"No overt diplomats," Leah said, "which was stupid because Abigail Adams's presence at the British court during the postwar negotiation phase probably smoothed the way for a lot of concessions. I think women were about half and half soldiers-- disguised as men, which is a whole other thesis-- and spies and support work. The army wouldn't have survived the winter at Valley Forge without the efforts of local women and the women they left behind, for example. And of course Abigail Adams, Mercy Otis Warren, and Mary Dickinson, and others like them, had a large effect on the Continental Congress, which more or less controlled the war." She shrugged. "It was almost all behind the scenes work, but it was much more influential than people think."