fought for the Union during the Civil War. Her fascinating story is one of many I discovered at the U.S. Army Women’s Museum in Fort Lee, Va.

My wife and I made the trek to Fort Lee, an Army base near Petersburg, to explore this small museum that honors the role of women in the nation’s defense. We learned a lot as we viewed its displays, posters, photographs, maps and videos, which are arranged chronologically by conflict.

Before entering the museum gallery, we stopped to watch a short video outlining women’s contributions to the Army since 1775. Edmonds, it explained, was just one of thousands of women willing to sacrifice everything to defend the country. The recent decision on policy change by the Defense Department allowing women into combat positions is controversial, but in truth women have faced combat since the beginning.

We stopped first at the American Revolution exhibit. There a figure in a bright-blue Continental Army coat and white bonnet stands next to a cannon, a ramrod at her side. When Margaret Corbin’s husband was mortally wounded at the Battle of Fort Washington in Manhattan, the exhibition text recounts, she took his place loading and firing the cannon at Hessian troops until she was severely wounded herself. For her heroics, Corbin was awarded a military pension by Congress, becoming the first American woman to receive one.

Corbin’s pension was a rarity, but the willingness of women to serve despite being denied recognition, opportunity and reward was not.

The Civil War display explored the many ways – overt and covert – that women found to serve. More than 400 women on both sides disguised themselves as men, many engaging in combat. Sally Tompkins ran a Confederate hospital with such efficiency that she received an officer’s commission during the war. And for her valor in risking her life treating soldiers and civilians alike, Mary E. Walker received the Medal of Honor, the only woman ever to do so.

“There are eye-openers all throughout the exhibits,” said Pat Sigle, 63, a volunteer at the museum.

One was Cathay Williams. A former slave, Williams assumed a new identity as William Cathay and enlisted in the Army. As a member of the 38th Infantry, she was assigned to garrison duty in the New Mexico Territory. She has the distinction of being the only female Buffalo Soldier, the name given to members of all-African-American Army units formed after the Civil War.

In the World War I exhibit, a mannequin wears the green coat and skirt of the Radio Corps, another the royal blue of the Signal Corps and a third a nurse’s white uniform and brilliant red cape. Nurses’ duties could be hazardous; many volunteers in the Women’s Nursing Corps served near the front tending wounded soldiers and facing artillery barrages and the horrors of mustard gas attacks.

Although women were welcome in these roles, they were strictly limited as auxiliary members and contract workers attached to the military. Because they were not considered part of the armed services, they were not eligible for veterans’ benefits regardless of the danger they faced. Yet despite these restrictions, they volunteered.

Congresswoman Edith Nourse Rogers of Massachusetts dedicated herself to redressing this injustice. On the wall nearby, I read her vow: “I was resolved that our women would not again serve with the Army without the same protection the men got.”

World War II ushered in great changes. The need for women to serve as clerks, drivers, cooks and typists in areas all over the world led to the creation of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps in 1942. Among the several World War II exhibits is a re-creation of barracks at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, where many women were trained. Two models in Army uniform sit on bunks with a gas mask nearby and a “Loose Lips Might Sink Ships” poster on the wall.

Still, women in the WAAC weren’t considered part of the armed services, either. They laundered their own clothes and could be charged for any replacement clothing. If they were sick or wounded, they received only limited Veterans Administration benefits.

The pressure to truly include women in the armed forces reached a critical stage in 1943, when the Women’s Army Corps was formed, giving women equal rank and benefits. Congresswoman Rogers’ vow finally bore fruit.

In the World War II exhibits, the walls are covered with photos of WACs training and marching, repairing truck engines and serving food. Later, jobs expanded to radio operators, airplane mechanics and sheet-metal workers. We stopped to admire a patriotic poster of a proud mother and her two soldiers – a son and daughter in uniform.

Women have been fully integrated into the Army since 1978, when the WAC was disbanded, and now serve in the same units as men.

Female soldiers also increasingly find themselves in combat situations. A display illustrates the role played by Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester and fellow soldiers in her company during a 2005 attack on their convoy in Iraq. For her role in the attack, Hester became the first woman ever to be awarded the Silver Star for gallantry in action against an enemy of the United States.

A display at the U.S. Army Women’sMuseum shows the role played by Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester during a 2005 attack on her convoy in Iraq. MUST CREDIT: U.S. Army Women’s Museum.

U.S. Army Women’s Museum

A display on American Revolutionary War hero Margaret Corbin. MUST CREDIT: Photo by James F. Lee for The Washington Post.

James F. Lee