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Female Soldier: 26th North Carolina Infantry Regiment
Confederate CMSR* for Mrs. S. M. Blaylock, Company F, Twenty-sixth North Carolina Infantry Regiment, states:
This lady dressed in men's clothes, Volunteered [sic], received bounty
and for two weeks did all the duties of a soldier before she was found out, but her husband being discharged, she disclosed
the fact, returned the bounty, and was immediately discharged April 20, 1862.
*Compiled Military Service Record
Source: CMSR for Mrs. S.M. Blaylock, Twenty-sixth North Carolina Infantry,
War Department Collection of Confederate Records, RG 109, NA.
Related Reading:
Recommended Reading: Female soldiers of the American
Civil War
Recommended Reading: She
Went to the Field: Women Soldiers of the Civil War. Description: Women Soldiers of the Civil War profiles
several substantiated cases of female soldiers during the American Civil War, including Sarah Rosetta Wakeman (aka Private
Lyons Wakeman, Union); Sarah Emma Edmonds (aka Private Frank Thompson, Union); Loreta Janeta Velazquez (aka Lieutenant Harry
T. Buford, Confederate); and Jennie Hodgers (aka Private Albert D. J. Cashier, Union). Continued below...
Also featured are those women who may not have posed as male soldiers
but who nonetheless pushed gender boundaries to act boldly in related military capacities, as spies, nurses, and vivandieres
("daughters of the regiment") who bore the flag in battle, rallied troops, and cared for the wounded.
Recommended Reading: Memoirs
of a Soldier, Nurse and Spy: A Woman's Adventures in the Union Army. Description: Sarah Emma
Edmonds was born in New Brunswick, Canada in 1842, the fifth daughter of Isaac and Elisabeth Leeper Edmondson. Her father,
a farmer, was bitterly disappointed with Sarah as he had wanted a son to work his land. Sarah tried very hard to be the boy
her father always wanted, abandoning female dress and becoming an expert horsewoman and markswoman. However, this was all
to no avail: sadly, she never won the approval of Isaac. In 1859, she ran away from home to escape the man she described as
‘The Brutal Father’. Sarah fled to the USA, where dressing as a man to draw less attention to herself, she adopted
the name of ‘Frank Thompson’. By 1861, ‘Frank’ was working selling Bibles door-to-door in Flint, Michigan,
and so successful in ‘his’ guise that he was escorting young ladies in ‘his’ carriage. Continued
below...
When President Lincoln issued his first call for volunteer troops, ‘Frank’
wanted to answer the call and patriotically serve ‘his’ new homeland. The army at that time didn't require a full
physical examination. However, it still took ‘Frank’ four tries to get into the Union Army. On April 25, 1861,
Sarah Emma Edmonds alias Frank Thompson became a male nurse in Company F, of the 2nd Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment.
This is 'his' story.
Recommended Reading: An
Uncommon Soldier: The Civil War Letters of Sarah Rosetta Wakeman, alias Pvt. Lyons Wakeman, 153rd Regiment, New York State
Volunteers, 1862-1864. Editorial Review from Library Journal: As the debate on the role of women in the military continues, an interesting historical footnote has been brought forth:
the publication of the only known surviving set of letters of one of the estimated 400 women who disguised themselves as men
to fight as soldiers in the Civil War. Continued below...
Born on a farm in New York in 1843, Wakeman was the oldest of nine children.
Few details of her family life are known, nor what exactly precipitated her flight into the army, but glimpses of this strong-minded
woman are provided throughout: "I am as independent as a hog on the ice. If it is God's will for me to fall in the field of
battle, it is my will to go and never return home." Private Wakeman did not return home: she is buried under her masculine
pseudonym. How many more women were buried as men? Civil War historian Burgess provides an intriguing introduction to what
is sure to become an area of growing interest. Highly recommended.
Female Soldiers of the American Civil War History, Women Civil War Soldiers in Battle, Female Women
Civil War Soldiers in Combat, List of Female Women Soldiers American Civil War History Contributions
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