Woman officer inthe Confederate Army...Oh yes there was

[Buffalo-Guard]

From the Richmond Times-Dispatch, 7/26/1916
DEATH CLAIMS WOMAN OFFICER OF CONFEDERACY
Captain Sallie Louisa Tompkins Dies at Confederate Home, Aged Eighty-Three.

HAD REMARKABLE WAR RECORD
Was Commissioned by President Jefferson Davis as Captain of Cavalry, and Operated Hospital in Richmond During Great War.

Captain Sallie Louisa Tompkins, eighty-three years old, the only woman who received a commission in the Army of the Confederacy, died yesterday morning at 8:45 o’clock in the Home for Confederate Women, 3 East Grace Street. Commissioned as a soldier, she labored as a nurse, and many a veteran owes his recovery from wounds and sickness to her tender care.

Captain Tompkins was born at Poplar Grove, Matthews County, November 9, 1833, the daughter of Christopher and Mrs. Maria Patterson Tompkins. Among her nearest surviving relatives are Dr. Christopher Tompkins, a nephew; Mrs. Ellen Tompkins Wise, of this city, and Miss Clementine Tompkins, of New York, nieces. Her sisters, Misses Elizabeth and Marie Tompkins, died many years ago.

When, during the course of the War Between the States, an order was issued closing private hospitals, Miss Tompkins was commissioned a captain of cavalry at the request of President Jefferson Davis, and she opened a hospital at the northwest corner of third and Main Streets, in the home of John Robertson. She took her mother’s old cook and opened the hospital ten days after the first battle of Manassas, closing it on June 13, 1865.

CONFEDERATE VETERANS WILL ATTEND FUNERAL

After the war Miss Tompkins spent much time as the guest of the Lightfoots at Port Royal and in visiting the home of Colonel Walter Taylor’s father in Norfolk. She was for many years a devout member of St. James Episcopal Church, of this city.

Since 1906, Captain Tompkins has been a guest at the Confederate Women’s Home, living there at the special request of the management.

The funeral services will be conducted in the Home for Confederate Women this afternoon at 5 o’clock, Rev. C. G. Chamberlayne officiating in the absence of Rev. G. Freeland Peter, rector of St. James Church. The interment will take place in Matthews County, in the graveyard of the church which Miss Elizabeth Tompkins helped to establish.

R. E. Lee Camp, United Confederate Veterans, of which Captain Tompkins was an honorary member, has detailed Captain John Lamb, Colonel Joseph V. Bidgood, and Sergeant-Major W. B. Lightfoot to attend the funeral and accompany the body to its last resting place in Matthews County. There will be a detail of veterans, also, from the Lee Camp Soldiers’ Home.

Details from the Richmond Howitzers and the Blues will attend the funeral as a mark of respect to the only woman commissioned officer of the Confederate Army. There will be a committee from Richmond Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy. The coffin will be draped with the Confederate colors in accordance with the custom observed at all funerals of Confederate officers.

The pall-bearers will be Frank Brooke, W. Crump Tucker, James Tabb, Dr. McCaw Tompkins, H. Watkins Ellerson, Thomas Pinckney Bryan, Bernard Robb and Charles Cooke

[william42]

Thanks John. Never knew about this lady.

Terry

[Buffalo-Guard]

The Smithsonian Associates Civil War E-Mail Newsletter, Volume 1, Number 8

Why does anyone volunteer to fight in a war, especially someone who would not otherwise be called upon? There are approximately 400 documented cases of women who served in the ranks, both North and South. But, why did these women fight?

The ladies may have "had their reasons," but for the most part, we have no documentation to tell us why. There was John Williams, also known as Sarah Blaylock, who states only that she was mustered in as a private and discharged one month later when she was discovered to be a woman. Why did she enlist to fight?

Charles Freeman, or Mary Scaberry, enlisted in the summer of 1862. Her identity was discovered after she was admitted to the hospital the following November. Her discharge papers state she was dismissed for: "Sex(t)ual incompatibility and fever." Why did she fight?

Sarah Edmonds enlisted as Franklin Thompson and describes her physical exam as "a firm handshake." She participated in several battles and left the service when she caught malaria and feared discovery if she were treated. After the war she married, raised three children, and received a government pension for her Civil War service. Why did she fight?

The most telling story is that of another fighting lady, Rosetta (Lyons) Wakeman. She was the oldest child in a large family, and by necessity worked under brutal conditions on the family farm in upstate New York. She left home at 19, and instead of taking a job as a laundress or a domestic for pennies a day, she dressed as a man and hired onto a canal boat as a coal handler. When she learned she could earn $13 per month in the army, she enlisted as a private in the 153rd New York State Volunteers.

Her early letters home tell just how oppressed she felt there. Still, she saved her army pay and sent home large sums of money and generous gifts. In return she asked the home folks for tobacco, apples, pies, and cakes. In the army she enjoyed freedoms not possible to her as a woman. And, she was having the time of her life. She writes, "I enjoy myself first rate ... I have had plenty of money to spend and a good time asoldiering. I find just as good friends among strangers as I do at home." Her true identity was never discovered, not even when she visited male friends in other regiments who knew her from home, or even when she was hospitalized with dysentery. When she died in a New Orleans Army hospital, she was buried as a soldier. She rests at Chalmette National Cemetery with a soldier's headstone.

We might assume that women soldiers in the Civil War fought for the same reasons as men--patriotism, adventure, to rid the country of slavery. But we know exactly why Rosetta Wakeman fought. She fought to gain her own freedom. Only as a soldier was she able to live as free and "independent as a hog on the ice."

Photos National Archives

[jenna]

I am currently reading Sarah Edmonds momoirs, and she is a very devote Unionist. She felt so strongly for her adopted country (she was born in Canada) that she left home, and abusive father and moved to Michigan where she joined an infantry unit, but wanted to be a nurse, and thus began her military career. She became a spy for McClellan when a very dear ( and often thought of as her first love) was killed by a snyper. He was, interestingly enough, an Englishman whom fell in love with America and the Union of the states. So, when he was killed, and found out that a spy had recently been killed, and they were in need of someone, she volunteered. She went over the lines at least 11 times in her career as a spy. Her first trip across was as a free black named Cuff. She is the only woman to become a member of the GAR after the war, and actually had a chance to meet with her former mates and had a bit of a time convincing them that she was PVT. Thompson, but they soon discovered she was and were floored. She is an incredible woman, with a desire to keep the union togther, for she felt that God wanted it that way. She was very religious and looked to Him for insperation and guidance.

Jenna