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Womanin theCIVIL WARUpdated August 3rd 1999 |
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Introduction to Woman in the Civil War
This is a quick introduction due to the fact there are many other pages that have better information on these woman. I am still in the process of learning about their involvement.
Some of the information gathered on these woman are from letters home, books published, their bio and Military records. It is like puting a big puzzle together one piece at the time.
I have listed in Woman Link pages I have found on woman in the civil war. I have also copied portions of personal ones involved with the 2nd Michigan Infantry and a few I have found interesting on these pages. To get a complete story please check out the links.
For a very good introduction to woman in the Civil War please fallow the links below. You will have to "Go Back" to get back to this page.
SARAH ROSETTA WAKEMAN
(aka Pvt. Lyons Wakeman)
The personality of Rosetta Wakeman is evident in every letter, with all of her bluntness, bravado, independence, pride, faith, and occasional reflectiveness, giving the reader a unique insight into the strength of character and the fearlessness of one woman who flaunted convention and dared to enlist as a soldier during the Civil War.
She did her duty honorably, and expected and received no special treatment because of her sex. She volunteered to render her country her "last full measure of devotion," and ultimately it did cost Rosetta her life. For that, Private Wakemen, and women like her, deserve the same honor and respect that we accord all other veterans of that tragic conflagration that ripped through America over a century ago.
The oldest of nine children, seven girls and two boys, of Harvey Anable and Emily Hale Wakeman, Sarah Rosetta Wakeman was born on January 16, 1843, in a town that was later subdivided into the town of Afton, New York. Her father, a farmer, also served as a constable.
Dressed as a man, Rosetta left home in early August 1862 to find work in the nearest big city, Binghamton. With no apparent expectation of marriage and the knowledge she would be limited in income as a cleaning woman, she realized she could earn more as a man. Her letters indicate a second potential reason for leaving home--helping the family out of debt. She wrote, "I knew that I could help you more to leave home than to stay there with you." She did send a large part of her income home to the family. Her letters alluded to a third reason--an inability to get along with some family members.
In Binghamton, she worked for a couple of weeks for $4.00 then worked as a boatman on a coal barge. After her first trip up the river, soldiers from the 153rd Regiment, New York State Volunteers, encouraged her to enlist. The $152.00 bonus, worth more than a year's wages to even the "male" Rosetta, was irresistible.
On August 30, 1862, she signed on as "Lyons" Wakeman, raising her age from 19 to 21. The regimental role describes her as "five feet tall, fair complected, with brown hair, blue eyes (with) an occupation of 'boatman.'"
The 153rd Regiment remained in the area until it filled its quota of volunteers and joined the United States service on October 17, 1862. The unit left for Washington on October 18th arriving on October 22nd, where they performed police and guard duty in Alexandria, Virginia, to protect the perimeter of Washington City. During their nine-month tour of duty there, they often formed a line of defense across the entrances into Washington. (1:10-11)
Her letters home revealed many ambivalent feelings. She longed for home and talked of her family preparing for her return from the war but believed she could not come home because she would not be accepted. She also wrote that she did not want to return home but wanted to have her own farm after the war.
Her first field duty occurred in late February 1864, when the unit marched almost 700 miles to participate in Major General Nathaniel P. Banks' campaign in Louisiana. Private Wakeman encountered her first actual combat experience on April 9, 1864. Although the unit's first engagement successfully repelled the Confederates, Banks' army had to retreat.
Near the end of the campaign, Rosetta, and many of her fellow soldiers, were stricken by chronic diarrhea. She entered the regimental hospital at Alexandria, Louisiana, on May 3 and was transferred to Marine U.S.A. General Hospital in New Orleans on May 22. She died on June 19, 1864, with no record of her having been revealed as a female. (1:12)
Even though Rosetta's letters were filled primarily with reports of events that directly influenced her, rather than the bigger issues of the war, she wanted to be a good soldier and was proud of the abilities she had as a soldier, such as drilling and standing on the firing line.
CONCEALING THEIR GENDER
How could she and the other women serve without detection? Physical examinations at induction were very poorly conducted. A recruit might have been asked to prove that his hands and fingers were capable of firing a weapon or that his teeth were good enough to open a minie ball cartridge.
Sarah Edmonds, who served as Pvt. Franklin Thompson, described her entrance exam as a "firm handshake" with a question about "Frank's" job. (1:3)
Volunteer officers who knew little about military ways, and were overwhelmed with simply learning their jobs, commanded the units. No initial entry training was required. Even if training had been required, many of the women who joined were rural women who knew how to ride a horse and shoot a rifle, or were poor immigrant women from urban areas who had worked at physically demanding jobs. Both groups of women felt extremely capable of matching the abilities of the men.
Even though the soldiers lived in close quarters, they were outside most of the time, making it easy to be away from the others. Since modesty was a cultural norm at that time, no one questioned a soldier's desire to tend to hygiene matters out of sight of others.
Another cultural norm contributed to the ease with which women went undetected. The standard attire for women at that time was long dresses, typically hoop skirts. Hair was worn long and intricately arranged. Anyone wearing pants was assumed to be a man.
Soldiers often appeared naive about recognizing the women
among them. Captain Ira B. Gardner of
the 14th Maine reported a soldier who served for two years
under him before he recognized her as
female. He wrote…
"If I had been anything but a boy, I should probably have seen from her form that she was a female."
Robert Hodges, a Confederate soldier, wrote home of a time when
...one of the soldiers directed my attention to a youth apparently about seventeen years of age well dressed with a lieutenant's badge on his collar. I remarked I saw nothing strange. He then told me the young man was not a man but a female.
Soldiers in the brigade with Pvt. Franklin Thompson had talked of "him" as "Our Woman" because of "his" feminine mannerisms and "ridiculously small boots." Despite these clues, many members of her unit asserted in testimony after the war that they never doubted "he" was anything but a male.
Other factors enabled women to remain undetected. Uniforms that did not fit contributed to the inability to recogize women in uniform. Since many soldiers were very young, it was not unusual for them to have high-pitched voices and no beard. All of the women were not ugly or with masculine characteristics either. Even those who were attractive failed to be recognized by members of their unit. One soldier wrote home of a "very good looking" female who was wounded in the Battle of Gettysburg and eventually had a leg amputated.
Women, on the other hand, were able to spot other women in uniform. Burgess suggests that men did not expect to see women in uniform and had difficulty assuming otherwise. She states that Biases about the physical, emotional, and intellectual abilities of women, as well as beliefs about appropriate and acceptable feminine roles, precluded the concept of a female soldier and rendered many men in the armies incapable of recognizing the women among them.
Women were concerned about being discovered for fear they would ruin their reputation. Women who sought independence and adventure were not viewed as kindly as those who followed a loved one into the army or those who expressed extremely patriotic views as their reason for signing up. Even though most newspaper stories remained neutral or were flattering, some reports about these women portrayed them as immoral.
UNDERCOVER AGENTS OF THE CIVIL WAR
SOUTH
Emmeline Piggott. She pinned Confederate documents under her many petticoats. When Union soldiers stopped her, she swallowed the papers. She was freed and continued working as a spy.
Belle Boyd. She obtained secrets from Union soldiers by using her feminine charms. Her greatest achievment was warning Stonewall Jackson of the destruction of bridges as the Union Army retreated. The South saved the bridges and Jackson advanced to the edge of Washington, DC. She was put in prison three times. Using the ruse of traveling to England for her health, she delivered secret Confederate papers. Using teenaged girls, she organized a spy ring in Virgina.
Rose O'Neal Greenhow. Using her position as a prominent Washington hostess, she obtained valuable information from important men in the city. As a result of advance knowledge provided by Rose, she is credited with the South's first important victory at Bull Run. She ran a spy ring of 48 women and two men which continued even after the ring was discovered. After imprisonment for a year, she was returned to Virginia. Returning from a trip to England to garner support for the Confederacy, she lost her life in a storm.
Nancy Hart. From West Virginia, Nancy obtained information by charming the Union soldiers. After being imprisoned for spying, she charmed the guard into giving her his gun to hold, shot him, and escaped on the best horse in the camp. One week after escaping she returned, commanding 200 Confederate soldiers on horseback, and assisted them in the recapture of their town. (15:149-150)
NORTH
Elizabeth Van Lew. Behaving as if she were a mad woman, she worked as a spy in Richmond. In her organization of Union spies, "Crazy Bet" sometimes used servants who often transported messages in their shoes. She provided Grant valuable information that helped him succeed in his attack on Richmond. As President, he appointed her to a position as a postmistress.
Mary Bowser. As a Black servant for Jefferson Davis, she was undetected as a spy. She was allowed to clean his study because it was believed she was unable to read. Well-educated, however, she read his messages, and as the freed slave of Elizabeth Van Lew, provided much information to her about troop size and location that Van Lew gave to Grant.
Pauline Cushman. This New Orleans actress stole plans of fortifications. After discovery, and as she was about to be hanged, she was saved at the last minute by Union troops. Later, she was awarded an honorary commission as a Major. Years later, she was buried with military honors in the San Francisco National Cemetery.
Emma E. Edmonds. A nurse who used numerous disguises to travel between the lines, she spied for two years, longer than any other female spy. She worked as a Black boy in a Confederate camp and as an Irish immigrant peddler.
Lizzie Compton
| This is an
E-Mail I received and I hope to find out more about this
Canadian Woman which was wounded in battle. Thanks Bill. He can be reached at his E-Mail E-Mail |
