rosefiend
First Sergeant
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2014
- Location
- Confusion, Missouri
So: The disguised women soldiers I'm writing about all have male aliases, but so few of these aliases show up on the actual muster rolls.
"Frank Thompson" (aka Sarah Emma Edmonds), who is well-documented, does not show up on the rolls of the 2nd Michigan (it even says so in the regimental history, I believe). "Frank Miller," aka Frances Hook, is not in the rolls of the 90th Illinois, though she is listed as as prisoner of war in the Letter Book of M. H. Wright, col. commanding at Atlanta, Georgia in Feb. 1864 on page 116. Lizzie Compton apparently fought in eight different regiments, but her male alias (Jack Compton) doesn't show up ANYPLACE (not that I know of, anyway). She'd get discovered and mustered out, and then she'd enlist in the next regiment.
And of course there's Frances Clayton (Clanin), who says she enrolled in Missouri regiments that didn't even EXIST (we have all those CW records digitized, yay! http://www.sos.mo.gov/Records/Archives/ArchivesDb/soldiers/) -- there's one actual Clayton (Samuel) and a few other names that are variations of Clayton, but none of these guys match her description. And most of the Missouri regiments did not go to Shiloh or Fort Donelson, as she says she did, but for the most part they stayed here in the state, fighting bushwhackers and guerillas. So I'm not sure what's going on there. Her travels after she was mustered out actually seem to be better documented than her time in the service.
How on earth are these women getting enrolled? Do people just run into these regiments willy-nilly and the commanders say, "Sure, come on!" But then how would they get paid? Are payroll records available?
I will say that a lot of these women seemed to work as orderlies and officers' aides. Many of them were not as brawny as their male counterparts, they were often detailed into lighter duties. So I wonder if maybe some of the officers paid them out of their own pockets for their work. I did find a newspaper account in which a woman was detailed as an officer's aide and was out gathering wood. Emma Edwards delivered mail and was an orderly during battle, and worked as a nurse at Bull Run and at the regimental hospital. So that's a possibility.
I'm thinking that the fellows in charge of mustering people in didn't just fall asleep every time a woman in disguise showed up -- but at the same time I have to wonder.
"Frank Thompson" (aka Sarah Emma Edmonds), who is well-documented, does not show up on the rolls of the 2nd Michigan (it even says so in the regimental history, I believe). "Frank Miller," aka Frances Hook, is not in the rolls of the 90th Illinois, though she is listed as as prisoner of war in the Letter Book of M. H. Wright, col. commanding at Atlanta, Georgia in Feb. 1864 on page 116. Lizzie Compton apparently fought in eight different regiments, but her male alias (Jack Compton) doesn't show up ANYPLACE (not that I know of, anyway). She'd get discovered and mustered out, and then she'd enlist in the next regiment.
And of course there's Frances Clayton (Clanin), who says she enrolled in Missouri regiments that didn't even EXIST (we have all those CW records digitized, yay! http://www.sos.mo.gov/Records/Archives/ArchivesDb/soldiers/) -- there's one actual Clayton (Samuel) and a few other names that are variations of Clayton, but none of these guys match her description. And most of the Missouri regiments did not go to Shiloh or Fort Donelson, as she says she did, but for the most part they stayed here in the state, fighting bushwhackers and guerillas. So I'm not sure what's going on there. Her travels after she was mustered out actually seem to be better documented than her time in the service.
How on earth are these women getting enrolled? Do people just run into these regiments willy-nilly and the commanders say, "Sure, come on!" But then how would they get paid? Are payroll records available?
I will say that a lot of these women seemed to work as orderlies and officers' aides. Many of them were not as brawny as their male counterparts, they were often detailed into lighter duties. So I wonder if maybe some of the officers paid them out of their own pockets for their work. I did find a newspaper account in which a woman was detailed as an officer's aide and was out gathering wood. Emma Edwards delivered mail and was an orderly during battle, and worked as a nurse at Bull Run and at the regimental hospital. So that's a possibility.
I'm thinking that the fellows in charge of mustering people in didn't just fall asleep every time a woman in disguise showed up -- but at the same time I have to wonder.