The heroism and the flaunting of the rules of the day were the main stay attributes of Doctor Mary Walker whom you may have heard a little about and whom a future blog will be dedicated entirely. Yesterday's blog brought you the little known story of Juliet Opie Hopkins, nurse adminstrator and recipient of the Confederate Medal of Honor.
Still with this theme, today's column is about some men who went into battle who were not men!
The high percentage of combatants on both sides were young men. Women would not have a lot of trouble strapping down their chests, padding their uniforms to look muscular, chopping of most of their hair, and in some cases adding fake moustaches and with deepened voices, so for the most part they could blend in quite well. Getting past physicals on joining was little more than a joke as most did not have to strip down and the recruiter was most interested in obvious disabilities that would preclude service. Throughout the war men would often go for weeks without bathing and even then would usually leave their shorts on when they finally found a river to dive into. The women would sneak out in the middle of the night to meet their own needs.
Some would act in nursing capacities or light duties, that would help them to blend in. And many if not most took up the same arms and went into the same battles and lay dead in the same fields as their comrades. It was often only after a serious injury or illness or actual death that their sex would be detected, but many went throughout the entire war without being detected.
These women obviously carried their weight... and more... be it on the battle field, back at base camp or on the march. More so for the Union Sergeant that one site says was 5 months pregnant when she went into battle.
These women served an avareage of about 18 months.
Little information seems available about an 18 year old woman by the name of Marian McKenzie. She is supposed to have been from Canada and may have served in several different units in Kentucky and Ohio infantry regiments. Serving under the name of either Henry or Harry or Hery Fitzallen, or Fitz-Ellen, Marian had light complexion and only stood 5"2" tall. Begining early in 1862 till the following year Marian would fight in over a dozen skirmishes and battles in the Shenandoah Campaign. She would survive them all and it was said that..."no soldier has been more dutiful or is better drilled."
One interesting story about Marian tells of a day she must have had off and was standing on a street corner in Chicago. An officer coming along did not like the looks of her and thought she may have been up to something other than simpy resting for a spell. She was escorted to the police station then the court house but later released as being nothing more than what she claimed. But then the next day the same police officer again saw her, but this time she was in men's clothes..a uniform. She was then arrested for being a woman in man's clothes. Again hauled off to court she was tried and found guilty and given a $20 fine, under the ordinance, a serious matter in those days. She was given a day to get out of town and the fine would be cancelled.
The story does not tell what she did, either hanging around Chicago or going off to war again.
A little more is known about Lizzie Compton.
Lizzie was orphaned at a very early age and was raised by a farming family that forced her to wear boys clothing and work the fields. She received no religious or other education and by age 13 she ran away from home to work on steam boats in the western rivers of the US. By age 14 she had lied about her age, taken on a man's name and after numerous tries got accepted into a Union Infantry unit. It would be the first of SEVEN, and is said to be a US record. She loved the camp comaraudery and got along with the men and would see fighting at serious actions including Fort Donelson, the Battle of Shiloh and even at Gettysburg. She would be wounded twice, the later being at Gettysburg. During medical attention she was discovered as being a woman, was allowed to get better and then kicked out, only to relocate, change names and sign up again.
Lizzie was caught by police in Rochester and like so many other cases, was arrested, taken to court and fined for being a "disorderly". Because she cooperated the fine was dropped and she boarded a train to Ontario Canada where she apparently made her home.
She had by then already served a total of about 18 moths and participated in some of the bloodiest fighting, been wounded, made a POW and released, and even punished by the courts for fighting the cause. All that before she was 16 years old.
Tomorrow I will bring one more story of some of the women of the Civil War.
Please stay tuned.