In
my Promise & Honor Civil War trilogy, I included a female
soldier in the cast of characters. Over 400 women are known to have
served during the war, but it's anyone's guess how many went
unrecorded. While researching my first nonfiction title, A
Fate Worse than Death,
I came across a fascinating article about a female soldier. Very few
have read her story since the 19th
century. Unfortunately,
I can't even tell you her name because the reporter in the 1863
Missouri
Democrat article
withheld it to retain her privacy. He described her in typical
Victorian style, "... large lustrous dark eye... ruddy and
fresh looking..." But from there on out, he let her tell her own
story.
Even before the American
Civil War, her story was far from mundane. She lost her parents at a
fairly young age, and at fourteen she was married to a member of a
minstrel troupe. Widowed after eighteen months of marriage, she was
supported by her two brothers. Then, the war broke out, and both of
her brothers enlisted.
Not knowing what to do with
herself, she grew restless. She traveled to Baltimore to be near her
brothers and became a nurse, caring for the sick and wounded. Before
long, she got tired of being on the receiving end of "insults
and ungrateful returns" from some of the recovered soldiers. An
idea came to her, and she asked her brothers' permission to "dress
in male attire and join their regiment."
Her younger brother brought
her to some "rough places" for her to learn how to act more
like a man. No one noticed, and she enlisted as the major's orderly.
Shortly after, the regiment was sent to New Orleans. Her younger
brother was wounded in a skirmish and later died. She had no time for
grief. In the second assault on Baton Rouge, she received a "severe
sabre cut on the right arm. A ball grazed one of the lower limbs, and
a number passed through my clothes."
As a result, the inevitable
happened. The major of the regiment discovered her gender. During the
war, if a female soldier was discovered after she had proven herself
in battle, she was often allowed to stay. So it was for this woman.
For the most part, she lived
as any other soldier, doing her job as best as she could. Another man
learned her identity and attacked her in a "out of the way
place." Her would-be rapist failed to realize that a female
soldier could defend herself. She shot him. "I meant to disable
his arm, but he stooped... the ball entered his face and found its
way under his skull-cap." Instead of being angry at him, she
tended him until he was out of danger. He sent her a written apology
"in such a manner that I forgave him."
Although the article is
unclear as to how long she remained in the regiment, she continued
working for the major until he resigned. When she went home on
furlough to Michigan, she had every intention of returning to her
brother. Unfortunately before she could get back, he died from a
fever.
Alone and uncertain what to
do with herself, she had a few non-military adventures before
enlisting once again. In a familiar job as a major's orderly in
Rolla, Missouri, she met a young officer from Iowa where she fell
"desperately in love." He had no clue of her true identity
until she finally told him. "The result was that we engaged to
be married this fall."
I salute this 19th-century
soldier, and truly hope that she lived a long and happy life with her
Iowa officer.
Source
"Genuine Romance in Real
Life," Missouri Democrat, September 1, 1863.
Kim Murphy
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