Frances Clalin Clayton

[Barrycdog]

Frances Clalin Clayton is an exception – a woman who served in the Union army by disguising herself as a man. In a popular carte de visite collected by soldiers at the end of the war, she poses here as "Jack Williams" and holds the handle of a cavalry sword between her crossed legs.

Frances was a tall slim housewife with 3 children when she did the unthinkable. Frances disguised herself as a man, and using the pseudonym "Jack Williams" enlisted with the Union alongside with her husband during the fall of 1861.

Both Frances and Elmer were born and lived in the North, but despite living in the state of Minnesota they enlisted in a Missouri regiment.

Frances as "Jack Williams" was fighting near her husband Elmer when he was struck and killed. Reports are that she stepped over his body and continued the charge as that was the order. She drank, smoked, chewed, and gambled along with the men, none of them ever suspecting she was a woman.

After being discharged Frances tried to get back to Minnesota, and then decided to collect the bounty owed her deceased husband and herself, as well as to get some of Elmer's belongings.

Some thought that she may have wanted to reenlist, but she was unable to. Her train was attacked by a Confederate guerrilla party, and she was robbed of her papers and her money.

She then went from Missouri to Minnesota, then to Grand Rapids, Michigan, and on to Quincy, Illinois. In Quincy a fund was created to aid her quest for payment by former soldiers and friends. Frances was last reported to be headed for Washington, D.C.

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[Northern Light]

Frances Clalin Clayton is an exception – a woman who served in the Union army by disguising herself as a man. In a popular carte de visite collected by soldiers at the end of the war, she poses here as "Jack Williams" and holds the handle of a cavalry sword between her crossed legs.

Frances was a tall slim housewife with 3 children when she did the unthinkable. Frances disguised herself as a man, and using the pseudonym "Jack Williams" enlisted with the Union alongside with her husband during the fall of 1861.

Both Frances and Elmer were born and lived in the North, but despite living in the state of Minnesota they enlisted in a Missouri regiment.

Frances as "Jack Williams" was fighting near her husband Elmer when he was struck and killed. Reports are that she stepped over his body and continued the charge as that was the order. She drank, smoked, chewed, and gambled along with the men, none of them ever suspecting she was a woman.

After being discharged Frances tried to get back to Minnesota, and then decided to collect the bounty owed her deceased husband and herself, as well as to get some of Elmer's belongings.

Some thought that she may have wanted to reenlist, but she was unable to. Her train was attacked by a Confederate guerrilla party, and she was robbed of her papers and her money.

She then went from Missouri to Minnesota, then to Grand Rapids, Michigan, and on to Quincy, Illinois. In Quincy a fund was created to aid her quest for payment by former soldiers and friends. Frances was last reported to be headed for Washington, D.C.

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These pictures are very interesting. How odd that she looks quite ordinary dressed as a man, but in the last picture of her in women's clothing, she looks like a man dressed in women's clothing. It must be those strong, angular features.
Oh, and by the way, what happened to her three kiddies?

 

[donna]

It would be interesting to know what happened to her children. I have done some looking but can find nothing about them. Her Memorial on Find A Grave does not list them. It does have Memorial for her husband.

 

[Barrycdog]

http://pjefamilyresearch.blogspot.com/2014/01/on-this-date-in-minnesota-history_2.html

 

[18thVirginia]

How interesting that she claimed there were a number of women in the service and that she could recognize them when the men could not.