Category: Female Soldiers

Civil War Women Soldiers 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…

Female Soldier in the Civil War 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…

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. Frances cut her hair short and told the recruiting officer she was 22 years…

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…

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…

Female Prisoner 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. The first prisoners were brought to Andersonville in…

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. The couple resided on Grandfather…