WOMEN IN THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

It is estimated that 750 women disguised themselves as men and fought in the American Civil War.

Lieutenant Harry Buford - aka Loreta Janeta Velázquez - 1838?-1897?

Loreta Velázquez, born in Cuba, was the granddaughter of world-renowned Spanish portrait painter, Diego Velázquez.

Lieutenant Harry Buford - aka Loreta Janeta Velázquez

Velázquez. married a young U.S. army officer in 1856, and settled in New Orleans. By 1860 they had had three children and all, at this point, had already died. When the Civil War began, she urged and supported her husband to fight with the Confederate Army. He refused to have any part of her accompanying him into battle, as many wives of the time did in order to care for their husbands. Being quite a wealthy woman, she waited till he had gone to battle and then went to extreme expense to have a uniform designed that would hide her feminine qualities. She described herself as "an uncommonly good-looking fellow." Donning this uniform and a quite realistic moustache, she followed her husband into war and was able to join him only shortly before his gun misfired, killing him. With no other family remaining, she took her husband's place and the name Lieutenant Harry Buford. She was assigned to a reserve unit, but became a part of several battles, including the Battle of Bull Run, whereupon she applied for a promotion and an assignment to a regular unit. Both were denied. Seeing the need for information about the enemy's plans, Velázquez offered her services as a spy, and ironically, had to wear female attire as a disguise while spying for the Confederate Army. Once, upon returning to New Orleans for a rest, she was detained as a Union Spy.

Her personal accounts of battle experience were written in "The Woman in Battle" in 1876. The more time she spent in the army, the more confidence she gained, and she said that she felt like a gambler playing for extraordinarily high stakes. She wrote "Fear was a word 1 did not know the meaning of, and as 1 noted the ashy faces, and trembling limbs of some of the men about me, 1 almost wished 1 could feel a little fear, if only for the sake of sympathizing with the poor devils."

She claimed to have been appointed commander of a company of men during the Battle of Ball's Bluff in Virginia (October 1861) temporarily because all the officers has disappeared and were assumed dead. Once the battle was over and won, the first lieutenant mysteriously appeared, claiming that he had been taken by Yankees but somehow managed to escape. Convinced that he had been hiding in fear of the fighting she said, "He had a very sheepish look, as if he was ashamed of himself for playing a sneaking, cowardly trick..."

Velázquez. married a second time and also lost another husband to the war. Again, she married for a third time after the war, had a child and travelled the sparsely populated and settled southwest.

The History Channel broadcast Full Metal Corset, a program that presented details of Velázquez's story as genuine. However, the overall truthfulness of her account remains indeterminate and highly questionable.

Sarah Emma Edmonds - aka Franklin Thompson

Born in Canada about 1841, and mistreated by her father, Sarah fled to the United States and was living in Flint, MI, as a male Bible salesman when the Civil War broke out. [The 1860 census of Kalamazoo, MI, shows a Franklin Thompson, age 13 and born in Michigan, living with the family of a physician. This may not be Emma, but it is the only person of that name in Michigan at the time.] After 3 failed attempts, she was able to enlist as Private Franklin Thompson in the Second Michigan Infantry (which later became known as Company F), and was assigned to be a male nurse. After training in Washington, DC, her unit was sent to Virginia, where she volunteered to act as a spy. Disguised as a black man, an Irish peddler woman, a black laundress, and a young male Southerner, she was able to gather information for the Union. In between spying excursions, she worked as a nurse in the military hospital and it was during one of these times that she became ill with malaria. To avoid detection, she left camp, donned feminine clothing again, and checked into a private hospital to recuperate. One day she read in an army bulletin that Frank Thompson had deserted. This ended her military career but not her war efforts. She spent the rest of the war as the female nurse Sarah Edmonds in Washington.

Pvt. Franklin Thompson aka Sarah Emma Edmonds

After the war, she returned to Canada where she married a childhood friend, Linus Seelye They moved back to the United States and raised 3 sons. Bothered by being labeled a deserter, Emma petitioned the War Department to review her case. In 1884, "Truth is oft times stranger than fiction, and now comes the sequel, Sarah E. Edmonds, now Sarah E. Seelye, alias Franklin Thompson, is now asking this Congress to grant her relief by way of a pension on account of fading health, which she avers had its incurrence and is the sequence of the days and nights she spent in the swamps of the Chickahominy in the days she spent soldiering.

That Franklin Thompson and Mrs. Sarah E.E. Seelye are one and the same person is established by abundance of proof and beyond a doubt. She submits a statement . . . and also the testimony of ten credible witnesses, men of intelligence, holding places of high honor and trust, who positively swear she is the identical Franklin Thompson. . . ." "Frank Thompson" was granted an honorable discharge and Emma was given a bonus and a pension of $12 per month.

Jennie Hodgers or Hodgens - aka Albert D J Cashier

Jennie Hodgers was born in Ireland in 1834 and stowed away on a ship that arrived in the USA about 1853. In 1861 she was living in Belvidere, IL and enlisted as Albert D J Cashier on 3 August 1862 in Company G 95th Illinois Volunteer Infantry. She served, as Albert, in a number of battles, including Vicksburg, Atlanta, Nashville and Mobile. At one point she was captured by the Confederates but managed to escape. She was mustered out at Springfield, IL, in August 1865.

Jennie did not go back to her female role in society but remained Albert all her life. She/he returned to Belvidere for a couple of years, then moved to Pontiac for 2 1/2 years, then settled in Saunemin, a town south of Chicago. The 1870, 1900 and 19 10 censuses show him living there, first with a Cheesbro family, then next door to the Lish family, then by himself He worked as a laborer, church janitor and lamplighter and did odd jobs. Several people discovered his true identity but kept it a secret. In 1890, Albert applied for an invalid pension but, because he refused to submit to a physical exam to clarify the claim, he was denied, In 1909, he was granted the normal pension of $12 per month. You can see the pension application, held in Civil War Pensions on Footnote, by clicking on the images to the right. In 19 10 he was bit by a car and his leg was broken. in 1911, he was admitted to the Soldier and Sailors Home in Quincy, IL, and moved to the Watertown State Hospital for the Insane in 1913. It was there that his identity was discovered and made known. Albert died 10 Oct 1915 and is buried, in his uniform, under that name.

The above article first appeared in the ACWS Newsletter, Autumn 2007