Is the Portrayal of Officers and NCO's
among women soldiers historically correct?
Wendy A. King
When seeking the correlation between reenactments and actual history, we are often given pause by something that, to us, seems out of place. Some people question black soldiers in the Confederate ranks. This we can either document ourselves, or provide a list of reading material that verifies the situation and dispel their questions. Others question females in the ranks as soldiers. Again, material for research is available to document the facts. But what about females in uniform serving as officers and NCO's? There have been no books written specifically on the subject, however the books available regarding females as soldiers provide documentation not only for the privates, but also for officers and NCO's as well.
The top ranked female that has any documentation associated with her
is a Lieutenant Colonel. According to Hall's Patriots in
Disguise: Women Warriors of the Civil War, the 40th New York
Infantry had a female lieutenant colonel. 1
Following the ranks downward in natural progression, a female major
is the subject of the following:
A Union orderly was captured at the battle of Peach Tree Creek. He was taken before General Hood for questioning, but refused to talk. Just then, a female major with an escort rode up and saluted the General. She wore a cap with feathers and gold lace, flowing pants, a long velvet coat that was fastened with a crimson sash. She carried a revolver and a sword. She identified the orderly as a spy and took him into custody to deliver to General Johnston. On the way through the woods, she and her orderly reined in and she accused him of killing the only man she ever loved. The Major and orderly then began preparations to hang the supposed spy. He grabbed the rope away and spurred his horse. He claims that during his escape, the female major tried to shoot him so he kicked her in the face and got away. 2
The May 1907 edition of Confederate Veteran Magazine has the following article:
IN WHAT REGIMENT WAS "CAPTAIN BILLY?" Bartlett S. Johnston writes from Baltimore: "In 1863 I was living in Charlotte. After the battle of Chickamauga, I heard the Yankee prisoners were coming through town. I went to the depot and saw a long train full of prisoners. While I was standing on the platform one company of the troops guarding the prisoners got off the train and formed a line. The officer in command (a captain) was a woman dressed in full uniform with a tobacco bag tied on a button of her coat. The men called her "Captain Billy." They told me that her husband had been the captain and she a lieutenant, that that he was killed and she was made captain and put in command of the company and that she had been wounded. I ran over to where Gen. D. H. Hill was standing and called his attention to the fact that a woman was over there in command of a company. He said to me: 'My boy, that woman is an example for some of these men staying at home.' I would like to know what regiment she belonged to." 3
Richard Hall and Lee Middleton, in their books Patriots in Disguise and Hearts of Fire respectively, quote from the October 6, 1864, Virginian. It contains this story reprinted from the Charoltte North Carolina Times:
ANOTHER BELLE BOYD: A beautiful, dashing lady, in the uniform of a Captain passed on the Northern train towards Richmond yesterday afternoon. She wore a black belt with a chain attached. She is said to be from Mississippi, and has participated in several hard fought battles, and was promoted on the field for distinguished gallantry. She wore a straw cap, set jauntily on her head, adorned with two rows of miniature gilt buttons. He who seemed to be her traveling companion appeared about forty years of age, and wore the uniform of a Major. She had probably been home on a short furlough, and was on her way back to join her command. There is some mystery yet unraveled about this heroine and her strange career, and which will never see the light till the heart history of a love story is written. 4
Fitzgerald Ross notes a similar account in Cities and Camps of the Confederate States.
"- and Colonel Geary, one of our party, discovered a Confederate captain in one of the ladies. Her husband was a major in the confederate army, and she had taken an active part herself in the war, and fairly earned her epaulettes. She was no longer in uniform, having lately retired from the service, was young, good-looking, and lady-like, and told her adventures in a pleasant quiet way." 5
So here we have at least two (possibly three) documented accounts of women as captains, shall we move a grade down in rank? During the first part of the war, Loretta Janeta Velazquez took the name of Harry Buford and conferred upon herself the rank of Lieutenant, a practice sometimes used by independent soldiers who were not formally attached to any specific unit. Later, she commanded a company after the regular commander was killed. Velasquez account is not the best example to cite of women lieutenants. Her narrative, The Woman in Battle 6 raises too many questions and seems to have been written from a fantasy viewpoint. She is not the only female to have the rank of lieutenant. Two accounts list Madeline Moore as a woman who gained a lieutenancy. According to one account, she joined the army to be with her boyfriend, was elected lieutenant and served in West Virginia under Gen. McClellan, then later at Bull Run. 7 The other account places her in the cavalry and leading a charge in the Battle of the Wilderness.8 Perhaps a more documented example comes with Amy (a.k.a. Anna) Clarke. In Patriots in Disguise Hall quotes a letter by a Texas cavalryman, Robert Hodges Jr. in August 1863 in which he describes a scene for his father from Turner's Station, Tennessee:
"One of the soldiers directed my attention to a youth [Amy Clarke] apparently about seventeen years of age well dressed with a lieutenant's badge on his collar. I remarked that I was nothing strange. He then told me that the young man was not a man but a female." 9
There is also the case of First Lt. Bland (CS) who disguised herself as an Irish Peddler woman to capture a Captain. He was under the impression that he was escorting the peddler woman to her friends about two miles away, and where she would give proof of her identity. Several hours passed before the captain was missed. A cavalry squadron was sent out to look for him. They returned to camp empty handed except for the following note:
"Colonel D.: I am willing to exchange the pies, cakes and basket for the soldier and the d----d fool captain whom I caught with crinoline. Peddlers and ghosts are at a premium in these parts just now. Yours, in HASTE, BLAND, First Lieutenant, C.S.A."
The note was found on the bayonet of a musket of another US soldier who was captured in the same manner, about four miles away from the camp. 10
The next grade down is sergeants; for these there is an abundance of documentation. Frank Mayne, later known as Frances Day, served and attained the rank of sergeant in Co. F, 126th Pennsylvania. Mayne is listed as having deserted on August 24, 1862, but was subsequently killed in battle in another regiment where it was discovered she was a woman. 11
A sergeant in the 10th New York Heavy Artillery came down sick on the picket line and carried to the hospital where "he" gave birth. "For the first three or four days the event created great question among the two regiments as to its parental relations." [There were two regiments of the 10th] 12
James Greenalch of Michigan wrote home on April 20, 1863 that:
"The boys told me to knight [sic] that a regiment that is campt [sic] near us, the 74 Ohio, that on orderly Sergeant in that regiment has got a child, that the sergeant turns out to be a woman with mens cloths [sic] on and has ben [sic] in the regement [sic] twenty months." 13
The result of this sergeants delivery were orders from General William S. Rosecrans which read in part:
"The medical director reports that an Orderly sergeant in Brigadier General _____'s division was today delivered of a baby, -which is in violation of all military law and of army regulations. No such case has been known since the days of Jupiter. You will apply the proper punishment in this case and a remedy to prevent a repetition of the act." 14
Finally we come to the Corporals. One of the most maligned Corporals is Mollie Bell a.k.a. Bob Morgan. Here is a perfect case of imperfect documentation. Most authoritative books list Mary and Mollie Bell, who were cousins, among less than decorous camp followers, citing Mary Elizabeth Massey's Bonnet Brigades: American Women & The Civil War. (New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., © 1966). Her information came from the Richmond Daily Examiner of October 31, 1864 which denounced the two girls as "common camp followers" stating that:
"The country has here an insight into one of the probable causes of the utter worthlessness and inefficiency of some of the commands in the Valley. Hidden in Early's camp like the stolen Babylonian garment and silver in the camp of the Hebrews, defeat and disaster ever follows, and even will continue to cling to it, like the shirt of Nemish until purged of the unclean presence."
Obviously the Richmond Daily Examiner was written to encourage the religious fervor of the time! Let's take a look at another newspaper from the same period. The Richmond Dispatch is less religiously inclined and still available in microfilm, yet Massey and her followers missed the information it contained. (Even authors doing research don't always get the whole story!). It was brought to my attention that these two girls were listed in the 36th Virginia Infantry History in the Virginia Regimental History Series. Scott, cites The Richmond Dispatch of October 31, 1864. His account is close to what is written on the microfilm. 15 The original Dispatch account is as follows:
WOMEN IN SOLDIERS' APPAREL
The Central cars, on Friday night, brought down two girls, named Mary Bell and Mollie Bell, who were dressed in soldier clothes. They claim to be cousins, and state that before the war they lived with their uncle in Southwestern Virginia; but about two years since he left them and went over to the Yankees. They then attired themselves in male apparel and were admitted into a cavalry company, attached to the Confederate service. A few months after their enlistment they encountered a force of Yankees, were defeated and captured with the rest of the company; but subsequently, General John H. Morgan, with reinforcements, overtook the Yankees who had them in charge, causing such a precipitate retreat that they were compelled to abandon their prisoners. After three months' service in the cavalry, they joined the Thirty-sixth Virginia infantry, and have been with it up to the present time. On one occasion Mollie killed three Yankees while on picket, and on her return to the brigade was promoted for gallantry to corporalcy. The corporal has missed but one battle -- that of Cedar creek -- she having been sent off on duty at the time. Once she was slightly wounded in the arm by a piece of shell.
From the time these girls entered the service up to the day of the fight which took place between Early and Sheridan on the 19th instant, the secret of their sex was only known to the captain of the company to which they belonged. At this battle he was taken prisoner, and they then, finding it necessary to have some protector confided their secret to the lieutenant commanding the company; but he did not keep it two days before he reported it to General Early himself, who ordered them to be taken to Richmond. In the interview with the General, which ensued in consequence of the information imparted to him by said lieutenant, Mollie stated that there were six other females in disguise in the army; but she refused to tell who or where they were.
These girls were known in the army by the names of Tom Parker and Bob Morgan, and were acknowledged by all the soldiers with whom they were associated to be valiant soldiers, having never been known to straggle or shirk duty.
As they appeared in the Chief -of-police office on Friday night, there was nothing in their appearance to excite suspicion that they were other than what they appeared to be, confederate soldiers. They are modest in demeanor, and were always known as quiet and orderly members of their command. Mollie, alias Bob Morgan, did most of the talking and displayed evident marks of education and refinement; Mary, alias Tom Parker, was taciturn and moody, but yet not altogether uninteresting. Mollie says that "Tom" as she called her cousin was never intended to be a soldier; she is too modest and backward.
They were both committed to Castle Thunder to await further arrangements for their welfare. 16
This leaves us with the unknown officers. The Sandusky, Ohio Register of December 12, 1864, reported:
"One day last week one of the rebel officers [imprisoned on] Johnson's Island gave birth to a 'bouncing boy'. This is the first instance of the father giving birth to a child, that we have heard of - it is [also] the first case of a woman in rebel service that we have heard of, though they are noted for goading their own men in [to] the army, and for using every artifice - to befog and befuddle some of our men." 17
As in any research on women soldiers, this material may just be the beginning. Reenactment of this type role among women should be only relegated to those who show they can perform those roles with the same ability as their male counterparts; the next time anyone questions whether women actually served as Officers or NCO's, you can contribute to their education and have the research to back it up.
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FOOTNOTES
1 Hall, Richard, Patriots in Disguise: Women
Warriors of the Civil War. (New York, NY: Marlowe &
Company, © 1993) pg., 202 [Cites Ida Tarbell letter in National Archives]
2 IBID pp126-163
3 Johnston, Bartlett S., article: In
What Regiment Was "Captain Billy?", Confederate Veteran Magazine
(Vol. XV No. 5 May 1907)
pg. 230
4 Hall, Richard, Patriots in Disguise:
Women Warriors of the Civil War. (New York, NY: Marlowe
& Company, © 1993) pp. 163- 164. Middleton, Lee, Hearts
of Fire: Soldier Women of the Civil War. (Franklin, NC:
Genealogy Publishing Service, © 1993) p. 24
5 Ross, Fitzgerald., Cities and Camps
of the Confederate States ed. Richard Barksdale Harwell
(University of Illinois Press, Urbana, © 1958) p. 116
6 Velasquez, Loretta, The Woman in Battle.
(Hartford, CT: C.J. Worthington, T. Belknap, © 1876)
7 Hall, Richard, Patriots in Disguise:
Women Warriors of the Civil War. (New York, NY: Marlowe
& Company, © 1993) p. 199
8 Middleton, Lee, Hearts of Fire:
Soldier Women of the Civil War. (Franklin, NC: Genealogy
Publishing Service, © 1993) p. 105 Middleton lists Truby,
David J Women at War (Paladin Press) as her source.
9 Hall, Richard, Patriots in Disguise:
Women Warriors of the Civil War. (New York, NY: Marlowe
& Company, © 1993) pp. 99-100.
10 Truesdale, Captain John, The Bluecoats.
(Philadelphia, PA: Jones Brothers & Co., 1867) pp.
69-171. Middleton, Lee, Hearts of Fire: Soldier Women of the
Civil War. (Franklin, NC: Genealogy Publishing Service,
© 1993) pp. 15-17
11 Fox, William F., Regimental Losses
in the American Civil War 1861 - 1865. (Albany,
NY: Albany Publishing Co., © 1889) p. 59. King, Wendy A., Clad
in Uniform: Women Soldiers of the Civil War. (Collingswood,
NJ: Blake Magner C.W. Historicals, © 1992) p. 12
12 Hall, Richard, Patriots in Disguise:
Women Warriors of the Civil War. (New York, NY: Marlowe
& Company, © 1993)p. 160 (cites Civil War Times Illustrated,
August 1978 p. 41- cites: George W. Ward, History of the Second
Pennslyvania Veteran Heavy Artillery, p. 133)
13 Hall, Richard, Patriots in Disguise: Women
Warriors of the Civil War. (New York, NY: Marlowe &
Company, © 1993) p. 160 (cites: Michigan History
June 1960 pp. 237-238)
14 Truesdale, Captain John, The Bluecoats.
(Philadelphia, PA: Jones Brothers & Co., 1867) pp. 435-436
15 Scott, J L., 36TH Virginia Infantry
in the Virginia Regimental Series. (Lynchburg, VA: H.E.
Howard, Inc., © 1987) p. 46, 57
16 The Richmond Dispatch October 31, 1864
p. 1
17 Wiley, Bell I., Confederate Women
(Westport, CT: Greenwood Press ©1975) p. 142
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