Women Soldiers, performed by Audrey Scanlan-Teller and Tracey McIntire

Test pilot and to command the space show. So they're going to talk about women who disguise themselves as men to fight in the war. And in this case, they're going to talk about soldiers from the DMV area.

And here we go. Thank you so much. Hi, I'm Audrey Scanlon teller, I'm Tracy McIntyre and we are here to talk about women. Just as he said, women who disguise themselves as men and fought. In the American Civil War, just some introduction. Usually, one of the first things that people ask about women soldiers is How did they pass the physical? Well, that's one of those. Then why did they enlist as how many? Yes, three of us chickens three. Get three questions in one. Okay. How cover one at a time? Absolutely. Okay. How many we don't know because if they were successful we don't know about them. That means they served and then went back home to their their life before the war and so we don't know. Estimates are of the ones that were discovered about To 1,000 on the, on the union side alone, we do know of Confederates that Confederate women as well. So we will never know for sure. But we usually say, 400 to 1,000 because that's, and that's wisdom quotes of Mary Livermore, who was with the United States, Sanitary Commission, and just immediately after the war. She was, she herself actually found a woman soldier in the course of her activities. And she was asked after the war and wrote in her memoirs about how many women soldiers there. You know, there were and the number that was given was about 400 the estimate and that was in the Union Army alone.

So and then we can talk about some of the books that we have here, great Scholars, that have come before us and done great things. Yes. If you're really interested in this topic, I recommend starting with this book, it's called they fought like demons, it's by Lauren cook and Deanne, Blanton. And after we're done talking, I have a recommended reading list that we've typed up in, and I'm happy to hand those out afterwards on talking. But I recommend this book. They document about 250 women soldiers in this book. So that's a good start. If you're, if you're interested in this topic, okay. And then Richard Hall. Yes. Richard Hall women on the Civil War Battle Front is and he estimates that there may have been a thousand or possibly more women based on his archival research. So that's that's when we were more asked numbers, that's who were basing, the numbers on, okay? Now for those other questions that, how did they enlist and And why why?

Yeah, well actually we're going to told I'll talk about the why and you want to talk about the house that's fine. Okay but why is basically first of all, there were women that were just as patriotic as men and they didn't want to sit around at home and miss out on all the action. So there were some women that felt the Patriotic need to join the ranks. A lot of them actually were following loved ones into battle, a husband, or a father, or a brother. These women did not want to be left alone, so they felt that they wanted to follow a loved one into battle. In addition they could be escaping an abusive family situation. Well, talk about one of those women very shortly. Yes, we'll talk about that. You know, if they had an arranged marriage or if they had an abusive husband or a father, whatever they The Army was a way to escape and then, lastly, monetary reasons, there are a lot of women that did this for monetary reasons. If you were a woman in 19th century America, you had very few employment opportunities available to you. Women were supposed to get married in their husbands were supposed to support them, but if you were a single woman, you only had a few professions that were available to you.

For example, I'm a seamstress Allah. Dress a governess or a cook, but those jobs didn't pay very much. A maid in New York City. At the time, was making about four dollars a month. If you wanted to make more money than that, what you can do is disguise yourself as a man and do man's work. And one of the jobs that was available, was joining the Army. So as an army private, you could earn $13 a month. So that's more than three times, what you would have made as a woman. So some of these soldiers Some of these women were joining up to help support families at home, and we'll talk about one of those as well. Okay, let's talk about the, how the how, how did they do this?

Well, we have one woman who were going to talk about really shortly, who the surgeons examinations could be cursory. Sometimes the surgeons who just want to get people in, sometimes to the lieutenant would be the one. Who was in doing the recruiting and they just, you know, go ahead as person walks well. Okay, this person doesn't seem to be coughing or has a good sense of balance, okay? That's yeah. They're they're in a woman that I'm going to introduce very shortly said that the surgeon. All the surgeon did was examine her hands and asked her, what you know, work that she had done, and she was a clerk in a Bookseller so that explained her, you know, kind of soft tissue hands. So that's the the, the examinations just weren't that stringent at the time, and you can see by the wonderful clothing that the Army would give you was either too, too big or too small. And in this case a frock-coat does nicely to supposed to accept accentuate the pigeon chest of the fellow, but it also does a lot to hide the hips and, you know, other physical features of the woman. They wouldn't necessarily undress rather, we have quotes, they would actually dress up when they were in Camp. So and they weren't bathing the way that, you know, we would bathe today And they also had the Victorian sense of privacy. So you know that the latrines that look bad for the male soldiers also gave the women, an opportunity to kind of slip out somewhere else and to do their business and not be noticed.

And really the clothing that the whole concept of a woman wanting to be a soldier was just not in a 19th century mindset. I mean first, Of all you, it was illegal for a woman to dress as a man and to do a man's job. So you could be arrested for it and in prison for it. And it's just not something that, you know, was thought of women wore dresses, men wore pants. That's the end of the story, so that really helped them just because we have a quote from Orlando Poe is just no one thought of, you know what, about a woman soldier that was discovered to be a female later on who revealed herself to her regiment. And no one thought of finding a woman in Soldier's stress. I mean, it just wasn't brought up and that's what he said about her at her reveal was that, you know, nobody thought about it. We were just boys. And you know, we weren't used to seeing women wearing pants or doing a man's job, it didn't occur to us. So we're going to talk about some women who We're in the service locally and the DC area. You want to start with? Why don't we start with the woman that we've been talking about are a Madman Sarah, Emma Edmonds. Okay, this is a photograph of Sarah Anna Edmonds. She was born in New Brunswick, Canada and Ed at early age. Her father decided he was going to marry her off to a much older, man. She did not want to have this happen, and she decided that That she was going to run away from home. So she did and she was staying with some relatives for a while but then her mother wrote her and said your father's determined to find you. And so you better really disappear, you better really hide yourself. So she decided the best way to do that was to disguise herself as a man. So she cut her hair and she put on men's clothes and she took the name of Franklin Thompson. She decided she was going to earn a living as a Bookseller. So I moved to Michigan and became a Bookseller. Became a very successful book seller so much, so she could afford her own Carriage, so she was doing quite well for herself. But then the Civil War began and she was living in Flint. Michigan at the time. Now, all the young men of Flint Michigan, were signing up to fight and she felt well, I'm already accepted as a young man and I really do want to fight for my newly adopted country. So I'm going to enlist to. So she went to down to the recruiting office and gave her name is Franklin Thompson. She's the one with the hands that ice hands from being a Bookseller it up. They said, you know let's take a look at your hands. What are these? Hands do and she said I'm a Bookseller and they're like okay so you're in so she became a part of the second Michigan. Infantry at the beginning of the war they were still not allowing women to be nurses. They chose men from the regiment to serve as nurses.

So Sarah / Franklin was chosen to be a nurse in the beginning of the war. She served in the first battle of Bull. Run or first battle of Manassas. She was almost captured by Confederates there because she wanted to stay with her patients eventually. She was also tasked with delivering the mail. She became a very very welcome sight in Camp. When she came in all the soldiers were happy to see her because they were hoping for mail from home. So while they while she was stuck, delivering the mail. She actually her mule that. She was riding fell and rolled over on. Onto her causing some of her ribs to break and her leg to break. And she decided she was not going to seek medical attention for this. Because, of course, if she did, she'd be discovered to be a woman. She said, she'd rather been shot dead than to find, to be found, to be a woman among the ranks of men. So she decided she was going to basically suck it up and take care of her wounds herself, which she did, and as a result of this, she became debilitated later in life. So eventually, her regiment went down to Kentucky and she caught malarial fever. So this is something she really couldn't treat on her own and she applied for leave. She thought if she could get leave, she could get out of the army with on leave and go to see a civilian doctor dressed as a woman, but they didn't Grant her leave. So she would have had no choice but to dessert. So she deserted the Army dressed in women's clothes and went get went for treatment for Herman. Area. She then decided she was going to serve again but just as this time as a woman so she volunteered us nerves and this is a good time to bring in the book that she would publish in 1865 and 1865. She wrote her Memoir has traffic. Traffic is horrible here. Soldier nursing spy in the Union Army. She wrote These Memoirs in 1864 and they were published okay, then Somebody have a horn stug, someone's not happy. Somebody was yeah. Good grief.

Compensation anyone.

So in 1864, she wrote her Memoir about her experiences and she had them published. All of the proceeds, went to the United States Sanitary Commission and other organizations to help the union veterans. So this was this, was her way of telling her story after the war. She, she got married and had some children moved out to Kansas the injuries that she had during the war. Came back to bother her. She eventually became bedridden Now, she decided that she was going to apply for a pension because she saw other Union soldiers that had been injured in the war applying for pensions. So in order to do this, though she had to reveal the fact that she had been Franklin Thompson and she also had to clear his record of desertion. So she went found her old comrades and went to visit them and said you know. Hi. You know Franklin Thompson and they are initially look like Franklin Thompson sister.

Yeah. Yeah, they were like, oh my God but when they got over their initial shock, they recognized our newer and said, okay, well we're going to write letters to the government to support you because we you definitely surf with us, you're a good soldier. So they did write letters to the government as a result through a special act of Congress, that was passed. She was able to receive a government pension, and she's the only known women Soldier to have this happen. And she served here specifically, if anybody's from Alexandria. She was in mansion house hospital. So that's where, yes, that's where she was locally. Yeah, that's why we picked her because she did serve locally here in mansion house Hospital in Alexandria which is now the Carlile house, Carlisle house. And in fact, she did go visit that, that historic site, they do have a little bit, a little blurb about her on one of their panels inside.

Well, the next woman soldier when I talk about this is Sarah Rosetta Wakeman. She was from Bainbridge, New York, and she was the eldest daughter in a farming family of nine children. Her father had a heavy debt on his farm. She got finished with school and and 1860 and took a job as a female domestic, which didn't pay very much. Thank you. And she decided that she would take an unusual route and just like a man and take on a man's job. She became a coal barge labor, which paid five dollars per trip. And she on the way home back. Home from her first trip, she was approached by recruiters from the 150 third, New York, volunteer infantry. And They offered her 152 dollar Bounty, just for listing. They offered her $13, a month's wage as a private soldier in the Union Army. So, she thought this was a really good deal and she signed up and she was with the 150 third. They 150 third New York volunteer. Infantry came to Washington, d.c. in October of 1862.

She served in a defenses of Washington, she guarded the Baltimore and Ohio Railway, she was in. Old Capitol prison. She was a guard there as well while she was guarding that she writes home. We know about her because she wrote letters home that were preserved by her family and she writes of guarding a major in the Union Army who was not doing accordingly to the regulation of War while she's in Old care, Carol prison. And we don't know whether this not doing accordingly to the regulation of war was that Officer major did something derelict of Duty or whether like Rosetta herself was discovered to be a woman and among the ranks of men, which was totally against Army regulations in itself. So she served in as a guard and in the defenses of Washington until February of 1863, and she was sent to Louisiana with the red on the Red River campaign with a regiment, her regiment fought. Not in several battles, in Louisiana, in the process of retreating back. They would have Banks had a horrible time in the Red River campaign and they had a forced March Retreat where they had to March, 70 miles, and in two days and Rosetta Wakeman got really sick and sick from the bad water and she would eventually die actually and is Raid in Chalmette Louisiana under her mail, Alias.

And the only reason we know of her is because the letters that she wrote home to her family, where she signs Rosetta, her, family know, you know, knew who she was. And, you know, that's the only way we know that there was a woman buried in this grave and a woman served in the Civil War, and I'd like to talk about one more women Soldier, very briefly, I just want to finish up. But another woman that we know about, About is Maria Luis, who was a woman of color. She was with the 8th, New York Cavalry. And she was an enslaved person from Albemarle County Virginia. She came to Washington DC with five as part of an honor guard with 500 prisoner Confederate prisoners and 17 captured Confederate flags from the Battle of Waynesboro at the end of the war. She approached a Julia Wilbur was an abolitionist, and who worked with the Freedmen's Bureau in Washington DC and Julia Wilbur mentions in her. Diary about this woman who was came with the officers of the 8th, New York, she rode and Skirmish and fought and carried a car being with them. And, you know, came to Washington to take on again, a woman's guys. And, you know, find a good job for herself at the end of The war. So these are just three examples of women that disguise themselves as been in fought and served here locally and we thought that it would make an interesting talk for you today. Thank you for your time.

Thank you for attention and artery. Thank you very much. I should I'd like to mention that. In my family, I may have had a woman who served her name was Elizabeth Collins. She married a cousin, Parker, David Robbins in 1858, he served in the second Calvary, Calvary United States, colored Troops, and according to her family, just on her family that she served in the war somehow and I suspect that she served with her husband. Interesting, that's me. Wow. So, by the way, her three brothers and her uncle were in US forces in the Civil War. Our oldest brother served in in the 888 Pennsylvania, which was a white unit and her uncle and two Bravo, two younger brothers, served and and United States colored Troops units. And one brother was the first Pastor, call them, my church, So not a whole lot. That's awesome anyway. All right, what? Great history just in your own family, you know, it's like in a road. That's wonderful. Thank you for sharing.