(Mental Floss) -- Over the centuries, people have had some very good reasons to dress up like a member of the opposite sex.



After record-setting Olympics athlete Stella Walsh died in 1980, it was revealed that she had indeed been a man.



And I'm not talking about people who live this way out of personal preference, or those who dress up for theater and entertainment.



Here are just five examples.



1. Cross-dressing to join the army



Until recently, women have rarely been allowed to serve as soldiers.



So what was a gal to do if she wanted to serve her country? Naturally, disguise herself as a man and join the troops.



At least 400 Civil War soldiers were women in drag. These included Union Army soldier "Frank Thompson" (also known as Sarah Edmonds), whose small frame and feminine mannerisms (rather than causing suspicion) made her an ideal spy, as she could spy on the Confederates disguised as... a woman!



She wasn't the first woman to don a male disguise and join the army, though. During the Revolutionary War, women fought as men on both sides.



Hannah Snell, for example, joined the British army to find her husband, who had walked out on her to enlist.



Once her true sex was discovered (thanks to a pesky groin injury), she became a national celebrity in Britain, and made a post-war career of performing in bars as the "Female Warrior." Mental Floss: The Confederacy's plan to conquer Latin America



2. Cross-dressing to keep a royal family together



With all the power play that went on in the court, the French royal family would go to great lengths to avoid sibling rivalry. In one of the more extreme cases, Philippe I, Duke of Orleans (1640-1701), was raised as a girl to discourage him from any political or military aspirations.



This would make things easier for his brother, the future King Louis XIV.



Philippe wore dresses and make-up, enjoyed traditionally feminine pursuits, and was even encouraged towards homosexuality.



A girly man he might have been, but he married twice and even had a mistress.



When necessary, he could even lead an army into battle. (This is the nation, after all, that gave us that famous cross-dresser Joan of Arc.)



A brave commander, he would go into battle wearing high heels, plenty of jewelry and a long, perfumed wig.



One of his wives claimed that Philippe's biggest fear when going into battle was not bullets, but the possibility of looking a mess. He avoided gunpowder (with the black smoke stains) and didn't wear a hat, to avoid ruining his hair. Mental Floss: 11 weird & wonderful wedding rings



3. Cross-dressing to win Olympic glory



Dressing in drag has been part of the Olympics (on and off) since ancient times, when women were banned from the bulk of the Games.



The Greek historian Pausanias of Damascus said that if a spectator was uncovered as a woman in male disguise, she was duly escorted off the premises... and thrown off a cliff.



In later Games, the athletes started performing naked, and the crowd was also ordered to disrobe. It has been suggested that this was to ensure that they were all men.



In the modern Olympics, there has been less disrobing -- and not much cross-dressing, either. Gender tests have been normal procedure since 1966 (for athletes, not spectators), so they couldn't really get away with it.



Before that time, one of the strangest -- and most controversial -- cases was Polish sprinter Stanislawa Walasiewicz (aka Stella Walsh), who set 11 world records in her career, winning the 100-meter Olympic finals in 1932 with what one official described as "long man-like strides."



After she died in 1980, however, it was revealed that she had indeed been a man.



So had he deliberately set out to fool everyone all that
Who were women in drag? Who won Olympic medals? What number of U.S. Civil War soldiers were women in drag? What were at least 400 soldiers?
At least 400 Civil War soldiers Stella Walsh At least 400 Civil War
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