Lucy Berrington

Before the war, New Bern already had many free blacks who were carpenters, bricklayers, tailors, barbers and sailors, so it is likely that slaves in eastern North Carolina had always seen New Bern as a place of opportunity. During the Civil War, thousands of slaves escaped from their farms and plantations to New Bern which, because it was occupied by the U.S. Army - a free zone, where the Union's military government protected these contraband refugees from being returned to slavery.

With the military offering jobs, many African American women thrived there. Women who could cook found steady work providing meals for hungry soldiers; housekeepers, laundresses and seamstresses were also welcomed and given employment. One of these workers was Lucy Berington, a 45-year-old African American. The enlistment of women was forbidden therefore her case is something of a mystery.

The U.S. Navy enlisted Lucy as a first-class boy, an entry-level job with a pay scale of seven to nine dollars a month. This would have seemed like a lot of money to Lucy, who was probably a slave before she escaped to New Bern. Her gender was known at the time of her enlistment, and she was assigned as a washerwoman at the U.S. Naval Hospital at New Bern. Lucy is the only known enlisted black female in Civil War-era New Bern, but there may have been others.

Found at NCCivilWar150.com

At least one North Carolina woman served actively in the Union military. Lucy Berington, a 45-year-old African American woman from North Carolina, was enlisted in January 1864 as a first-class boy in the U.S. Navy. Her gender was known at the time of her enlistment, and she was assigned as a washerwoman at the U.S. Naval Hospital at New Bern. 

 At the time of the war, the enlistment of women was forbidden therefore her case is something of a mystery. She was not hired as contract labor, but formally enlisted at a rating, or naval rank, equal to that of inexperienced recruits to the Navy – the rating of boy was the lowest pay scale in the service. There may have been selfish motives on behalf of the surgeons in charge of the hospital. Average pay for a washerwoman contracted to the Navy at the time was fifty centers per day, which equated to fifteen dollars a month, while a first class boy earned between seven to nine dollars a month. Perhaps they were simply trying to control labor costs; however, if that is the case, why only choose one individual? Sadly for Lucy, the decision to enlist in the Navy cost the woman her life, as she died of disease in the spring of 1864 in the very hospital in which she worked.

Attempting to locate more on Lucy Berington has been difficult. No free black woman by that name lived in the state of North Carolina in 1860, suggesting she was enslaved prior to the war. If she was indeed a slave, and Berington, or perhaps Barrington, was the name of her owner, then one should find a slave, aged nearly forty-five, listed as the property of such a family on the 1860 slave schedule. Interestingly, the only Barrington families in North Carolina (there were no Beringtons) who owned slaves lived in Craven County, the very place Lucy enlisted. However, no female slaves aged forty-five were owned by any of them. A fifty-four-year-old female appears as the property of Nancy V. Barrington while a thirty-six-year-old female was the chattel of Stephen G. Barrington, but it remains uncertain if either was Lucy.

Nevertheless she stands out as the only identifiable enlisted North Carolina female recruit in the Union military.

Mary Ann Berry

Mary Ann Berry from Lewiston, Maine was 21 years old when she met Ivory Brown from Parsonsfield, Maine. They married in 1861, the year the Civil War began.

He enlisted with the 31st Maine Infantry Regiment in 1864 and Mary decided she would go with him. Not surprisingly, she was rejected by the Army. She persisted, however, and took on clerical jobs for the regiment. Eventually, she went south with the regiment as a field nurse.

Records of her service cannot be found, but in 1930 she was interviewed by a reporter to whom she told her story. Besides nursing and caring for soldiers, she told the reporter that she also fought beside them. When asked, "Did you carry a musket and fight with the Union Men?", she replied, "Yes, sir. I carried a musket ... a 16-shooter [possibly a Henry Repeater rifle], a sword and a dirk, too, to fight my way through like the rest of them."

Mary was standing next to her brother-in-law at the siege of Petersburg when he was killed. It's possible that she was disguised as a soldier, since General Grant had issued orders that no women be allowed at the front. Ivory was also injured at Petersburg and Mary was there to care for him. He was discharged in June 1865 after which the couple went home to Brownfield, Maine. Ivory died in 1902. Mary outlived him by 34 years, dying in 1936 at age 96.

"She Dragoons" ~ Sarah Bradbury & Ella Reno

Sarah Bradbury enlisted in the 7th Illinois Cavalry under the name Frank Morton. She went on to serve in several different regiments, finally joining the 2nd Kentucky Cavalry as an orderly in General Philip Sheridan's escort. There she became acquainted with another female, Ella Reno, who was serving in the ranks as a teamster and described by General Burnside has having short "army fashion" hair.

In an indiscreet moment, the two got drunk on apple cider while on a foraging expedition in Kentucky and fell in the river. After their rescuers discovered they were women, they were called before Sheridan to explain themselves. In his memoirs, Sheridan referred to them as "she dragoons", writing: "The East Tennessee woman [the teamster] was found in camp, somewhat the worst for the experiences of the day before, but awaiting her fate, contentedly smoking a cob-pipe. [The Cavalry soldier] proved to be a rather prepossessing young woman. How the two got acquainted I never learned, and though they had joined the army independently of each other, yet an intimacy had sprung up between them long before the mishaps of the foraging expedition." 

Florena Budwin

Florena Budwin was born about 1845. She disguised herself as a man and followed her husband, John Budwin. Residents of Philadelphia, they enlisted in an unknown unit.

Both were captured and sent to the Andersonville prison camp where he is said to have been killed by a guard. She remained there until September 1864 when Union General William Tecumseh Sherman’s troops got close to Andersonville. Budwin and many other prisoners were moved to the Florence Stockade in Florence, South Carolina. There were about 16,000 Union prisoners held there between September 15, 1864 and February 1865.

While at Florence, her gender was discovered after a routine exam by a doctor. She was moved to a private room and put to work in the prison hospital. Florina contracted pneumonia a few months later and died January 25, 1865 at the age of 21. She's buried in the Florence National Cemetery where she lies in a mass grave in Section D. It's thought that she is the first woman to be buried in a National Cemetery. 

A story on Florena appeared in The Helena Independent on June 24, 1890. It included an interview by Samuel Elliot of the 7th Pennsylvania Reserves:

I knew the female prisoner at Andersonville, having seen her frequently pass our detachment on her way to the swamp for water. I remember her as a woman rather above medium height, sun burnt, with long unkempt hair. Her clothing consisted of a rough gray shirt, a pair of worn-out army trousers, and what was once a military cap, but scarcely enough of it was left to afford protection from the burning sun. Her husband was also in the prison, but what became of him I am unable to say.
     When the prisoners were removed from Andersonville to Florence, between September 6 to 12, 1864, she was among the number, and shortly after our arrival there her sex was discovered by the rebel authorities and she was taken, as rumor had it, to be a nurse in the hospital. This is the last I ever saw or heard of her.
     As to her husband, I never knew what became of him. I never heard of his being killed. I heard her spoken of by the older prisoners as being a married woman. Our detachment at Andersonville was stationed on the north of the prison's old stockade, about 500 yards from the main entrance. She must have been in the detachment, there being 100 to each detachment, adjoining ours. The camp here was not laid off in streets, or were the brush huts laid off in any order. There were winding paths leading to the swamp near the entrance, where the prisoners obtained water. Her hut was never invaded, and she was cared for by two men who guarded and looked after her, ready to protect her from insult, should any be offered, and they always treated her with great respect themselves.

Go to FindAGrave for Florena's memorial.

Frances Clailin

Battle of Fort Donelson

Frances Clalin was born in Illinois in the 1830s and married Ohio-born Elmer L. Clayton with whom she had three children.

Clalin' story as a woman who disguised herself as man to fight in the war was the subject of several newspaper reports, many containing conflicting information. Most agreed that Clalin, disguised as a man and using the name Jack Williams, enlisted with the Union army with her husband during the fall of 1861. Despite living in Minnesota, Frances and Elmer enlisted in the Missouri Artillery Regiment. 

She is known to have fought in the Battle of Fort Donelson in Tennessee, February 13, 1862, where the Union won after three days of fighting. During this battle Clalin was wounded, but was not discovered. She and Elmer served side-by-side until he died during the Battle of Stones River (or Murfreesboro) on December 31, 1862. He was only a few feet in front of Fances at the time, but some sources say that she didn’t stop fighting - she stepped over his body and charged when the commands came.

It’s unknown which units specifically the Clailins fought in, but Frances is said to have served in both cavalry and artillery cakes. She was engaged in 17 battles besides Fort Donelson and reports say she was wounded a total of three times and taken prisoner once.

“Frances Clayton took up all the manly vices. To better conceal her sex, she learned to drink, smoke, chew and swear. She was especially fond of cigars. She even gambled, and a fellow soldier declared that he had played poker with her on a number of occasions.” —DeAnne Blanton & Lauren M. Cook, They Fought Like Demons

She was tall and masculine, had tan skin, stood erect and walked with a soldierly stride. She was said to be a good horseman and swordsman ... a respected person who commanded attention in the way she acted. One report said that she did her duties at all times and was considered to be a "fighting man".

There are two stories about how Clalin was discovered to be a woman. One is that after the battle at Stones River in 1863, Clalin let her true identity become known and was discharged a few days later in Louisville. The other is that she was wounded in the hip at Stones River and was discharged after being discovered.

After being discharged Clalin tried to get back to Minnesota to collect the bounty owed her and Elmer, as well as to get some of his belongings. It’s also speculated that she wanted to reenlist, but was unable to. Her train was attacked by a Confederate guerrilla party and she was robbed of her papers and money. She then went from Missouri to Minnesota, to Grand Rapids, Michigan and on to Quincy, Illinois. In Quincy a fund was created to aid her quest for payment by former soldiers and friends. Frances was last reported to be headed for Washington, DC.

Clalin became popular with the newspapers of the time. Her story, which was often jumbled up, was published in about six different papers. In some articles it was stated that Clalin had been wounded and discovered at Stones River where her husband died, but others said she was wounded at Fort Donelson and was able to keep her identity a secret until her husband died, after which she went to her superiors with her secret.

According to Clalin, she was actually wounded at Donelson and was able to keep her identity unknown. She corrected these misunderstandings in her last interview, but she never stated what specific regiment she had served in. This was probably never asked of Clalin, because the reporters were more interested in the story of a devoted wife, rather than the actual details of Jack Williams’ soldier life.

Go to FindAGrave for Frances' memorial.

Marian Green

1st Michigan Engineers & Mechanics

When Marian Green's boyfriend enlisted in the 1st Michigan Engineers and Mechanics regiment in the fall of 1861, she saw him off to war in December. Unable to bear being away from him, she arranged with a certain surgeon to enlist in a detachment recruited for the regiment and, in summer 1862, joined the regiment along with many other new recruits and spent that summer building bridges on the Memphis and Charleston railroad.

That fall the boyfriend was taken ill and sent to the hospital. A couple of days later, Green showed up at his bedside, remaining for months to nurse him and other patients. She had kept her sex a secret as a soldier in the regiment, but the boy wrote to her parents informing them of her presence. Her parents informed the military and arranged for her return home. Later, when a portion of the regiment returned to Detroit for discharge, Marian met her boyfriend there and they were married.

Jennie Hodgers

Jennie Hodgers, daughter of Sallie and Patrick Hodgers, was born in Clogherhead, Ireland on December 25, 1844. She sailed to America as a stowaway and settled in Belvidere, Illinois. Little is known about her early life because her true identity was not discovered until a few years before her death.

By 1862, Jennie was living in Belvidere, Illinois. As the Civil War escalated that July, President Lincoln sent out a call for an additional 300,000 men to serve in the Union Army, inspiring 19-year-old Jennie Hodgers to serve her country. So, on August 6, 1862 she disguised herself as Pvt. Albert D.J. Cashier and enlisted in the Union Army’s 95th Illinois Infantry regiment. She marked an "X" on the enlistment papers, because she couldn't read or write, and passed a cursory physical exam that involved nothing more than a quick look at the eyes and ears.

Described as five feet, three inches tall and weighing 110 pounds, she was the shortest person in her regiment. Other soldiers thought that "Cashier" was just a small man who preferred his privacy, which was not unusual in those days. She endured long marches, lived out in the open and performed all duties required of a Union soldier. Comrades later recalled she was a skilled rifleman.

The 95th Regiment mustered into Federal service at Camp Fuller, Illinois on September 4, 1862 and headed to Grand Junction, Tennessee a month later. There it became part of General Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the Tennessee. They fought in the Red River Campaign, the combat at Guntown, Mississippi, where they suffered heavy casualties, and the Siege of Vicksburg. (When Hodgers was captured by the Confederates during the Vicksburg Campaign, she managed to escape by grabbing a guards rifle and knocking him senseless with it.)  During 1864, the 95th pursued Confederate General Sterling Price during his Missouri raid. In December of that year, they fought at the Battle of Nashville, the last major battle in the Western Theater. Sent to the Gulf of Mexico, the regiment ended its military service by taking part in the siege and capture of Spanish Fort and Fort Blakely in March 1865.

Hodgers was mustered out of the Union Army with the remainder of the regiment on August 17, 1865, after serving for three years and 11 days in the ranks. She had marched thousands of miles, fought in more than 40 battles and earned a reputation for bravery and tenacity under fire.

She and her fellow soldiers returned to Illinois where they were honored with a huge public rally before returning to civilian life. Jennie had escaped the war without serious injury, allowing her to keep her identity a secret. She returned to Belvidere and soon moved on to several other Illinois towns, working at odd jobs. Still posing as Albert Cashier, she finally settled in Saunemin, Illinois in 1869 where she bought a small house.

Jennie performed many different jobs over the next 40 years: janitor of a church, farm worker, town lamplighter and handyman. She also voted in elections, long before Illinois gave women the right to vote, and gained a reputation of being a somewhat eccentric. She applied for a veteran's pension in 1899, but didn't complete the process until 1907 because it required a medical exam. She somehow convinced the examining board not to divulge her secret and the pension was granted.

Her secret began to unravel in November 1810 while at work picking up sticks at the home of Illinois State Senator Ira M. Lish. Unable to see her small form behind him, the senator backed his car down the driveway and struck her, breaking her leg. A doctor discovered her sex while examining her leg. She pleaded with them to keep her secret, and they decided that no good would be served by making her true gender public knowledge.

Jennie never recovered fully from the accident, and within months, the Senator and doctor agreed that she needed institutional care because she was totally disabled. On May 5, 1911, she was moved from Saunemin to the Soldiers' and Sailors' Home in Quincy, Illinois where she was admitted as a man. In March 1914, the Home decided that the continuing decline in her mental health warranted her being placed in the State Hospital for the Insane at East Moline, Illinois. This required a court hearing, and although her gender was not referred to at the hearing, word got out and the press broke the story. At the hospital, she was forced to wear dresses for the first time in more than 50 years. She fought back for a long time before finally giving in.

She died at the Watertown State Hospital on October 10, 1915. Wearing her Union uniform, of which she was so proud and with her casket draped with an American flag, she was given a military funeral in East Moline on October 12. Her body was moved to Saunemin, where she was buried as Albert Cashier in Sunny Slope Cemetery. Upon the headstone over her grave was inscribed the masculine name she carried into battle and bore throughout her life. In the 1980s, measures were taken to correctly identify the gravesite. Visitors will now find two headstones in place - the original veteran marker and a larger memorial stone.

It took W.J. Singleton, executor of her estate, nine years to track Cashier's identity back to Jennie Hodgers. The people of Saunemin have not forgotten their little soldier of the Civil War. On Memorial Day, 1977, they erected a larger monument that bears the name Jennie Hodgers. Her name is also inscribed on the Illinois monument at Vicksburg.

What separates Jennie from the other females who dressed as men to fight in the Civil War is that she was the only one to serve for the full time that her unit served, and the only one to survive the war without anyone discovering her gender. Sooner or later, all the other women were found out and told to go home, or served as nurses in field hospitals. Why she continued to live as a man long after her military service ended remains a mystery.

Nancy Jenkins

Unidentified Union Soldiers

Nancy Jenkins, alias John Smith, was discovered wearing a Yankee uniform by the pro-Confederate Buck family of Front Royal, Virginia.

When they found her taking water from their well, she pleaded for their help, claiming she had taken refuge with a black family near town. She told them Union soldiers had barged into the home, taken her prisoner, cut her hair, forced her to wear a uniform and enlisted her in the Union army. She told them that after escaping her captors, she joined another regiment, finally obtaining a pass out of camp.

Believing her story, they took her to a Confederate provost marshal who gave her a pass to travel South. The Bucks gave her clothing and food and wished her well on her way home.

Marian McKenzie

Marian McKenzie was born in Holytown, Lanarkshire. She immigrated to the United States with her father, Duncan McKenzie, at an early age after the death of her mother. Her father died shortly after their arrival in New York, leaving Marian, her brothers and sisters to fend for themselves.

When the Civil War began, she was living in Kentucky, but had yet to discover what she wanted to do with her life. Deciding that this was her chance to fulfill her desire for adventure, she enlisted in the 23rd Kentucky Infantry regiment as Pvt. Harry Fitzallen at the age of 18 on January 2, 1862. Disguised as a man, she was mustered into service and assigned garrison and guard duty along the Kentucky-Tennessee border. She was able to hide her true identity for four months with her dark complexion, short cropped hair and men's clothing. Described as having coarse, rounded features, and a stocky frame of 5'3", she evaded detection and fought valiantly for the army.

By August 27, 1862, her identity was discovered and she was immediately taken off active duty. She begged her commander to allow her to stay with the regiment if only as a nurse or aide. The commander relented and assigned her to nursing duty in the regiment's hospital. She remained in this capacity for two months before deciding to pursue other adventures.  

Despite the taboos against women's active participation in the war, she continued enlisting as a man in the Union Army across several states. From October 14 to November 16 1862 she marched with the 92nd Ohio Infantry from Marietta, OH to Charleston. While in Charleston (then under Union occupation), she was again discovered on December 20th and suspected of being a Confederate spy. On orders of Brig. Gen. George Crook, commander of the Kanawha Division, she was placed under guard, put aboard the packet steamer Bostonia No. 2 and sent to the provost marshall general's office in Wheeling.

"I have the honor to report the receipt of a prisoner of war sent here by Brigadier-General Crook in the shape of a female wearing male apparel charged as a spy for the rebels, arrested in the streets of Charleston, Va.," Maj. Joseph Darr Jr., the provost marshal general, wrote on Christmas Eve of 1862 from his office in Wheeling. Darr's letter to the 3rd Infantry Division's commissary-general of prisoners went on to describe the dark-haired, 5-foot, 2-inch prisoner as a stocky, "coarse-looking creature, scarcely answering the description of la fille du regiment." (Daughter of the regiment.)

Uncharitable comments given a march from Ohio to Charleston, followed by a few weeks of camp life during a wet winter in the Kanawha Valley, would make a "coarse-looking creature" out of most soldiers.

Marian was lodged in the Ohio County Jail, and ordered to change from her Union Army uniform into a civilian dress that was provided for her, minus the customary hoops needed to deploy it in the style of the day.

According to a Wheeling newspaper account, when told she would be detained until her story could be corroborated, McKenzie replied, "Very well, I cannot help it. The only way in which I have violated the law is in assuming men's apparel. The injury that I have done is principally to myself."

The newspaper quoted McKenzie as saying she "went into the army for the love of excitement and from no motive in connection with the war, one way or another."

View correspondence between military officials in Charleston and Wheeling following Marian's arrest by clicking HERE.

References: 

• Women in the Civil War: Extraordinary Stories of Soldiers, Spies, Nurses, Doctors, Crusaders and Others by Larry G. Eggleston
• Woman arrested Serving As Union Soldier, www.wvgazette.com

Sarah Emma Edmonds

Sarah Emma Edmonds Seelye is one of two most fully documented of all the women combatants. A Canadian by birth, she left home after her abusive father attempted to force her into marrying a man she did not want. She worked for a time in New Brunswick selling bibles. Afraid of being found by her father, she fled to the U.S. in 1856 and settled in Flint, Michigan.

Offended by the idea of slavery, when the first call for volunteers came from President Lincoln, Sarah enlisted in the 2nd Michigan Infantry as Franklin Edmonds on May 25, 1861, and was given the rank of Private. She was assigned as a male nurse at the field hospital of the 2nd Michigan Volunteers. In her own words, she "went to war with no other ambition than to nurse the sick and care for the wounded."

Her regiment participated in the Pennsylvania campaign and the battles of First Manassas, Fredericksburg and Antietam. Sarah wrote about her experiences at the First Battle of Bull Run:

“Our surgeons began to prepare for the coming battle, by appropriating several buildings and fitting them up for the wounded - among others the stone church at Centreville - a church which many a soldier will remember, as long as memory lasts.

The first man I saw killed was a gunner. A shell had burst in the midst of the battery, killing one and wounding three men and two horses. Now the battle began to rage with terrible fury. Nothing could be heard save the thunder of artillery, the clash of steel, and the continuous roar of musketry.

I was sent off to Centreville, a distance of seven miles, for a fresh supply of brandy, lint, etc. When I returned, the field was literally strewn with wounded, dead, and dying. Men tossing their arms wildly calling for help; there they lie bleeding, torn and mangled; legs, arms and bodies are crushed and broken as if smitten by thunderbolts; the ground is crimson with blood. From Nurse and Spy in the Union Army: The Adventures and Experiences of a Woman in Hospitals, Camps, and Battle-Fields, by S. Emma E. Edmonds.”

Due to the execution of a Union agent in Richmond, word was put out that General McClellan was looking for a spy to infiltrate the Confederacy. Private Thompson promptly volunteered and learned all she could on weapons, tactics, local geography and military personnel. She easily impressed the staff and was given the position.

Her first disguise for entering the Confederacy was as a black man. With the assistance of the wife of the local chaplain, the only person who knew her true identity, she used silver nitrate to darken her skin to the point that the doctor she worked for in the hospital didn't recognize her. She wore men's clothing and a black minstrel wig and departed on her first mission as Cuff. She easily infiltrated the local Negro population as a slave and was assigned to work on the ramparts being built to counter McClellan. After her first day, her hands were so blistered she changed jobs with a fellow slave and worked in the kitchen. She collected information on the morale of the troops, the size of the army and gun placements. She returned to the Union army, where her information was well received by McClellan, and she returned to duty as a male nurse.

After two months, she was once again asked to go behind enemy lines. This time she went as a fat Irish peddler woman with the name of Bridget O'Shea. She easily entered the Confederate camps by selling her wares. She was shot in the arm, but managed to stay on her horse and return with valuable information. Rather than return to the army as a man, she decided to serve as a female nurse at a Washington, DC hospital for wounded soldiers run by the U.S. Christian Commission.

She went again at the end of 1862, this time as a young man with Southern sympathies by the name of Charles Mayberry, her mission was to identify the Southern spy network in Louisville, Kentucky. She succeeded again, this time just in time for the battle of Vicksburg.

Sarah went back to caring for the sick as a male nurse and contracted malaria on April 19, 1863. Afraid she'd be revealed as a woman at a military hospital, she left the army and checked herself into a private hospital in Cairo, Illinois as a woman. Once recovered, she rejoined her unit and discovered she had been listed as a deserter.

After the war, using the pen name S.E. Edmonds, she wrote a fictionalized account of her life, Nurse and Spy in the Union Army. It was widely popular, selling in excess of 175,000 copies. Sarah gave all profits from the book to the U.S. War Relief Fund and wrote, "I could only thank God that I was free and could go forward and work, and I was not obliged to stay home and weep."

Sarah returned to Canada where she married Linus H. Seelye in 1867 and raised three children, all of whom died young. They returned to the U.S., adopted two boys and moved around frequently over the years; going to Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Louisiana and Kansas.

In 1882, Sarah was living in Fort Scott, Kansas when she attempted to get affidavits from her old army comrades in order to receive a veteran's pension from the government. She also worked very hard to have her records cleared of the desertion charges. Her former captain wrote on her behalf: "She followed that regiment through hard-fought battles, never flinched from duty, and was never suspected of being else than what she seemed. The beardless boy was a universal favorite."

On July 5, 1884, a special act of Congress granted Sarah Emma Edmonds, alias Frank Thompson, an honorable discharge from the army, plus a bonus and a veteran's pension of $12.00 a month. A letter from the Secretary of War, dated in June of that year, recognized her as "a female solider who… served as a private… rendering faithful service in the ranks."

That year, she attended an army reunion in 1884, and shocked her fellow veterans when they realized that Frank Thompson was indeed a woman. Many were amazed at the courage and strength this woman had displayed during the war.

In 1897, Sarah joined the McClellan Post and became a member of the Grand Army of the Republic - the only woman ever admitted. She lived the rest of her life in La Porte, Texas where she died at the age of 56 of malaria on September 5, 1898. She was buried with full military honors in the Grand Army of the Republic section of Washington Cemetery in Houston, Texas, the only woman buried there. Her tombstone reads: "Emma E. Seelye - Army Nurse."

In her own words, Sarah said of her adventures, "I am naturally fond of adventure, a little ambitious, and a good deal romantic - but patriotism was the true secret of my success."

Jane Short & Lou Morris

Battle of Shiloh

Many women who disguised themselves as men and enlisted during the Civil War did so to follow a loved one into battle. Others, like Jane Short, alias Charley Davis, were simply looking for adventure. Jane, who enlisted in a Missouri Union Infantry regiment in 1861, later explained she was "pining for the excitement of glorious war."

Despite being injured at the Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee in April 1862, Jane's sex was not discovered until she became ill and was sent to a hospital a few months later. After her discharge, she reenlisted with Lou Morris alias Bill Morris, another woman, and served until August 1864.

From the Memphis Bulletin, August 18,1864:

"Two females dressed in Federal uniform were brought to the Irving Block from the front on Tuesday [16th]. They were arrested in the camps of the 21st Missouri Infantry, in which they were serving, one as a drummer and the other as teamster, under the name of Charley Davis and Wm. Morris. The drummer's real name is Jane Short. Previous to joining the 21st Mo., she served for over a year as private in the 6th Illinois cavalry; into which regiment she enlisted from Shawneetown, Ill,. where she resided before the war.

She was at the Battle of Shiloh, and was there wounded in the hand by a musket ball. After recovering, she rejoined her regiment and participated in various conflicts, until prostrated by sickness and sent to the hospital, which led to her discharge. She then came to Memphis and lived, she does not say how for several months, when pining for the excitement of glorious war again, she joined the band of the 21st Missouri, in which she performed excellent service on the base drum until the time of her arrest.

In appearance she is thick set, full-faced, has short hair of a light color, and blue eyes. In uniform one would never suspect her to be a woman; she looks much like an unsophisticated country lad of twenty years and earnest modesty.

Lou Morris, alias Bill Morris, the younger of the two, is much better looking than her companion, seems more active and sprightly, and, consequently, less modest. She formerly resided in St. Louis, from which place she enlisted in the "Red Rovers" of the 10th Missouri cavalry, eighteen months since, and served nine months, passing unhurt through several engagements.

She then deserted and coming to Memphis, lived as a woman until meeting with Jane Short, with whom she started off the wars again, as teamster in the 2d Missouri Infantry. They were never acquainted before meeting at a hotel in this city. They claim that they have not revealed their sex, nor was it discovered by any of their comrades since they entered the service, and that their enlistment was promoted by patriotic motives only.

They wanted to do a small share towards "licking the rebs" as Lou said. The cause of their arrest, Lou informed me, was that Jane became frightened at the report that the regiment was to be sent out, with others, to meet (Confederate General Nathan Bedford) Forrest, and revealed their sex to one of the officers, who reported them at headquarters, when they were sent to the Provost Marshal of the right wing of the 16th Army Corps, and thence to Memphis.

Lou said she was not frightened, and intends to join another regiment if she gets a chance. Jane is content to return to the paths of peace again. Lou, when dressed in uniform, looks as little like a woman as her companions, and presented the appearance of a hardy boy of eighteen. They are much tanned by exposure. It is the intention of the authorities to sent to their homes, if they have any."

Regardless of their motivation, the women who disguised themselves as men took great pains to avoid detection. Loose-fitting Civil War uniforms facilitated the charade as did the strict gender roles of the time. Anyone who wore pants was automatically assumed to be a man. Also, many of the women who passed as men had a naturally masculine appearance and bearing. 

Sarah Rosetta Wakeman

With the speed and strength of any man in battle, hundreds of women answered the call to bear arms for the Union or the Confederacy. Dozens of them were able to evade detection, fight in battle, die as heroes or survive the war to live rich lives. One such woman to fight as a man was Sarah Rosetta Wakeman.

Rosetta, was born in Afton, New York on January 16, 1843 to Harvey Anable and Emily Wakeman, the first of nine children in the family. She worked hard on her father's dairy farm to help support her family, and later worked as a domestic. Her father was deeply in debt, and he also served as town constable.

In the summer of 1862, Rosetta left home and took on a new identity as Pvt. Lyons Wakeman. She worked as a barge operator and coal handler on the outskirts of Binghamton and every chance she got, she wrote home to let her family know that their 'son' was doing well. On her first trip up the river, Rosetta met several soldiers from the 153rd New York Regiment of Volunteers, who told her they had received a $152 signing bonus and were earning $13 a month in pay. Army recruiters assumed she was a male and asked her to join. Her word, oath and signature was enough to enlist.

She claimed to be 21 years old and was accepted into the regiment on August 30, 1862. The description on her enlistment papers said that she was five feet tall, fair-skinned, with blue eyes. The regiment was sent to Washington DC, in October 1862, where they remained for nine months, defending the nation's capital against rebel advances. Rosetta wrote home saying, "I can drill as good as any man in my regiment."

In her letters, Rosetta expressed her strong religious faith, the pride she felt at being a good soldier, and her strong desire to be financially independent, a dream that was shared by many 19th century women. She was outspoken, independent and hoped to buy a farm of her own after the war.

In February 1864, her unit was sent to Louisiana to take part in Major General Nathaniel Banks' Red River Campaign. There, Rosetta experienced battle up close for the first time in April 1864.

By April, Banks' Red River Campaign had advanced about 150 miles up Red River. Major General Richard Taylor, commander of the Confederate forces in the area, decided it was time to try and stem this Union drive. On April 8, he fought to a victory at the Battle of Mansfield or Sabine Crossroads. The bulk of the Federal army came back together at Pleasant Hill. Banks then decided to withdraw to Grand Ecore, while leaving a strong rearguard at Pleasant Hill. This force probably numbered around 11,000 men. To oppose it, Taylor now had close to 13,000 men, having been reinforced by two divisions late on April 8.

Early on April 9, 1864, Taylor's forces marched toward Pleasant Hill in the hopes of finishing the destruction of Banks' army. Taylor felt that the Yankees would be timid after Mansfield and that an audacious, well-coordinated attack would be successful. The Confederates closed up and rested for a few hours.

At 5:00 pm, Taylor launched a vigorous attack, which met with some initial success. He planned to send a force to assail the Union front while he rolled up the left flank and moved his cavalry around the right flank to cut off the escape route.

The attack on the Union left flank, under the command of Brigadier General Thomas Churchill, succeeded in sending those enemy troops fleeing for safety. Churchill ordered his men ahead, intending to attack the Union center from the rear. Union troops, however, discerned the danger and hit Churchill's right flank, forcing a retreat. By the end of the day, only one Confederate division remained intact.

Of the deceased soldiers Rosetta wrote, "sometimes in heaps and in rows … with distorted features, among mangled and dead horses, trampled in mud, and thrown in all conceivable sorts of places. You can distinctly hear, over the whole field, the hum and hissing of decomposition."

Pleasant Hill was the last major battle of the Louisiana phase of the Red River Campaign. Although Banks won, he retreated toward Grand Ecore, wishing to get his army out of west Louisiana before any greater calamity occurred. Rosetta wrote her last letter home on April 14, 1864, five days after the battle:

“Our army made an advance up the river to Pleasant Hill about 40 miles. There we had a fight. The first day of the fight our army got whip[ped] and we had to retreat back about ten miles. The next day the fight was renewed and the firing took place about eight o'clock in the morning. There was a heavy Cannonading all day and a Sharp firing of infantry. I was not in the first day's fight, but the next day I had to face the enemy bullets with my regiment. I was under fire about four hours and laid on the field of battle all night. There was three wounded in my Co. and one killed. I feel thankful to God that he spared my life, and I pray to him that he will lead me safe through the field of battle and that I may return safe home.”

Near the end of the Red River Campaign, drinking water became scarce and Rosetta and her fellow soldiers drank from streams that were poisoned by the rotting flesh of dead animals. The connection between contamination and infection wasn't understood at that time. The Union soldiers were stricken by chronic diarrhea and died by the thousands.

Rosetta fell sick and was admitted to the regimental hospital at Alexandria, Louisiana on May 3, 1864. When her condition worsened, she was transferred again to a Federal hospital in New Orleans on May 22. The trip south was fraught with problems. By the time she reached her destination she was in the acute phase of dysentery. Her illness persisted, slowly draining the life from her. She died on June 19, 1864. If the nurses or doctors there discovered her true gender, they didn’t report it. She was buried as a soldier at the Chalmette National Cemetery in New Orleans. Her headstone reads, "Pvt. Lyons Wakeman."

Many years later, Rosetta's letters were discovered by a relative in the attic of the farmhouse where Rosetta grew up, in upstate New York. They were published in 1994 by editor Lauren Cook Burgess as An Uncommon Soldier: The Civil War Letters of Sarah Rosetta Wakeman, alias Pvt. Lyons Wakeman, 153rd Regiment, New York State Volunteers, 1862-1864. It wasn't until then that the military discovered she was a woman. 

Mary Ellen Wise

Mary Ellen Wise lived in rural Anderson, Indiana when the war began. In September 1861, she cut her hair short, disguised herself as a man and enlisted in Company I of the 34th Indiana Infantry as Pvt. James Wise. The 34th Indiana Infantry Regiment was organized at Anderson, Indiana on September 16, 1861, and was mustered into Federal service on October 10, 1851.

While Mary was with the 34th Indiana she fought many battles and was wounded three times. The 34th participated in the siege at New Madrid, Missouri on March 5-14, 1862, the siege and capture of Island #10 on the Mississippi River on March 15 to April 8, 1862, the capture of Fort Pillow on June 5, 1862, the Battle of Port Gibson on May 1, 1863, the Battle of Champion Hill on May 16, 1863 and the siege of Jackson, Mississippi on July 10, 1863.

In her last battle, she was wounded in the shoulder by a minie ball. This was the third time she had been wounded, but this time it was serious enough to require immediate medical attention. When the surgeon removed Mary's shirt to tend the wound he discovered that Pvt. James Wise was a woman. She was discharged after recovering.

Her discharge on the grounds of being a woman left her right to receive her pay in doubt. But Mary felt she had as much right to the pay as any male soldier and came to Washington to ask for her back pay. When the paymaster refused, President Lincoln "blazed with anger" and ordered the injustice rectified. 

After her discharge in September 1864, she lived for a while with her friend Mrs. E.B. Gates and her husband, who was a captain in the Union army. Their home was at Lincoln Hospital in Washington, DC. While living there she met and fell in love with an army sergeant of the Veteran's Reserve Corps and married him at the hospital.The Washington Daily Morning Chronicle reported the story on September 30, 1824:

THE "BRAVE SOLDIER-GIRL"

To the Editor of the Chronicle:
     I beg leave to furnish THE CHRONICLE a further incident in the history of the soldier-girl who received her pay by the order of the President.
     Miss Mary Wise found a good friend in, and a home with, Mrs. Captain E.B. Gates, at Lincoln Hospital where she soon made the acquaintance of Sergeant Forehand, of the Veteran Reserve Corps. This friendship soon ripened into affection, and the result was a marriage scene last evening at the above-named hospital, in which the soldier-girl and the sergeant were the principal actors. In other words, Miss Mary Ellen Wise (formerly James Wise, private of Company I, Thirty-fourth Regiment Indiana Volunteers), and Sergeant F. Forehand, of the Veteran Reserve Corps, were made man and wife--Uncle Sam thereby losing a brave soldier, and the sergeant finding a good wife. The ceremonies were performed by the chaplain of Lincoln Hospital, and were witnessed by quite a number of their soldier-friends.
     Miss Mary has made many friends by her gentle and unassuming manners. They start for the New Hampshire home of the bridegroom to-morrow. May the now happy pair live to tell their grandchildren of the many hard-fought battles through which both have passed, and tell over the many amusing camp incidents so familiar to the sergeant and his companion, is the heart-felt wish of their friends. W.H.M.