Sarah Rosetta Wakeman

Wakeman disguised herself as a man in order to fight for the Union in the Civil War. The letters she wrote home were preserved by her family, but were not made public for nearly a century because they were stored in the attic of one of her relatives.

Sarah Rosetta Wakeman, most often referred to as Rosetta, was born on January 16, 1843, in Afton, New York, to Harvey Anable and Emily Wakeman. She worked hard on her father's dairy farm to help support her family, and later worked as a domestic. Her father served as town constable, but was deeply in debt.

At the age of 19, Rosetta left home and traveled to the nearest large city, Binghamton, New York, looking for work. She soon realized that she could make more money by disguising herself as a man. She was hired as a boatman on a coal barge, and sent most of her earnings back to her family.

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.

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Loreta Janeta Velazquez

Female Soldier Disguised as a Man

Loreta Janeta Velazquez was born into an aristocratic Cuban family in Havana in 1842. He father was a Spanish government official who owned plantations in Mexico and Cuba. As a young girl, Loreta developed an admiration for Joan of Arc, and expressed a desire to emulate her deeds and to make a name for herself as a woman of courage who would fight for a great cause.

In her early teens, Loreta was sent to New Orleans, where she attended Catholic schools and was educated in English, Spanish, and French. She met a dashing young officer in the United States Army named William. Since her family disapproved of the relationship, she eloped with him in 1856, and they spent the next few years at different army posts. Four years later in 1860 they were in St. Louis mourning the death of their three children. Loreta was 18.

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Jane Short

Female Soldier in the Union Army

Despite being injured at the Battle of Shiloh in 1862, Jane Short was not discovered as a woman until she became ill a few months later. After her discharge, she reenlisted and served until August 1864.

Image: Battle of Shiloh by Thure de Thulstrup

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."

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Sarah Emma Edmonds

Union Nurse, Soldier and Spy

Offended by the idea of slavery, when the first call for volunteers came from President Abraham Lincoln, Sarah Emma Edmonds enlisted in the Second Michigan Infantry as Frank Thompson on May 25, 1861. She was given the rank of Private, and 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."

Early Years
Born in 1842 in Nova Scotia, Sarah Emma Edmonds began life in a strict religious home where her father resented her for not being a boy. Emma endured her early childhood in Canada, trying to please her father by exhibiting masculine traits.

By 1859, Edmonds dressed as a man and took the name Frank Thompson. She left Canada for the United States, where she sold religious books throughout New England and the upper Midwest. By 1861, she had set up residency in Flint, Michigan.

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Frances Clayton

Female Soldier in the Civil War

Frances Clalin Clayton was a woman who disguised herself as a man named Jack Williams in order to fight in the Union Army. She served in Missouri artillery and cavalry units for several months. Before the Civil War, Frances was a housewife.

Image: Frances Clayton as Jack Williams

Frances Louisa Clalin was born in Illinois in the 1830s. She later married Ohio native Elmer Clayton, with whom she would have three children. They had a farm in Minnesota.

At the beginning of the Civil War, Frances Clayton disguised herself as a man and, using the pseudonym Jack Williams, enlisted in the Union Army with her husband during the fall of 1861. Though they lived in Minnesota they enlisted in a Missouri regiment.

It was not difficult for Frances to convincingly play the part of a man. She was tall and masculine, and had tan skin. She had practiced masculine activities such as smoking, drinking, chewing tobacco, swearing and gambling. She was quite fond of cigars as well.

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The Nancy Harts

Near the beginning of the Civil War, almost all of the men of LaGrange, Georgia, enlisted in the Confederate Army, leaving the small town unprotected. Two upper-class ladies and some graduates of the LaGrange Female College decided that they should gather the women and form a female militia to help protect their community. They called themselves the Nancy Harts in honor of Georgia's Revolutionary War heroine, who single-handedly defended her home against a group of invading British soldiers.



Nancy Colquitt Hill Morgan had been married for only 6 months, and was only 21 years of age when her husband left for war. Mary Cade Alford Heard was 27 when her husband left, leaving her in charge of their plantation and that of her in-laws; she managed more than 100 slaves.

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Mary and Mollie Bell

Cousins Mary and Mollie Bell, aliases Bob Martin and Tom Parker, were adolescent farm girls from Virginia. After their uncle left to join the Union army, the girls decided to conceal their sex and enlist in a cavalry regiment under the command of Confederate General Jubal Early.

Image: Castle Thunder in Richmond, Virginia,
where the Bells were held for illegally
enlisting in the Confederate army

The Bells served for two years, and earned the respect of their comrades for their bravery. Mary was promoted to the rank of Sergeant, and Mollie to the rank of Corporal. The girls hid their true identity with the help of their captain, but he was captured in 1864, and the Bells made the mistake of telling their secret to a lieutenant, who told General Early.

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Jennie Hodgers

Female Civil War Soldier

 In 1862, Jennie Hodgers was living in Belvidere, Illinois. As the Civil War escalated, in July of 1862, President Abraham Lincoln sent out a call for an additional 300,000 men to serve in the Union Army. Nineteen-year-old Jennie Hodgers wanted to help her country.

Image: Jennie Hodgers (right) as Albert D.J. Cashier

Jennie Hodgers was born in Clogherhead, Ireland, on Christmas Day, 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. According to later investigation by the administrator of her estate, she was the child of Sallie and Patrick Hodgers.

On August 6, 1862, Jennie Hodgers enlisted in the Union Army as an infantryman in the 95th Illinois Infantry Regiment, using the name Albert D.J. Cashier. Jennie couldn't read or write, so she marked an "X" on the enlistment papers and passed a physical examination - just a quick look at the eyes and ears, no undressing involved.

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Rhea County Spartans

During the American Civil War, Rhea County (pronounced ray) was one of the few counties in eastern Tennessee that was sympathetic to the Confederate cause. The county raised seven companies to the Southern army, but only one for the Union.

Image: Rhea County Courthouse

In the summer of 1862, the girls of Rhea County created the only female cavalry company raised on either side during the Civil War. These girls were frustrated because their gender prevented them from enlisting in the Confederate Army. They wanted to be a part of the struggle for Southern independence, so they created an army of their own.

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Frances Hook

Female Soldier from Illinois

Frances Hook was born in Illinois in 1847. When she was three years old, both her parents died, leaving her to be raised by her older brother. Frances and her brother were living in Chicago when the Civil War began.

Inscription below photograph:
'Fanny the soldier girl Exchanged by Genl Thomas at Chattanooga.'

She was 14 years old when her brother announced that he was going to enlist in the Union Army. Since her brother was her only living relative, and she did not want to be left alone, Frances decided to disguise herself as a man and follow him to war.

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Amy Clarke

Confederate Soldier in the Civil War

One of the most famous Confederate female soldiers, who served in both cavalry and infantry, was Amy Clarke. At the age of 30, she enlisted as a private in a cavalry regiment with her husband, Walter, so she would not be separated from him. She disguised herself as a man, using the name Richard Anderson. She fought with her husband until his death at the Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee, on April 6, 1862.

Image: Rhode Island Civil War Monument
Bronze female figure on a pink granite baseNew Bern, North Carolina

Clarke was tired of cavalry life, and decided to join the infantry. Her request was approved, and Private Richard Anderson was transferred to the 11th Tennessee Infantry. Her regiment under General Braxton Bragg fought in many battles. On August 29, 1862, the 11th Tennessee met Federal troops in the Battle of Richmond Kentucky. Amy was wounded and taken prisoner by the Union Army, and they discovered that she was a woman. Her wound was treated, and she was taken to the prison at Cairo, Illinois.

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Female Soldiers of the Civil War

Both the Union and Confederate armies forbade the enlistment of women. So women who wanted to serve disguised themselves as men and assumed masculine names. Because many of them successfully passed as men, it is impossible to know with any certainty how many women served in the Civil War. The estimate is somewhere between 400 and 1000. I think even the larger number might be an understatement.

Image: Burnside's Bridge
Antietam Creek, Maryland
On September 17, 1862 at least four women fought at the Battle of Antietam. With more than 30,000 casualties, it was the single bloodiest day of the Civil War. At this bridge, Union troops under General Ambrose Burnside took heavy casualties.

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Cathay Williams

Buffalo Soldier in the American West

Cathay Williams is the first African American female to enlist, and the only documented to serve in the United States Army, posing as a man under the pseudonym William Cathay. Orders were soon given to transfer the new recruits to the west, where they would join the army's fight against the Indians. Cathay and her fellow black comrades were named Buffalo Soldiers by the Plains Indians because they were fierce fighters, and they had short curly hair like the buffalo.

Image: Female Buffalo Soldier
William Jennings, Artist

Cathay Williams' story is as unique as they come. She was born a slave near Independence, Missouri, in 1842. Her father was free, but her mother was a slave. She served as a house girl for a wealthy planter until his death.

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Florena Budwin

Female Soldier in the Civil War

With the Civil War raging around the country, Philadelphian Florena Budwin decided not to let her husband go off to war without her. She disguised herself as a man and enlisted alongside him in the Union Army, and maintained her disguise throughout her active service.

Unfortunately, both the Budwins were captured during fighting by the Confederate Army and sent to Andersonville Prison in southern Georgia, the Confederacy's most notorious prisoner of war camp. Andersonville was built in early 1864 after Confederate officials decided to move the large number of Federal prisoners in and around Richmond, Virginia to a place of greater security and more abundant food.

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Kady Brownell

Female Soldier from Rhode Island

Kady Southwell was born in 1842 in an army camp on the coast of Africa, where her French mother had traveled to watch her Scottish father on maneuvers. Accounts of her life have always been in dispute, but it is known that her mother died shortly after her birth. Good friends of the family, the McKenzies, took Kady into their home and soon moved to Providence, Rhode Island. There is no record that they ever adopted her.

Kady did not appear in any census records until 1860. At that time, she was living with the Rodman family while she worked as a weaver in the mills. Working in the textile mills was a hard and perilous existence. The windows were kept closed, forcing the workers to inhale large quantities of dust and lint into their lungs, and the sounds of hundreds of machines running at once was deafening.

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Malinda Blalock

Female Soldier and Bushwhacker in the Civil War

Union sympathizers Malinda Blalock and her husband Keith enlisted in the Confederate army near their home in the mountains of western North Carolina, planning to desert and join the Union army. In the meantime, Malinda was wounded. The couple deserted and returned home where they became the most feared bushwhackers in the mountains, feared by secessionists and Unionists alike.

Sarah Malinda Pritchard was born in 1842 in the Appalachian Mountains of western North Carolina. She met William McKesson Blalock (nicknamed Keith) in a one-room school they both attended. Their marriage in 1856 was a shock to their neighbors, because their families had been feuding for 150 years.

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